Novato has ordered tenants to leave a downtown apartment building, citing structural hazards and safety risks.

The city red-tagged the 14-residence building at the Romar Court Apartments complex on Wednesday. Residents were ordered to move out within five days.

“It’s dangerous and it’s a life safety issue, and we were concerned about the residents and so we took action,” said Clare Hartman, the city’s community development director.

Nonprofit groups have arranged to offer the tenants at least a week’s stay at a local hotel. More than 25 tenants were checked in by Sunday, said Cheryl Paddack, chief executive officer of North Marin Community Services. She said 42 people, including five children, were relocated.

Paddack said many of the tenants are in “shock and disbelief” about the situation.

The nonprofit organization is helping facilitate the move and is offering support services. She said the goal is to help tenants find long-term housing.

“This might be the largest displacement of families in Novato, at least in the recent past,” Paddack said.

Novato Mayor Tim O’Connor said that the city’s priority is to support the families.

“Property owners must understand their responsibility to maintain safe and healthy living conditions for their tenants,” he said. “It is deeply unfortunate that the building owner failed to act on the city’s attempts to prevent this situation from escalating.”

The building is among three structures at the complex, which is managed by Landmark Realty. A Landmark employee declined to comment.

Hartman said a city inspection that included a civil engineer and a structural engineer revealed problems such as abandoned construction work, a structural support that is held up by a hydraulic jack and posts supported by unsecure woodblocks. The city boarded up the carports.

The city informed tenants that state law requires their landlord to pay them two months’ worth of fair market rent and utility services.

Hartman said the city’s red-tag notice was issued after more than a year of interacting with the property owner to address the building’s issues.

“I do not know what his next move will be,” Hartman said. “I hope he wants to repair the building, we want to get this apartment back online and in our inventory. These are precious units to have in our community.”

She said the city did not hear complaints from tenants, but the building’s conditions came to the city’s attention after a driver damaged a carport post. The owner applied for permits on construction work that was not completed, she said.

The city sent engineers to inspect the property.

“We had engineers take a look and we found it was in the condition it is in,” Hartman said. “Unfortunately, it is with great seriousness that the building is unsafe to live in at this point.”

Nonprofits worked to check tenants into a hotel before the Sunday move-out deadline. The Marin Community Foundation donated $30,000 and North Marin Community Services contributed $10,000 to assist with the hotel, Paddack said. She added that her nonprofit is seeking more contributions to help extend the tenants’ hotel stay.

On Friday, North Marin Community Services staff delivered moving boxes to the tenants. Six households received 18 boxes each, said Paul Russell, the nonprofit’s operations director. Boxes were donated by Pini Hardware in Novato.

Liliana Palu, community services manager for the nonprofit, said tenants said they heard that their landlord plans to appeal the city’s order to vacate.

“They are really confused about what’s going to happen,” she said.

Several tenants declined to comment while they were leaving the building on Friday.

Legal Aid of Marin is working with North Marin Community Services to support the displaced residents.

“What’s hopeful about the housing crisis in Marin is that we have the power to fix it,” said Laura McMahon, executive director of Legal Aid of Marin. “What’s tragic is that it takes moments of extreme negligence and mass displacement to demonstrate the need for common sense tenant protections for our community’s most marginalized residents.”

Information for donors who want to support the tenants is available by emailing Info@northmarincs.org or calling 415-897-4147, ext. 0.