Aurora apartment complex residents call for city’s help with poor living conditions

DENVER ( KDVR ) — The residents of yet another Aurora apartment complex are speaking out against the property managers that they call “slum lords.”

This comes as new documents acquired by FOX31 show the city has given two other apartment complexes 10 days to clean up their properties or face being shut down.

On Thursday, residents of Whispering Pines Apartments spoke out at a press conference about poor living conditions. Whispering Pines is operated by CBZ Management, which manages The Edge of Lowry complex on Dallas Street and other complexes in Aurora that have seen many resident complaints and are now subject to criminal nuisance designations.

The residents at Whispering Pines want the city to step in and fix what they call an unhealthy living environment. The tenants are frustrated that CBZ Management has lumped them in with gang activity in the city by claiming the rundown apartments are due to gang presence.

“We’ve come here and we are looking for the American dream,” said Enrique Lopez, a Whispering Pines resident who spoke to FOX31 through a translator.

Lopez moved to Whispering Pines a year ago from Guatemala. As a former health inspector in his home country, he said living conditions here are unacceptable.

“The apartments are full of cockroaches and they have bedbugs,” said Lopez.

Lopez and other residents called for the city to step in and help.

“What I want to ask for is that the Department of Health is the one who comes here and actually inspects the units to show what the owner hasn’t been taking care of,” said Lopez.

In a statement from Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman’s office, officials said:

We wholeheartedly understand and share in the frustrations expressed by Whispering Pines tenants. We are still attempting to get the property owners and managers to address the multitude of issues at their apartment complexes including Whispering Pines. We are leveraging every tool available under state and municipal law to hold the property owners and managers accountable, which include actions that are not yet public. The property owners continue to rebuff the city’s efforts or outright ignore the city’s offers to assist. It is their responsibility — and their responsibility and duty alone under the law — to take care of their tenants, as the city has no property right or legal interest in these properties. The city’s authority and resources extend only as far as state and municipal law allow.”

Aurora city leadership

FOX31 on Thursday learned in requested documents that actions from the city include sending notices to CBZ Management calling the Edge of Lowry a public nuisance for crime activity and being in poor condition. The notice was sent on Sept. 20 and gives CBZ 10 days to fix the apartments before the city seeks to close the building entirely.

Those documents did not include Whispering Pines, and residents there said they haven’t been explicitly told they are in danger of being kicked out yet, but they fear it could be coming if CBZ and Aurora don’t come to an agreement.

FOX31 reached out to CBZ Management for comment and did not receive a response by the time of publication.

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