In response to Sunday’s election in Venezuela, as well as the racist and bigoted belief that all people and their children from Venezuela are part of a “terrorist” militia proposed by Aurora City Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky and Aurora Police Department’s Twitter accounts, the city of Aurora is choosing to evict an estimated fifty families, majority migrants, from their residency at Fitzsimons Place at 1568 Nome St without notice on Wednesday, August 7th.
The city of Aurora’s police, code enforcement, housing and community departments will all be there at 6:30 AM on Tuesday August 6th to enforce the displacement of these families. There are no housing resources currently allocated for these individuals – only hygiene and snack packs, and a pitiful offer of 3 days of shelter. These residents are severely financially disadvantaged, and yet, have been reliably paying rent at this location while living there, but the City refuses to hold the property’s management/ownership accountable to their end of the lease agreements. Realistically, there is nowhere for these residents to go, and they have been given no time to prepare.
Upon learning of this, we outreached at the property on Friday, August 2nd and let residents know that we had learned of the building being condemned and to discuss their desires and needs surrounding the issue. Upon leaving our contact info, we received an influx of messages from residents who wrote us about their unique situations. We met parents of a severely disabled child with cerebral palsy who is wheelchair-bound and terrified of what will happen when they have to go to the streets. Another resident wrote to say they are part of the LGBTQ community and in fear of what would happen to them as a queer migrant on the streets. Another is a mother of a four year old. Another is fleeing persecution for having been actively against the current dictatorship and in support of a democratic, people-elected opposition. They all found themselves living there, actively paying rent, trying to sustain themselves and create a better life for themselves and their children. Many mentioned having attempted to contact the City about building issues to no avail. They told us they had received neither mail nor trash pickup for over two months. They sent photos of the trash built up in the parking lot, as well as fabric Walmart bags filled with captured dead rats and bed bug bites on the arms of their children.
History of attempted accountability and lack of City action:
There has been evidence of uninhabitable living conditions in this building dating back to March of last year (see this article for Denver 7’s reporting on this building https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/i-dont-even-call-this-home-aurora-tenants-speak-out-against-unacceptable-living-conditions ).
A number of community advocacy groups have previously attempted to hold the property management and ownership accountable to no avail. Along with the physical issues, the property managers were found to be incredibly hostile towards tenants, in some instances demanding cash payments and then claiming they never received them under the threat of evicting residents, then denying cash payments all together.
There were fines given but no charges from the city of Aurora towards the landlord of this property. This building’s sudden condemnation in direct violation of the rights of the tenants is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident. If we continue to allow this to happen without defending our most vulnerable neighbors, then the contractual agreements meant to protect our tenant rights have no meaning, and this trend can continue to threaten the lives of paying tenants and their families. Additionally, we allow for sensationalist propaganda to spread and instill fear in community members about our neighbors, endangering marginalized communities and our migrant populations, and further devaluing their rights in our society. This can be traced back to Donald Trump and conservative news outlets popularizing the term “migrant crime” earlier this year, despite there being an actual decrease in crime overall and a 45% lesser chance of migrants committing crime as opposed to American-born citizens (see https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jul/22/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-republicans for a written summary of the episode or watch the actual episode itself https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=MJmm6rqR_wkudOMT&v=axsgzg3RyF0&feature=youtu.be to hear Trump boastfully admit to doing such).
It is not hard to see the similarity between the Aurora City government’s racist attitude towards the entire building, calling them terrorists in support of Maduro (despite many actively fleeing and others being toddlers or severely disabled children) as comparable to the Israeli government carpet bombing entire neighborhoods, maiming and killing children, under the false claim of counterterrorism. Here we see Zionist mentalities in our very own communities reflected by local governments scapegoating entire populations of BIPOC people for their own ineptitude – protecting capitalist greed instead of the people in need of protection.
City Demands & Community Call-to-Action:
We call for immediate and decisive action to address the unjust eviction of up to fifty majority Spanish-speaking households from their homes at 1568 Nome St through a building condemnation with only 24 hours’ notice. We demand that city officials:
- Halt the Scheduled Condemnation of the Building: Ensure that the residents have sufficient time, rental assistance, and other resources to be able to find and move into suitable housing before condemning the building.
- Hold the Landlord Accountable: Implement strict penalties and legal actions against the landlord for failing to maintain the property and providing insufficient notice. Ensure enforcement of fines and pursue further legal recourse if needed, including the landlord’s accountability for relocation of the residents.
- Secure Resident Deposits: Ensure all affected tenants receive their security deposits promptly, and pursue back pay on rental payments that have done nothing to maintain habitability of the building. Investigate and take action to recover these funds from the landlord, who has neglected property maintenance as reported in the March 14th, 2023 article by Denver 7.
- Provide Immediate Support: Allocate resources for emergency housing and relocation assistance to those displaced. Develop a clear outreach strategy to inform and support affected residents before any future eviction notices are issued.
We urge community organizing groups, non-profit organizations, and city council members to collaborate urgently to rectify this situation and prevent such injustices in the future.
BEFORE TUESDAY, TAKE 5 MINUTES TO CALL/EMAIL Jason Batchelor, the City Manager who condemned the building, to urge them to immediately halt the closing of the building and kicking out of families before it’s too late. Remind him that it is unacceptable for them to have had no notice or any sort of relocation support. He can be reached the following ways:
Jason Batchelor
Office: 303-739-7060
Main: 303-739-7010
In case the City decides to move forward with their racist state-sanctioned violence against this community, we are looking for host home organizations/individuals, translators, habitable resources like hotel stays, sleeping bags and tents, pillows and clothing to either be donated or arrive by Tuesday the 6th. If you are able to donate, please reach out to us for all possible methods. Primary method would be via Paypal @HousekeysAction and be sure to include in the comment that the donation is going towards migrant support at Fitzsimons Building.
As always, we are incredibly grateful to brave community members for reaching out and speaking up about grave injustices, and we encourage all to remember our collective duty to humanity, to rise together to do all we can in our personal sphere of influence to prevent the spread of racism, prejudice, and hate against our most vulnerable.
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