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After nine weeks of living in local hotels, the 69 residents of fire-damaged UA Homes finally moved home last week. 

A two-alarm fire burned the 75-unit, low-income residential hotel at 1040 University Ave. in the early morning hours of Aug. 26. The building passed final safety inspections last Wednesday, and all but eight units have been restored. Those most heavily damaged units will be ready in January, said Mikal Pruitt the administrator of UA Homes.  

Resources for Community Development, which owns UA Homes, has been eager for the residents, who are primarily seniors, disabled, and recipients of federal subsidies, to return.  

“It’s finally here and we’re breathing a big sigh of relief,” said Linda Webster director of operations at RCD. “It was a strain on the tenants. They have really prevailed and done well.”  

Rose Patterson, a tenant of UA Homes since 1993, was among those who spent the past nine weeks at the Flamingo Hotel in Berkeley while her apartment was refitted.  

“We function on what we can,” said Patterson wearily as she waited to see her apartment for the first time since the fire. “We survive.”  

The August fire spread through the center of the building through the light well, an open shaft used for ventilation. The recent renovations include constructing a new ventilation system and installing carpeting.  

Pruitt estimated that by January, the cost of renovating the building and relocating the tenants will total nearly half a million dollars. Most of the tab was picked up by RCD and its insurers.