The Atlanta judge who has spent the last five months hearing how poor the living conditions are at the Fairburn & Gordon I and II Apartments complex in southwest Atlanta has decided to see the place for himself.
“This [property] is a handful of decades old,” Municipal Judge Christopher T. Portis said Thursday morning during the latest Fairburn & Gordon-related Atlanta housing court hearing. “I just want to make sure that wherever we’re headed, we’re headed towards some place in reality.”
Portis’ decision on Thursday came in response to city officials’ ongoing concerns about hazardous conditions at Fairburn & Gordon, where residents, nearly all of whom are Black, have spent years complaining about previously unaddressed rats, roaches, raw sewage leaks, crumbling walls, porous roofs, collapsing ceilings, and illness-causing mold.
A joint government agency inspection in October that followed a Capital B Atlanta inquiry the same month initially revealed 81 housing code violations at the complex, including 13 classified as “highly hazardous.” A Nov. 29 follow-up inspection conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uncovered 31 “life threatening” deficiencies at the property, resulting in HUD announcing plans in March to cancel its contract with Fairburn & Gordon’s owners.
HUD said 110 tenant households lived at Fairburn & Gordon in November. That number is down to roughly 80 occupied units, as some Section 8 tenants have moved out, according to officials. Remaining residents say new market rate tenants have moved into the complex in recent weeks, underscoring the desperation of some low-income renters in Atlanta amid the city’s affordable housing crisis.
Current and former tenants at Fairburn & Gordon have advocated for tearing the place down, arguing that the complex — which originally opened in 1972, according to multiple listing sites — is too dilapidated to be repaired.
Ben Beroukhai, who co-owns Fairburn & Gordon’s parent company, A&B Apartments, LLC, along with his brother Abe Beroukhai, has stated previously his intention to keep the complex open. In May, the Beroukhai brothers were ordered to pay a $25,000 fine in conjunction with a consent agreement they signed with the city of Atlanta to remedy an estimated 400 housing code violations filed earlier this year.
Atlanta Deputy Solicitor Erika Smith issued 46 new housing code citations on Thursday for repair problems discovered at Fairburn & Gordon since May. Tenants have complained the repairs made since October are mostly cosmetic and that more concerning problems, such as mold inside the complex’s walls, still exist.
Residents have accused management and repair workers of painting over mold at the complex instead of treating it properly. Smith said most of the 46 new citations stem from boarded-up vacant apartments at Fairburn & Gordon.
“The allegation is that those particular units are filled with junk, trash, and debris,” Smith told Capital B Atlanta Thursday afternoon. “That’s going to bring rodent infestations, all kinds of stuff.”
Smith asked Portis to keep the current case against Fairburn & Gordon’s owners open until they address the new list of repair problems. She told Capital B Atlanta that total fines for the new citations could be between $11,500 and $48,000.
Portis declined to levy additional fines against the owners on Thursday, saying he’d prefer they spend their money fixing what’s broken at Fairburn & Gordon. The judge decided to visit the complex himself to determine whether it can be salvaged with repairs or potentially demolished.
“My concern is the longer we have gone with this, the more there has been an expanse of what folks see versus the reality,” Portis said. “I do understand the general concerns being raised, not just by the residents, but by the community in general as to where the property is from a maintenance standpoint.”
Portis didn’t give a specific date for his anticipated visit on Thursday, saying he plans to travel to Fairburn & Gordon on his own within the next 30 days or so.
The city says Fairburn & Gordon’s owners may be exploring selling the property as repair costs continue to rise. The Beroukhai brothers’ attorney, David Dolinsky, hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
After learning of Portis’ plans to visit Fairburn & Gordon, residents expressed surprise.
Some suggested Portis would likely support demolishing the property once he sees it for himself. One of them was Deborah Love, the 73-year-old woman who confronted Ben Beroukhai about the problems at Fairburn & Gordon during a tense town hall meeting last week.
“Tell the judge to wear sunglasses to save his eyes,” Love told Capital B Atlanta.
