Residents concerned after Aurora threatens to shut down Colorado apartment complexes for unsafe, unsanitary conditions

The City of Aurora is threatening to close two troubled apartment complexes that are at the center of what's become a controversy reaching national proportions over criminal gang activity. The city has already shut down another apartment complex, all three owned by the same management company, for unsafe and unsanitary conditions. 

Jose Moreno has a lot of problems with his apartment at the Whispering Pines Apartment Complex in northern Aurora. He has a broken washing machine, leaky plumbing, and broken heating and air conditioning units which could be dangerous with winter around the corner.

"We have to buy a heater," said Moreno through an interpreter.

He is a Venezuelan immigrant and says he is grateful to have a place to live and a job, but resettling in Colorado hasn't been without its struggles.

"I work for a company. It's a very good company. We don't make very much but it's a good company. Recently I got my job, and they prohibited me from saying I'm Venezuelan," said Moreno through an interpreter.

He says racism and xenophobia have limited his opportunities, including finding a new place to live.

"The thing is, we are already in the process of looking for an apartment. So, when we were applying, we had mentioned that we were Venezuelan they said that it wasn't going to be ready all of a sudden until October or November," said Moreno through an interpreter.

Right now, he is living in a building owned by CBZ Management which he and his neighbors say has been abandoned by the owners. They say they have no trash service and management hasn't responded to calls for service.

They are worried the City of Aurora will close the building and leave them out in the cold.

"We're asking that they either come in and repair or if they are going to have us move then cancel our contracts so that we're not having to pay monthly anymore," said Moreno through an interpreter.

His worries aren't hyperbolic. The city closed a building on Nome Street owned by CBZ Management this summer and on Thursday CBS Colorado obtained a letter sent to CBZ Management from the Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain that states if they don't clean up their apartment buildings at 12th Avenue and Dallas Street, those too may face closure.

These buildings were the topic of a national conversation about immigration because of a video showing alleged gang members with large guns entering an apartment. But the city and residents say the trouble began long before the gang showed up.

Housekeys Action Network, which has been advocating for the residents of CBZ-owned buildings, says they are still helping people who are still homeless from the Nome Street closure almost two months ago.

V. Reeves with Housekeys Action Network says another closure right before winter would be inhumane.

"We're anticipating, you know, mass, houselessness with a lot of these people. And it's incredibly cruel," said Reeves.

They say they have been trying to work with the city to keep the residents of CBZ-owned buildings in their homes but were blindsided by this letter.

"It is really painful, and I don't know what we're going to do," said Reeves.

Housekeys advocates say city inspections at the Whispering Pines buildings, where Jose lives, have already taken place and aren't going well. They say they don't want more closures they want the building owner to be held responsible.

"I think he's a monster of a person, with absolutely no care for the tenants in his buildings," said Reeves.

Jose wants the same thing, and for the community to stop discriminating against him and his fellow expats so they can have the American dream.

"They're saying, 'Oh it's about the Venezuelans' but there's nothing like that here. We're good people," said Moreno through an interpreter.

The city says they have been trying to get the building's owners to fix up the buildings but they say the owners haven't responded to them. CBS Colorado has also reached out to the owners numerous times and has not heard back.