Renters and community leaders joined together at Fletcher Plaza to call attention to unsafe housing conditions
Bed bugs, cockroaches and mice are all unwelcomed guests to those living in the northwest Aurora community. Tenants of these units are calling it a public health crisis, and are asking the city of Aurora to do something about it.
On Saturday, renters and community leaders joined together at Fletcher Plaza to call attention to the unsafe housing conditions faced by renters in northwWest Aurora.
"We are tired of the conditions that landlords continue to put tenants" explained Nadene Ibrahim, the organizing director at East Colfax Community Collective.
Families, children, undocumented migrants and members of the community all joined and protested down the streets of East Colfax asking for a change. The East Colfax Corridor has a high concentration of multifamily apartment units that are 60 years old on average.
Community members say they are facing numerous amount of public health violations on a daily basis that includes black mold, rodent and insect infestation, lack of heating and cooling, and a refusal of landlords to fix issues in apartments when they are reported by tenants.
Like Michael Lunsford who moved into a unit at 13th Avenue and Jamaica Street a year and a half ago. Lunsford was excited for a fresh start, but soon received a not-so-warm welcome.
"When I moved in I had a toilet that did not work for the first three months in this apartment, and then when I finally got it, the fridge went out and it took them a month to get me a new refrigerator," said Lunsford.
CBS News Colorado reached out to the city of Aurora who responded with a statement saying:
"The city of Aurora is committed to providing a higher quality of life and ensuring the health and safety of its residents. The city established the Multi-Family Systematic Housing Inspection Program to ensure property managers, property owners, and occupants are maintaining minimum housing standards and basic life, health, and safety requirements for all tenants in Aurora. Not all cities in the metro area have such a program.
Code enforcement inspects multi-family properties on a systemic basis and sends a report to the property manager/owner to resolve identified violations. Inspections are of complexes that are 5 years or older and have 8 or more units. Re-inspections are conducted until all deficiencies have been corrected; administrative fees may also apply.
The city also conducts inspections based on resident's complaints and encourages them to submit property concerns by contacting Access Aurora at 303.739.7000.
Community members say they have filed complaints but are facing systemic barriers to enforcement, and continue to live in life-threatening living conditions.
"We have people exposed to such a toxic level of mold that literally health experts are telling them not to live in those units anymore and yet those places were passed by aurora code inspection less than a few months ago," said Ibrahim.
