EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE: Housekeys Action Network Denver and The Redress Movement to Hold Press Conference Marking Closure of Edge of Lowry Buildings

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Housekeys Action Network Denver and The Redress Movement to Hold Press Conference Marking Closure of Edge of Lowry Buildings

AURORA – FEB 17, 2025 – After months of unrest and uncertainty for residents, the notorious Edge of Lowry Apartments will be closed by the City of Aurora. For 6 months, Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND), The Redress Movement, and East Colfax Community Collective (EC3) have worked to organize residents to combat the predatory landlord CBZ Management. These groups have also publicly made efforts to change the national media narrative that Edge of Lowry was taken over by gangs such as Tren de Aragua, and that the building was a hotspot for criminal activity. In their place, our teams found hard working individuals and families with children being taken advantage of by election-year propaganda and a multimillionaire slumlord, Zev Baumgartner, attempting to escape culpability for his crimes. 

While these groups tried to work with the City of Aurora to humanely relocate residents, ensuring there would be proper funding for such relocation, this was not the case. In fact, the only City personnel involved with relocating tenants were police officers intimidating them with threat of arrest or detainment.  Instead, most of the money used to relocate residents was donated to HAND via a one-time grant from Colorado Health Foundation, and raised through a GoFundMe campaign administered by HAND. We thank the Denver Metro community for pulling together and helping raise $26,466 in under a month to-date, allowing for 32 families (28 from Edge of Lowry, and 8 from other formerly-CBZ-managed buildings) to be relocated. Those families are in a better situation today because, when government failed, the community came together.

In the time since the January 13th judgment called for the building’s closure, residents have faced harassment from law enforcement, an ICE raid, and continuous intimidation from the receivership in an attempt to evacuate the buildings prior to February 18th. Through HAND’s efforts, the buyouts offered to residents from the receiver were raised from $1,000 to $4,000, but only for residents who were fortunate to work with HAND. Not everyone was so lucky, and even with the money raised from the Go Fund Me campaign, there were families we were not able to assist. Many of them are now houseless, with few opportunities. 

“This was preventable,”  said Jon Marcantoni of The Redress Movement. “There were complaints about CBZ Management going back 6 years, and only when their actions led to a political firestorm did anyone in authority pay attention.” Mr. Marcantoni adds that The Redress Movement wants what happened in Aurora to be a warning to those wanting to pass SB 25-20, a bill that will empower municipalities to take over troubled buildings and hand them over to receiverships. “The bill is good but there need to be more tenant protections. The receivership evicted people based on many not having leases, which was the fault of the previous owner. The receivership also took zero actions to prevent displacement. The families were never given a chance to stay in their homes while they are repaired. Senator Weissman needs to ensure that this legislation unequivocally prevents displacement. We cannot let this happen again.”

The press conference will begin at 8am on Tuesday, February 18th, in front of the Edge of Lowry apartments, with HAND’s V Reeves and Mr. Marcantoni available to take questions after their planned statements.

Media Contacts:

Jon Marcantoni – The Redress Movement – 719-646-8361, jmarcantoni@redressmovement.org  V Reeves – HAND – 701-484-2634, info@housekeysactionnetwork.com