Tenants at the Cedar Run Apartments picketed in front of the 384-unit South Denver complex on Friday night to bring attention to the broken pipes, leaks, cold water and bugs the renters say management isn't addressing.
And when renters call to complain, they say, the leasing office doesn't call back and doesn't respond to maintenance requests.
"There's an emergency line. It doesn't matter how many times you call it. There's no answer," said renter Meg Horvath. "There's no return, checkup, anything. I mean, I got ghosted for like three or four months from these people, while multiple emergencies happened."
We called to ask management what was going on. No response.
The apartment complex is owned by the Los Angeles-based company Gelt, which bought it in 2019.
The cost? $62 million, reported CoStar.
According to the company's website, it controls a $1.6 billion portfolio.
Here's how Gelt describes its mission:
Gelt did not respond to requests for comment on the tenants' complaints.
Tenants say conditions are not just low quality -- they're neither safe nor healthy.
Warren Bartelme moved into the complex in August.
"It's been nonstop problems ever since," he said. "We've got veterans, disabled folks, the elderly. We have vulnerable people living in this place. And it's just disgusting that they want to charge us almost $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom when people are living in filth. They don't have any running water. They don't have hot water. They don't have heat in the middle of a record-cold winter."
Brian Patrick lives on the top floor of his building. He said he hasn't had decent hot water for months.
"It's been really difficult trying to get a hold of anybody," he said. "And thank God I found all these people. I thought for the longest time I was crazy, because they always sort of make you think that there's nothing wrong and everything's fine. And it's not. And it's finally coming to a head."
Danielle Brovich said she was there today "so we can get our safety prioritized over profit."
She described a lack of heat, mold in units and overflowing sewage in the paid parking garage.
"We have homeless in the building shooting up heroin, meth, you name it," she said. "They're also destroying our laundry units."
Water filters that should last three months get clogged in one month because there are so many contaminates in the water, she said.
"I gave up owning my own house to rent again, to come here," Brovich said. "And how can I better my future if the place I'm living in is just crumbling beneath me."
Renter rights activists showed up to support residents.
"The only way that we're going to have a true balance of power between tenants and landlords in Colorado is if tenants come together and fight," said Bruno Tapia, a member of Denver-Aurora Tenants United, which has been organizing renters in the metro area.
"Colorado is a state where housing is the number one crisis, where tenant rights are extremely limited," the said. "And landlords have way too much power to get away with warranty-of-habitability violations, get away with always increasing rent always, you know, displacing people."
They want to pressure landlords around the state to uphold their end of lease agreements.
"We think there needs to be more people organizing like this," Tapia said. "And we're going to see real change happen in the state."
