Phillip Cantu emerged from his second-floor apartment, an end table in his muscular arms. He walked to the balcony edge, paused, then heaved the table over the rail.

It landed face down with a wet thud. Wednesday's rain and the fluids leaking from the building's septic system made for a soft lawn. Mr. Cantu shook his head, then fetched his tan sofa, the next item scheduled for takeoff.

Mr. Cantu moved into the Somerset Park apartment complex in Mesquite last month, unaware that the city had begun condemnation proceedings against the place in June.

Many of Somerset's 60 or so residents say no one told them anything until last week, when the city gave some of them 24 hours to vacate and the landlord told the others to be out in a week.

"I knew it wasn't a great apartment, but no one ever told me about condemnation," said Mr. Cantu, who was throwing furniture as a timesaving measure. He had a full apartment and only three hours before he'd be locked out.

Asked about the sudden evictions, property owner Harold Kaemerle said, "I don't know much about Somerset Park. I leave all the day-to-day operations to the management company." Mr. Kaemerle then said he was too busy with tax preparation to talk further.

"The city was telling the owner that it wanted to tear the building down. The mortgage holder was telling the owner that it was going to foreclose," said Michael Clark of United. "There's no way an owner in that situation could invest in major repairs."

Mr. Clark said he had instructed the property manager in late July to stop accepting new tenants, but the manager kept signing people up for new leases without sending in the documents - or the money.

Over at City Hall, Building Official Larry King said that he had neither the right nor the ability to warn tenants about the problems or the possibility of sudden eviction.

"The city has adopted the International Maintenance Code, and its guidelines are to communicate only with owners and managers. They are the responsible parties," Mr. King said. "Besides, people move in and out of that place so fast, it would be hard to keep current with notifications."

Somerset Park, which dates to the late 1960s, never constituted luxury living. The deteriorating collection of eight stucco buildings - where many apartments rent for less than $500 a month - looks rather like a motel, and the low ceilings can trigger claustrophobia.

Still, Mr. King said, the place was well maintained until the mid-1990s, when things began to slide. Residents and Mr. King say that virtually no big repairs have been done at the 9-acre complex in a couple of years.

The city last conducted a major inspection at Somerset Park in June. Over the course of several days, Mr. King and his staff found broken staircases, missing balcony railings, faulty wiring, broken plumbing and dozens more safety-code violations. They itemized the problems in several apartments but then gave up on details and wrote, "Rehab entire unit."

The city eventually scheduled an April 7 condemnation hearing before the Building Standards Board. City staff and building owners will get to present a case before the board. If the board condemns the buildings, Mr. Kaemerle will have 30 days to appeal or demolish them.

City officials have been regularly checking on Somerset Park since June, and their inspections have turned up several problems that required immediate action. On Thursday, the city found fluids leaking under three buildings.

Although the city has forced tenants out of those, officials will not try to force people from the other buildings unless it wins a condemnation order. Still, most residents in the other buildings got a flier Tuesday that instructed them to vacate in a week. Residents were irate.

"We have leases. We pay our rents. They can't just tell us to get out of our apartments," said Shelly Hightower. "They think that just because we are poor, we don't understand our rights, but we will fight."

"I don't want to have to move my kids from one school to another," said Katina Williams. "It's hard enough to make friends at the beginning of the school year. It's near impossible in March. This will be really scary for my girls."

"The cost of moving is more than we have," said Glenn Gooch, a tow-truck driver who lives with his girlfriend, Tammy Tunner. "Where do they think some of the people here are going to get the money for another security deposit?"

To offset the costs and inconvenience of the sudden move, United Affordable Housing has offered Somerset Park residents special deals at two of its other complexes. Mr. Clark said the agency would also handle the move, but the flier didn't mention moving assistance.

"The people here are very friendly. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone likes everyone. People can let their kids play without worrying about them," said Grant Barrington, a hurricane evacuee who moved into the complex in December.

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