The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development plans to end taxpayer funding to the owners of west Atlanta’s Fairburn & Gordon I and II Apartments due to extremely poor living conditions at the complex unless rapid repairs are made, multiple sources told Capital B Atlanta on Friday.
HUD confirmed via email Friday afternoon that it issued “notices of default” of its project-based Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contracts with the owners of Fairburn & Gordon on Feb. 14 due to “unacceptable physical conditions” at the complex.
The agency’s region IV office, which oversees federally subsidized dwellings in the Atlanta area, said it also issued “demands for corrective action” to Fairburn & Gordon’s owners and is reviewing appropriate actions while waiting for a response.
“The wellbeing of families residing in federally assisted housing is HUD’s first priority,” the agency said via email.
HUD’s decision is one step toward accountability for the owners of a complex where low-income residents, almost all of them Black, have been plagued by crime, rat and roach infestations, and dilapidated conditions, such as mold and deteriorating walls, for years.
But it comes with a potentially devastating caveat: It could force those residents to have to move out sometime soon. Residents at Forest Cove went through similar challenges after its owners’ contract with HUD was canceled, and the property was eventually condemned.
“In the event HUD should proceed to the abatement and termination of the project HAP contracts, HUD will ensure all tenants are provided Tenant Protection Voucher[s] to use at other properties,” a HUD spokesperson told Capital B Atlanta via email. “In that event, HUD will also hire a relocation contractor to assist the tenants in finding suitable housing.”
Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman said Friday morning that his office recently received word from an official in the city’s Housing Help Center that HUD is working on cutting funding for Fairburn & Gordon in the near future.
The center deferred to HUD early Friday afternoon when asked for comment.
“We will need to either work with the owners to rectify all the concerns, or we’ll need to work with the residents to find properties in which they can use their vouchers to reside,” Shipman told Capital B Atlanta by phone Friday morning.
The office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Friday it is working to confirm details about the announcement.
“As evidenced by Forest Cove, Mayor Dickens has no tolerance for negligent landlords or property owners and will continue to deploy every tool at the City’s disposal to protect Atlanta residents,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “The management of Fairburn Gordon apartments is sadly another example of greed and neglect. The property is on the Administration’s radar for our Safe and Secure Housing Initiative. We have been on site as recently as today and will provide new plans for this complex in the coming days.”
Fairburn & Gordon’s owners include parent company A&B Apartments LLC, according to HUD, and Beverly Hills, California-based landlord Behzad Beroukhai, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Neither could be reached for comment on Friday. A woman answering the phone at Fairburn & Gordon’s management office Friday afternoon declined to comment before abruptly hanging up.
Shipman’s office has been working with Fairburn & Gordon’s tenants for more than a year to help rectify numerous health and safety issues at the property. Residents have blamed black mold at the complex for causing chronic respiratory issues they say they didn’t have before moving in.
Shipman said HUD won’t stop giving rental assistance to the complex’s residents, but it will stop giving direct funding to the owners under a system designed to compensate landlords that provide housing to qualifying low-income tenants.
The amount of funding provided varies based on the size of the apartment, number of residents in each unit, and how much monthly rent each tenant can afford to pay themselves. HUD pays the entire monthly rent for qualifying tenants who are unemployed. Additional funding may be provided to cover tenants’ utility bills.
There’s no timeline for HUD’s action so far, but Shipman said the agency’s decision means Fairburn & Gordon residents who receive HUD vouchers may have to move to safer accommodations that comply with the agency’s standards in the near future.
He said he expects to see “significant action” taken by HUD and the city of Atlanta in the next few weeks.
Fairburn & Gordon has been notorious for crime and disrepair for many years. Black mold, rats, roaches, leaky plumbing that floods floors are some of the complex’s biggest problems.
In October, Capital B Atlanta followed up on several long-standing repair requests that multiple residents at Fairburn & Gordon filed with HUD and the city of Atlanta’s housing code enforcement division.
Inspectors from HUD and the city found 81 housing code violations at the complex later that month, including 13 classified as “highly hazardous” health and safety concerns.
Capital B Atlanta’s video footage of some of the residents’ rundown apartments went viral on TikTok in December. In that video, Fairburn & Gordon residents Crystal Brown, Cherry Gary, Jasmine Hinton, and Trinae Ward are among the residents who spoke out about their maintenance problems.
Hinton told Capital B that a city inspector was on site Thursday. The inspector told Hinton they were there to take pictures ahead of a related court hearing on Friday, she said.
