Home for the Holidays: Former Residents of ‘Slum’ Housing Glow Up in New Apartments

The aroma of Fabuloso and other cleaning products brought smiles to the faces of Crystal Brown and her two young daughters on Saturday while they showed off their new two-bedroom home inside the Overlook Ridge Apartments complex in West Atlanta’s Harland Terrace neighborhood.

The gated, luxury property features a sizable community pool, a fitness center, and a clubhouse. Brown no longer has to go to the laundromat to wash clothes due to the in-unit washer and dryer she rents. The 44-year-old is still getting used to having a dishwasher, which she said she barely uses.

“It’s good to have,” Brown said.

It’s been a few months since Brown’s family of three moved out of their decaying home at the Fairburn & Gordon I and II Apartments complex in nearby Adamsville, where several residents complained about suspected mold causing children to develop respiratory illnesses.

Brown recalled struggling to rid her old apartment of the stench of mold.

“It feels better to wake up and know you can clean up and [have it] smell like you cleaned up,” Brown told Capital B Atlanta over the weekend.

Capital B Atlanta published a revealing report and viral video detailing the highly hazardous conditions at the Fairburn & Gordon complex in southwest Atlanta’s Adamsville neighborhood just over a year ago. In recent months, several federal housing aid recipients said they have moved out of Fairburn & Gordon and into more suitable living conditions elsewhere with the help of Partners for Southern Equity, the Atlanta Housing Authority, Mayor Andre Dickens’ Housing Help Center, and Section 8 housing vouchers provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Among them is Clovis Lyons and her four children, who previously struggled with what she described as “poop water” pouring into their old Fairburn & Gordon apartment for more than a year and causing their bathroom ceiling to cave in.

Lyons recently moved into a rented single-family home in Washington Park. The renovated three-bedroom dwelling near Mercedes-Benz Stadium features a covered porch and a spacious backyard where Lyons’ kids can play safely.

“I’m at peace now,” Lyons said on Saturday with a smile. “It used to be like, ‘I don’t know if I want to go home.’ Now I’m ready to go home. I’m always ready to go home.”

Lyons and Brown are among the more than 20 Fairburn & Gordon federal housing aid recipients who have received Section 8 vouchers to move into new homes with the help of relocation service contractors hired by HUD.

On Friday, a HUD spokesperson said the agency’s operatives have relocated 12 of the 23 Section 8 tenant households who were living at the complex in October 2023. Eight of the remaining families are in “various stages” of signing leases at new rental properties and are expected to move “very soon,” according to HUD.

Three families are still searching for more-suitable new homes, the agency said.

“We anticipate finalizing all relocations within the next few weeks,” a HUD spokesperson said via email on Friday.

Outstanding repairs at Fairburn & Gordon

Those who have moved out say they’re still worried about the estimated 87 market-rate tenant households who still live at Fairburn & Gordon, where a new property management team has spent much of this year working to comply with court-mandated repairs.

The deputy solicitor’s office issued additional civil violations against Fairburn & Gordon’s owners for outstanding repairs after Atlanta Municipal Judge Christopher T. Portis toured the property in September with an inspector, according to Atlanta Housing Help Center director Donell Woodson.

Atlanta Deputy Solicitor Erika Smith couldn’t be reached for comment.

As of Nov. 4, a list of outstanding repairs included multiple broken glass windows as well as trash and debris inside vacant apartments, some of which have been boarded up for more than six months, the city said.

Woodson said on Monday that the city’s original housing code enforcement and nuisance case against Fairburn & Gordon’s owners is due to be closed out on Jan. 22, but a new one for additional recently uncovered repair problems will remain open.

“The new violations that were discovered during the latest re-inspection will also be heard on that day for arraignment,” Woodson said via email. “As such, there are now two running cases that will both be heard on the same day.”

Fairburn and Gordon’s former property manager Kathy Baker — who residents complained frequently ignored their maintenance concerns and threatened to have them evicted or fined for speaking out about their conditions — reportedly was fired earlier this year in conjunction with the property owners’ consent agreement with the city of Atlanta.

Woodson said Fairburn & Gordon’s new management team has been working to complete required repairs but hasn’t finished the job yet. Former tenants say those who remain still complain about mold and other unaddressed maintenance issues.

“The goal is still for full compliance,” Woodson added. “Nothing new to raise concern has been reported. The feedback has been minimal as the compliance [rate] has increased.”

Following Capital B Atlanta’s October 2023 inquiry, HUD inspectors found 31 “life threatening” maintenance issues at Fairburn & Gordon, where residents have spent years complaining about collapsing ceilings, rotting floors, faulty pipes that leak raw sewage into people’s homes, and suffocating mold, in addition to major rodent and cockroach infestations.

The list of dangerous conditions included “extremely high levels of a ‘mold-like substance’” on the walls in one unit’s bedroom and living room, exposed electrical conductors — a potential shock and fire hazard — and at least two broken gas furnaces in various units at the complex, according to a November 2023 HUD inspection report. Several residents previously complained about having to heat their homes with their kitchen oven or a space heater during the winter.

In March, HUD announced plans to cancel its federal housing aid contract with Fairburn & Gordon’s owners after they failed to complete a list of required repairs by the agency’s February deadline.

City of Atlanta operatives, meanwhile, have cited Fairburn & Gordon’s owners for hundreds of housing code violations. Behzad “Ben” Beroukhai, co-owner of the property’s parent company, A&B Apartments LLC, aligned with his brother, Abraham “Abe” Beroukhai, signed a consent agreement with the city in May to complete a long list of required repairs.

In August, former resident Cherry Gary called Ben Beroukhai a “slumlord” following a municipal court hearing.

Ben Beroukhai’s attorney, David Dolinsky, hasn’t responded to phone calls and text messages requesting comment.

The power of speaking up

Brown and Lyons thanked Smith and other city officials for the work they’ve done to hold Fairburn & Gordon’s owners accountable. Both former tenants acknowledged a culture of fear among low-income Black families, many of whom live in complexes similar to Fairburn & Gordon, but are afraid of their landlords evicting them if they speak out about their conditions.

“I felt like I deserved it because I was on a low income and this is all I could get,” Brown said of her previous living conditions. “I didn’t want to say nothing because I didn’t have nowhere else to go.”

Lack of affordable housing in Atlanta and weak tenant protection laws in Georgia often leaves many more afraid of homelessness than being abused, but Brown said tenants should refuse to remain silent.

“Always say something, no matter what you think is gonna happen at the end,” Brown said. “You’ve got to say something in order to get something [done].”