FORCED OUT: Hundreds of blighted apartment renters in Aurora struggle with what comes next

AURORA | Hundreds of tenants did as city government asked of them early Tuesday by moving out of what some council members insist was a gang-run apartment complex in northwest Aurora, while city code enforcers deemed it unsafe and uninhabitable. 

But by Tuesday afternoon, dozens remained on nearby sidewalks with their suitcases and storage bins waiting for what city officials had promised — a safe place for them and their families to stay that evening, and for the rest of the month. 

“Nowhere to go. We’re desperate,” Ernesto, a 38-year-old tenant said after being booted from the first home he, his wife and two young kids have known in the United States. 

The former welder from the central-eastern Venezuelan city of La Paragua had, by way of several other countries and U.S. states, wound his way with his family to Aurora in March, fleeing the economic and political chaos in their country. They had been sharing a second-floor apartment in the complex at 1568 Nome St. since then with the family of a friend of his cousin. 

Ernesto would not disclose his last name because he does not have immigration papers and fears deportation.

He was in a bind Tuesday and he sat a block from the building, waiting with other tenants for directions on where to go and what to do next. He said he felt uneasy with the heavy presence of Aurora Police around the apartment complex because he worries they would profile him, inaccurately, as a gang member.

“No gang. Good guy. Good,” he said through a translator, his hands up as if to show he had nothing to hide.

“It’s insane that he even feels he needs to say that,” added an Anglo college student who volunteered with Spanish-to-English translation.

Aurora city officials notified residents last week that they must vacate the 98-unit complex by  7 a.m. Tuesday.

The owner and even officials within Aurora government differ in their accounts of why.

Denver-based Nome Partners LLC and its public-relations agent have told the Sentinel that Venezuelan gangs had effectively overrun his building. He said he had been pushing Aurora Police since September to help boot out people he claims are members of the Tren de Aragua (TDA) gang who had been squatting there and threatening his tenants and employees.

City staffers countered that the building was shuttered after more than two years of neglect and mismanagement that led to public safety and health violations. City manager officials have provided extensive city and court records documenting consistent and widespread rat, mice and cockroach infections, piles of garbage, dangerous electrical and plumbing issues among other health and safety problems they say went unaddressed by the owners and their property management company, CBZ Management, for too long.

“Let us be clear, the blame for this unfortunate circumstance rests solely with CBZ Management and its principals, the owners and managers of the property, who have repeatedly failed their tenants for years by allowing the building and property to fall into a state of complete disrepair,” city spokesperson Ryan Luby said in a statement.

Still, at least three council members say they do not believe their own city staffers’ reasons for forcing tenants out of the building. 

“None of us buy that story, that this is based on a code enforcement violation,” Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said during an Aug. 8 city council public safety committee meeting, referring to herself and council members Stepahnie Hancock and Steve Sundberg. “The three of us believe there is a huge gang problem.”

Jurinsky said that despite not having proof of the owner’s claims about gang members squatting in the building, “our opinions are not up for debate.”

On Tuesday, police cordoned off several blocks surrounding the complex until midday once the building’s power and water were shut off. There was a chemical smell near the building, the result of what one police officer surmised were pest-control chemicals. At least three freshly dead squirrels were visible north and east of the building. Their carcasses, and the absence of trees or landscaping around the building, made its name, Aspen Grove, incongruous.

In media statements since last week, city officials assured the public that, on the city’s dime, it had offered all tenants hotel rooms through the end of August and additional help in finding housing. 

But those claims seemed questionable Tuesday when several of the tenants said they had no such offers and no city social services workers were visibly on site to help those families sitting with their belongings on sidewalks near the building. 

Olivia Sanders and colleagues from the East Colfax Collective — a nonprofit helping residents and businesses at risk of displacement in the quickly gentrifying area — worked to place tenants like Ernesto and his family in hotel rooms. She said city officials had promised 85 rooms on Monday evening, but by Tuesday afternoon had come up with only 59.

“Let’s just say the city could be far more helpful,” she said. 

By early evening Tuesday, the city claimed it had identified enough hotel rooms for any evacuees who wanted them.

“Everybody now has rooms,” said Aurora spokesperson Ryan Luby.

Ernesto, in the meantime, said by phone early Tuesday evening that he and his family had yet to be offered a room.

The four-story blond brick complex on Nome Street sits five blocks from the Anschutz Medical Campus, a redevelopment much touted by Aurora officials as evidence of the city’s renaissance. The contrast between the glass condos and cyber cafés south of the medical center with the apartment complex to its west was glaring Tuesday afternoon as its displaced tenants wrapped their kids in garbage bags to protect against what looked like looming rain.

Christine Martin said she paid $1,000 a month to live in the building for a year and a half until a few weeks ago, when she said the bed bugs and roaches prodded her to move out. She left her furniture and electronics behind for her roommate, but said she was not able to retrieve them before Tuesday morning’s deadline. 

“The city could definitely have done better as far as that goes,” said Martin, who as of mid-day Tuesday had no place to take shelter or sleep that night.

 “A little compassion or help would have gone a long way.”

Many of the displaced tenants are Venezuelans, whose influx over the past two years into Denver and Aurora has caused a string of controversies, especially in the eyes of the city’s majority-conservative council.

On Aug. 8, members of the council’s public safety committee and Mayor Mike Coffman broke into an impromptu discussion about what they perceive as problems connected to immigrants and refugees from Venezuela living in Aurora and Denver.

Of particular concern to some was a gathering on July 28, when as many as 4,000 cars descended on the parking lots at the Gardens on Havana shopping center in west-central Aurora, apparently to celebrate what at the time looked like the political demise of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, which  would have been a monumental change to all Venezuelans

Maduro has since held on to power, despite international demands that he step down after an apparent electoral loss and election fraud perpetrated by his administration, according to Associated Press reports.

Some city council members and witnesses have characterized the July 28 gathering in Aurora as violent, destructive and criminal.

Sundberg told committee members he’s convinced that the TDA gang is extensive, and that they have “taken over” multiple apartment complexes in the city.

After several requests for comment, police have not detailed gang involvement in Aurora and the metro area.

Coffman has repeatedly pushed back against claims by Jurinsky and Hancock that the convergence on the Gardens on Havana shopping center was a “test” by Venezuelan immigrants aiming to make future trouble in Aurora. 

“It’s a one-off,” Coffman said. He said the crowd appeared to be impromptu, caused by mass assumptions  that Maduro had been ousted from office, not a pre-planned event organized by gangs.

The parking lots were strewn with garbage and debris after the gathering. Police reported gunfire into the air by some people in the crowd although details were not released. Police pointed out that there were no arrests or citations issued.

City administrators and Coffman insist the July 28 event is unrelated to problems in northwest Aurora.

Several of the Venezuelan tenants camped out near Nome Street on Tuesday noted how long and far they and their families had come for the relative safety and promise of new lives in Aurora.

“Not gangs. Not gangs,” Ernesto said. “Peace.”

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