Robert Korman, 85, poses for a photograph in the boardinghouse he recently moved into in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. Korman recently left a boardinghouse in Castro Valley that is under investigation by state and county agencies over alleged cramped and dirty conditions. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group) ( ANDA CHU )

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OAKLAND -- Things are looking up for Robert Korman: a roasted pig shared with new roommates to celebrate the new year on Friday, a home-cooked chicken burrito for lunch Saturday.

It was just last week that the man who said he has no immediate family was living in a filthy room in a Castro Valley boardinghouse with no access to the kitchen, unsure how he ended up there or if he could find a better place. His fortune changed Christmas Day when concerned neighbors and a social worker stepped in to help. On New Year's Eve they helped him move to a new boarding home in East Oakland.

Korman says his memory is fading, so maybe that's why the 85-year-old cannot recall being so happy.

Robert Korman, 85, is photographed in the bedroom he shares with another resident on the 21000 block of Tanglewood Drive in Castro Valley, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) ( ARIC CRABB )

"I love it, incomparable with the other place," the bespectacled Bronx native with wispy white hair said Saturday. "It's clean; it's well run. Things go quietly and well."

As first reported in this newspaper, Korman was living in a former care home for the elderly on Tanglewood Drive in Castro Valley. The operator relinquished Accent Garden Care Home's license in December 2014 following nearly two dozen health and safety violations. But rather than shut down, it simply changed its status to a boardinghouse, with no state oversight.

In an interview last week, Jonathan Carlton said he is operating within the law as a boardinghouse because his tenants are independent and do not need medical assistance, which would require a license from the state.


Neighbors, however, were concerned about black mold, squalor inside the home, and the fact that the residents had no access to the kitchen or laundry. Korman now lives at Love and Love, a tidy boardinghouse on Weld Street off 73rd Avenue in East Oakland. Christmas lights were strung around the front of the bungalow when he arrived on New Year's Eve. The home is staffed 24 hours a day by Toilea Tuihalangingie and her sister, Anau Tupouata. Tuihalangingie brought Korman to the home after getting a call from Nicole Fauss of Above and Beyond Senior Services, a Hayward-based company that places seniors in homes.

"I love these people; that's what it is," Tuihalangingie said. "I tell everybody who asks what made me come into this business, I have a big heart. I care for people."

As the newest resident, Korman joins four others who get three meals a day and have "family night" on Mondays to solve any conflicts. And he's not the only one who feels like they were rescued from a horrible situation.

One man living at Tuihalangingie's house used to live at Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley, whose owner in 2013 abandoned elderly and mentally ill patients after the state shut down the home. A janitor and a cook cared for the residents as best they could for two days until authorities were called.

Louise Woods, 77, moved to Love and Love in February when the North Oakland care home she was in closed.

"I told you when I got here God blessed me to be here," Woods said to Tuihalangingie. "When I die, I'm going to leave my spirit here."

The home cooking is all Virginia Bogoslovski wanted to talk about on Saturday.

"She knows how to use spices. That's what makes a meal. It's easy living here," the San Francisco native said.

For the same amount he spent at the Castro Valley home, Korman said he has a quiet roommate in a clean room with access to hot showers. He took Benadryl on Saturday to help relieve sores from numerous flea bites on his legs and back from his old place.

"The man said he's never been happy in his life," said Linda Honeyman, his former neighbor in Castro Valley who fed Korman on Christmas and notified authorities about the boardinghouse on her street. "When he called and said he was deliriously happy, I felt all the work was for a good reason."

Korman said he eventually wants his own room and to renew his medical marijuana card. At his age, the devout Buddhist who spends hours meditating each day said pot "makes living worth it."

"She's an angel," he said of his new landlord.

David DeBolt covers breaking news. Contact him in Oakland at 510-208-6453. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt.