The owners of the dilapidated Fairburn & Gordon I and II Apartments complex in west Atlanta are in hot water with a city judge after failing to complete a list of repairs and pay a hefty fine within a 30-day deadline.
Municipal Judge Christopher T. Portis gave the complex’s parent company, A&B Apartments LLC, and its owners, Behzad Beroukhai and Abraham Beroukhai, until Friday afternoon to pay more than $31,000 in penalties and fees. The fine is a result of more than 300 housing code and nuisance violations.
The judge said he’ll decide on additional punitive action against the owners after their new fine deadline has passed.
Crumbling walls, floors, and ceilings; suffocating mold; water and gas leaks; exposed electric hazards; and rat and cockroach infestations are among the many maintenance problems Fairburn & Gordon’s Section 8 tenants have been complaining about for years.
Roughly 20 Fairburn & Gordon tenants were in the courtroom Thursday morning when Portis issued his order. During the hearing, Deputy Solicitor Erika D. Smith asked the present tenants to stand and noted the many complaints they’ve filed to the judge.
Several, including former resident Cherry Gary, 44, who moved her family out of a mold-infested unit in August 2023, expressed relief that action was being taken after years of neglect.
“No one should have to live in that manner at all,” Gary told reporters after the hearing.
“They need to be penalized and they need to be punished,” she said of Fairburn & Gordon’s owners. “And, to be honest, that property needs to be torn down.”
Several tenants, including Emma Williams, said they don’t have working air conditioners right now and are struggling to stay cool in June’s potentially deadly summer heat.
One tenant said she and her children have been sleeping in the living room where several fans are blowing because it’s too hot to sleep in their bedrooms.
Williams said she and her grandchildren have been using “fans and ice” to keep cool.
“Where is the help for us?” Williams said. “I don’t want my [grandchildren] to die in there because of the work [Fairburn & Gordon’s owners] don’t want to do.”
Fairburn & Gordon’s attorney, David Dolinsky, asked Portis for more time Thursday for his clients to complete outstanding repairs and pay their fine in compliance with a consent agreement they signed in May. Some maintenance issues have been fixed since then, he said.
But Portis noted that there are additional 60- and 90-day repair deadlines Fairburn & Gordon’s owners previously agreed to meet as well. Portis expressed concern that if he gives the owners more time, they will be in the same position 30 to 60 days from now.
“I don’t think it’s likely the rest of the issues will be in compliance by the 60-day mark,” Portis said.
The judge gave Fairburn & Gordon’s owners until 5 p.m. Friday to initiate their wire transfer.
“If the city receives confirmation that the wiring has been effectuated … that at least takes care of one of the [outstanding issues],” Portis said. “Then it will be a determination of where we go from here.”
Dolinsky declined to comment on questions about the maintenance issues raised by his clients’ tenants.
How we got here
During the early fall of last year, Capital B Atlanta inquired with the City of Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about maintenance complaints filed previously by Section 8 tenants living at Fairburn in Gordon.
In October, city, state, and federal investigators we contacted found 81 housing code violations at the complex, 13 of which were classified as “highly hazardous.”
A Nov. 29 follow-up HUD inspection found a total of 155 “deficiencies” at the complex, 31 of which were classified as “life-threatening.” HUD investigators gave Fairburn & Gordon a failing Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) score of 18 out of 100 at the time. That’s lower than a 2018 REAC score Forest Cove received before its own HUD contract was canceled and the property ultimately was condemned.
In March, HUD announced plans to cancel its contract with Fairburn & Gordon’s owners as a result, before relocating Section 8 tenant households at the complex into safer housing conditions elsewhere.
Housing relocation officers working for HUD visited Fairburn & Gordon tenants Thursday morning to discuss plans to move them into safer homes. HUD is only responsible for relocating Section 8 tenant households, which only compose about 23 of an estimated 110 occupied units at Fairburn & Gordon.
Help From Mayor Dickens
Representatives from Mayor Andre Dickens’ Housing Help Center attended Thursday’s hearing as well to help address concerns from tenants who aren’t on HUD assistance.
During and after the hearing, Smith, the deputy solicitor, noted that most of the repairs completed at Fairburn & Gordon since May were done to vacant units instead of the occupied apartments where tenants lived. She asked the judge if the tenants who pay rent can be moved into Fairburn & Gordon’s renovated units for the time being.
“They need to either relocate these tenants into the units that have been rehabbed, or fix what’s broken in these occupied units,” Smith said.
Tenants also were asked to fill out paperwork indicating what maintenance issues still exist in their apartments. Housing Help Center Director Donell Q. Woodson estimated that about 80% of Fairburn & Gordon tenants who are not on Section 8 are behind on their rent and need to at least attempt to catch up before the city can help them find safer homes.
“It won’t preclude them from being able to have our services, but we want to make sure they have attempted to address the back due rent,” Woodson said.
Woodson said the mayor is prioritizing providing more urgent help to Fairburn & Gordon’s residents. That potentially includes paying to get air conditioners for tenants whose AC units are broken in addition to eventually helping them find “immediate, secure, and safe housing.”
“The long-term fix is what we’re really after,” Woodson said.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the last name of one of the owners of the Fairburn & Gordon II Apartments. The owner’s name is Abraham Beroukhai.
