Today, September 3rd, the tenants of Dallas St, Helena St, E 13th Ave, and formerly Nome St – all living in buildings owned by Zev Baumgartner of CBZ Management, are hosting a press conference at 4pm at 1206 Dallas St to “clear their name”.
After fresh criminal cases were opened against the slumlord under Warranty of Habitability due to the property owner’s negligence towards his property, resulting in over a thousand people living in poor conditions (ceilings falling, water/electrical access issues, bed bugs, mice, black mold, etc) while paying as much as $2000 per month in rent, Baumgartner of CBZ Management decided to hire a PR firm in Florida to cover for his own criminal behavior. As a result, this PR firm – run by Evan Nierman, who began his career with the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC – latched onto the nationalist anti-migrant sentiment and took advantage of the fact that these buildings were, for the most part, filled with recent migrants. In line with his AIPAC roots, he fabricated connections between the vulnerable paying tenants and gangs, suggesting that the buildings weren’t maintained due to the landlord’s loss of control over the property.
Ever since HAND was first tipped off to the closing of Nome St by a City agent who was disgusted by the City’s plans to offer close to nothing to the soon-to-be houseless families and children, we have had folks on the ground nearly daily, even spending the night before, doing outreach and getting to know the unique situations with every family. Never once were we in fear for our lives, never once were we threatened, never once did we witness any sort of gang activities or even weapons – just vulnerable victims of an oppressive slumlord who would gladly reap millions from their payments and still defile their name.
Now, as the Dallas, Helena, and 13th Ave buildings potentially face the same fate of condemnation, the tenants are pleading for more time and support to be able to relocate their families somewhere safe. While it is legally the landlord’s responsibility to relocate tenants to reasonable accommodations for 60 days following the condemnation of a building, CBZ’s legal team is finding all sorts of ways to avoid this, and instead of the City (who also has many cases against the landlord) enforcing this tenant right, they are siding with the slumlord and spreading the false racist rhetoric on their own platforms.
These tenants are not political pawns. They are not campaign tools. Mayor Mike Coffman just yesterday visited the buildings accompanied by police and refused to talk to the mothers and fathers who approached him to talk for a few minutes about their situation. Instead, he seemed to only be looking for further justification of gang activity, despite Aurora police having announced that there are no buildings under control of gangs. Yet the damage has been done – some residents have received death threats such as the above message (pictured) received by a family who had a poster listing Venezuelan food that they hoped to share with the community alongside their personal phone number. Tenants have seen the online threats on Tik Tok of known racist gangs threatening to come to Aurora to attack them. Families have even had strangers tape up signs to their building saying “TAKING AURORA BACK THIS IS OUR CITY!!!” as though they do not also live here, send their kids to school here, and are not much appreciated and needed assets to our City. Now, their kids have nightmares and they avoid going out much in case these actual gang threats on their lives materialize.
Today, the tenants are openly inviting press to their home to share who they are, and reveal the criminality of the slumlord who has been outright ignoring their pleas for accountability for years. Today, they set the record straight. Their demands are the following:
- CBZ Management – Fulfill your responsibility to the residents and your legal obligation to maintain basic living standards. If the damage of the negligence in the unit is already too great, relocate your tenants to another habitable unit, as required under the Colorado Warranty of Habitability.
- Mayor Mike Coffman, City Manager Jason Batchelor, Aurora Code Enforcement, and the City of Aurora – Rather than shutting apartments down and evicting dozens of Aurora families into the streets, Aurora Code Enforcement should activate its enforcement power (fines, lawsuits) at these buildings to ensure that CBZ assume their responsibility as property management
- Councilwoman Jurisnky (who is on “texting terms” with the landlord), Mayor Coffman, and other officials who have spread the harmful, false narrative that buildings are taken over by Venezuelan gangs should immediately retract their statements and embrace the facts further emphasized by Aurora police and as heard directly from the tenants themselves.
In turn, they hope that the community that knows them personally will stand up to defend them in this time of need. The intersectionality of our causes is clear – they have and currently use the same tactics to criminalize other minority groups, including Palestinians, Black Americans, Indigenous people, and more. In fact, we see through the PR firm that the very same antagonist anti-Palestinian lobbyists are behind this slander. From racist street signs (as those decried by Councilwoman Shontel Lewis in a press conference last week), to the on-going genocide against Palestinians, the right to exist and live and be housed on this land is one we must protect for all – not just the rich and the white.
Please join us today to hear the message from the tenants and amplify their voices before it’s too late.
Media Contacts:
V Reeves, Housekeys Action Network Denver, 701-484-2634, info@housekeysactionnetwork.com
Nate Kassa, East Colfax Community Collective, 720-665-8928, nate@eastcolfaxcc.org
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