Several local governments find that the only way to get a notorious apartment owner to take them seriously is to launch a special multi-agency operation, which can require repeat visits and hundreds of manhours.
In July, a Clayton County task force of 40 police, code enforcement officers, county attorneys, fire inspectors, community development administrators and county commissioners converged on an apartment complex in response to a YouTube video.
The video showed a group of men brandishing guns and flashing gang signs in front of the Pinebrooke Apartments near Riverdale.
One of the men had given a cameraman a tour of the units, which were open for anyone to enter. Inside one, squatters built a barricade of discarded mattresses, headboards and other junk to keep others out. In another, also piled high with trash, thieves punched holes in the walls to yank out copper. Heroin addicts hid inside, the guide said.
Credit: Miko Worldwide / YouTube
Credit: Miko Worldwide / YouTube
The conditions troubled the cameraman.
“I ain’t going to lie,” he said. “Because it’s a business, I thought it would always be more profitable to keep it up and keep tenants in there.”
Credit: Miko Worldwide / YouTube
Credit: Miko Worldwide / YouTube
The task force found that the apartments’ own workers, not squatters, had stuffed the apartments to their ceilings with belongings abandoned by evicted residents. It was cheaper to hide them than to haul them off to the dump.
Pinebrooke emptied the junk from vacant apartments after the task force intervened, but county officials said that unless state or federal authorities step in to help, they will be back in a couple of years for another cleanup.
One of the complex’s owners is Beverly Hills, Calif. investor Behzad Beroukhai, who has been targeted by prosecutors from Los Angeles to Atlanta for operating crumbling, crime-ridden apartments. If he sells Pinebrooke, another absent or neglectful landlord is bound to take his place, said Commissioner Felicia Franklin. The county doesn’t have enough power to stop it.
“We’re like everybody else. We’re fighting for the next firefighter, the next police officer, and we’re working with limited resources and personnel,” she said.
Credit: Miko Worldwide / YouTube
Credit: Miko Worldwide / YouTube
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