This year’s nonstop storms have left a San Rafael art collective dealing with serious water damage.
Every time it rains, the historic 145-year-old building that houses Art Works Downtown takes in water.
"The water intrusion is bubbling up through the foundation on the floor and it is seeping in slowly but surely," Elisabeth Setten said.
The building houses 32 art studios, galleries, storefronts and 17 affordable housing units.
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Stan Gibbs has lived there for 20 years. He woke up one night this rainy season to have water dripping on his bed.
"It is pretty annoying and pretty unnerving to know that that's going through the building," he said.
The nonprofit has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fix the leaks, but a permanent fix will take a lot more.
"Those losses equate to not being able to hire additional staff," Setten said. "We’ve had to reduce our arts programming and that’s just the start."
