WEST SACRAMENTO, California — An explosion at an affordable housing apartment complex in West Sacramento left more than 30 residents looking for a new place to live.
While the Red Cross is helping some of them find a short-term stay, the task now is finding all of them long-term housing.
On Monday morning, families stopped by the complex to gather their items as they searched for a place to stay. Advocates who are helping said it's a long road ahead for the people who lived at the apartments.
The explosion at the Washington Courtyard Apartments on 7th Street could be felt about a mile away when it happened Sunday morning.
"We were inside the house with the window open, and we heard a loud boom and the curtain kind of went in a little bit. And it was kind of like a big shock. We didn't know what it was or where it came from," said John Aiello, a nearby Resident.
By Monday, the building was boarded up and a fence wrapped around the area.
West Sacramento Fire Department said the explosion displaced 34 residents and hurt two people.
Francis Shinn, whose son lives in a building on the other side of the complex, said she was surprised to hear the explosion didn't hurt more people.
"They said from the inside of the complex to the outside of the street, it was just blown out to pieces. And everyone could feel it in the complex. So I could imagine if a child was riding by, it could've damaged or harmed a child's life," said Shinn.
The Latino Information and Resouce Center is helping some of the people displaced.
"Right now, the Red Cross is helping them directly, so it's providing them vouchers, housing vouchers, helping them with relocation and hopefully, assigning them a case worker — because that's actually the next step that takes place," said Maria Grijalva, who works for the Latino Information & Resource Center.
ABC10 reached out to AWI Management Corporation, which is the management company for the apartments. They said the cause of the explosion is still not known.
The unit in question was vacant at the time, and they're waiting to hear from experts like the fire department, police and PG&E.
The biggest focus now is on the residents affected, helping to relocate them and taking it case by case.
"Because it's a subsidized apartment, my understanding is that HUD has a tenant protection program of some type to help these types of tenants and give them either a Section 8 voucher or put them in other Section 8 or other subsidized housing," said Grijalva.
The Latino Information and Resource Center said people can reach out to them at 916-214-2961 or email at latinoinforesctr@gmail.com if they need any help maneuvering through the process. People can also reach out to the Red Cross at 916-993-7070.
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