Residents of migrant gang-occupied Aurora apartments still living in 'squalor,' advocacy group says

"Venezuela" is scrawled on the side of an apartment building on Dallas Street in Aurora, Colo.Photo byGoogle Street View

AURORA, Colo. -- A homeless advocacy group says residents of troubled Aurora apartment buildings that the former property management group claims is infested with gangs continue to live in poor conditions even after a receivership was appointed to manage the properties.

Housekeys Action Network Denver, or HAND, released a statement Monday saying the receivership was doing a poor job of communicating with residents of The Edge at Lowry Apartments on Dallas Street and East 12th Avenue and Whispering Pines Apartments at 1357 Helena St., which have been infiltrated by Venezuelan gangs. The city already has shut down a building at 1568 Nome St. for code violations, although previous property manager CBZ Management said it, too, was infested with gangs.

HAND: Tenants unhappy with receivership

“As the court receivership knocked on doors to talk to tenants, each family received different information, some being told that they would have to immediately pay the full rent they were paying before despite no changes having been made yet to improve conditions, in rental amounts ranging from $1,350 all the way to $1,850," according to the HAND statement. "Some were told that if they wanted to move, they would be given a month to do so. Others were told that they were expected to pay or face immediate eviction. Some tenants had thorough inspections while others attempted to show the disarray, only to be told that it would be surveyed at some later time. The information given to various tenants varied widely and people were confused and worried, especially given the fact that (previous landlord) Zev Baumgartner had been continuing to charge many of them with online portals as recently as Oct. 1, with automatic payments causing their accounts to rack up thousands in charges, even after the abandonment of the buildings.”

The receivership, PMI Aspire, could not immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday. This article will be updated if a representative of PMI Aspire returns an email.

CBZ Management posts on X again

For their part, previous landlord CBZ Management again took to X Tuesday to tell their side of the story. They explained that two of their properties remain under control of Venezuelan gangs. “Where we stand now: Two of our properties in Aurora, Colo. remain under gang control. By ‘gang control,’ we mean that most or all of the rental income is diverted to a criminal enterprise comprised of gang members and illegal immigrants instead of the rightful property owners. A third building was shut down by the city for ‘code violations.’"

The property management group shared on X a spreadsheet showing income from the property on Dallas Street. It showed the landlord collected $59,718 in rent and other revenues in October 2023, but that dwindled to just $1,153.95 in September 2024.

“The real issue is the rise in crime in Aurora, illegal immigration and the city's attempt to shift the blame onto us,” CBZ said in its posts, sharing a letter from the Aurora chief of police threatening to shut down the property by labeling it a criminal nuisance. “The letter states, ‘property owners are expected to be vigilant in preventing or deterring crime,’” CBZ says in the post. “However, we believe crime prevention and deterrence are primarily the police's responsibility. Notably, our representative was attacked in the building by gang members less than two months after we received this letter. This is what happens when the police fail to take responsibility and instead place the burden on property managers.”

HAND: Tenants living under poor conditions

According to HAND, residents of the properties continue to live under deplorable conditions. “As of Friday, Oct. 11, tenants were still living in the following conditions: Lack of water, lack of electricity with entire floors having no light, lack of air conditioning/heating, kitchens that don’t function, washer and dryers that don’t function, holes in the wall/ceiling/floors, mold, mice, bed bugs, cockroaches - any possible condition that you could imagine,” HAND wrote in the statement. “Yet still, on Friday, Oct. 11, tenants at Whispering Pines received a letter posted on their door saying that rent for October was due immediately and November rent would be due on the first. This did not take into account the fact that, once again, many of their accounts had already been charged by Baumgartner for October rent.

"Now, less than two weeks later, they were expected to pay full rent for an entire month and pay again with less than a month to accrue funds, all while still living in squalor," the statement continues. "This will likely result in involuntary houselessness due to many tenants being unable to pay three months’ worth of rent in one month’s time. Additionally, this letter told them that they would only be accepting check payments, despite the reality that many of the tenants had been paying cash or with money orders because they do not have bank accounts.”

CBZ directed the author of this article to X posts made Tuesday in response to a request for comment. None of the posts specifically mentioned the condition of the properties, rent charges or when cleanups might occur, although that is up to the receivership.

Tenants demand transparency

Stated HAND: “Tenants demand transparency from the new building owners and the city, and not last-minute door notices that offer them no support and only imminent threats of displacement. They demand to be part of the conversation that affects their lives, part of the solution, and are willing to work hard to get there. They demand meetings and joint cooperation on the new lease so that the landlord must also be contractually liable to uphold their end of the agreement with large-scale repairs and tenancy retention before pressing the tenants for thousands in more funds towards housing that they never benefit from.”

Posted CBZ: “If the city had fulfilled its basic responsibilities instead of deflecting blame, our $1.3 million investment could have contributed to revitalizing Aurora. Instead, hardworking tenants lost their homes due to the city's failure to protect them. As a result, we have been harmed, our lenders have suffered, and the City of Aurora is now under national scrutiny—rightfully so.”

CBZ posted letters asking for help from the police department, mayor’s office, governor, and state attorney general. “We sought help before the situation escalated to where we stand today, believing other government officials were unaware of what was happening to our buildings. We contacted everyone in power we thought could help.”

CBZ Management: ‘Police failed to do their job’

Concluded CBZ: “The bottom line is that the police failed to do their job, which allowed crime to escalate. When our tenants called for help, their calls were often ignored. Our full-time management team, consisting of six members—four of whom lived on-site—faced the same difficulties in getting police to respond. Our on-site employees were threatened with death. The gang threatened to kill our on-site manager if he returned to the property. Even the private security company we hired at the request of the city encountered challenges in getting law enforcement to respond. The issue persisted even after the video of the armed men in the stairwell went viral across America. Here are multiple reports from our security company documenting many situations where they called to report suspicious activity and often waited many hours for police to arrive - often never showing up.”

Ryan Luby, a spokesperson for the city, could not immediately be reached for comment late Tuesday. This story will be updated if he responds to an email.