Tenants scrambling after Española apartment complex condemned
Nov. 19—ESPAÑOLA — Standing before the front entrance of Santa Clara Apartments, two people can be seen curled up in sleeping bags on the floor of an empty lobby.
To the right of a front door with cracked glass, a yellow sign reads: "CONDEMNED."
Walking through the halls of the low-income housing complex, a group of longtime tenants points out problems with the building and some of its inhabitants — issues and people they have learned to live with over the years.
Water-stained carpeting, graffitied walls, cockroaches, bedbugs and unlit stairwells were just the beginning, they said. There also were the vacant apartments with busted doors littered with garbage, electrical wires ripped from the walls and the ubiquitous smell of burning fentanyl.
Beneath one stairwell, a plank of wood covered a child-sized hole in the drywall.
All this, and so much more, was part of life at the complex. And yet, tenants were shocked to learn the Santa Clara Apartments would be closing — news that brought as much angst as it relieved.
Its residents receive rental subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Program, but tenants there say they don't know what the future holds when the Santa Clara closes, a coda that has no exact date.
Still, the concern was palpable Friday.
"Where are we going to go?" echoed among the group.
The complex, operated by Bosley Management of Sheridan, Wyo., with loans from the USDA, informed residents they must be moved out by Monday.
"As you may already have noticed, the City of Espanola has started the process of Condemnation of the building as being 'unfit for human occupation,' " a letter from Bosley states. "This means that on the date of 11/21/2022, all tennats must have moved out. The building doors and windows will be boarded up, the electricity service, gas service, and water will be terminated to the building."
Rental vouchers would be made available to all tenants that could be used "at multiple locations" to lower their rent to 30 percent of their adjusted income, according to the letter, which was dated Nov. 10. However, residents said they saw them appear on their doors Monday.
"And do you think they even told us when we paid the rent what was going on?" tenant Michelle Sandoval said. "We had to learn about it from the Rio Grande Sun."
The city of Española condemned the property Nov. 8 after two fire inspections seven months apart both found numerous violations showing "life safety issues," according to a letter sent to owner John Bosley from Española City Manager Jordan Yutzy.
Results of the first inspection, performed by city fire officials on Jan. 22, showed Santa Clara Apartments failed seven of eighteen categories. The report noted exposed wiring, missing fire extinguishers and broken emergency lighting. On Aug. 19, another inspection cited most of the same violations.
Fire code violations have been found at the Santa Clara going back at least to 2000, when the apartment building was partially destroyed by a fire.
"The main concern now with the city is that the building is going to catch fire and somebody is going to die," Yutzy said Friday, adding the second inspection showed "there were small improvements made, but the same life-threatening issues remained."
Yutzy said the city is not going to immediately board up the complex or shut off utilities.
"The letter that the tenants got ... has nothing to do with us," he said. "We met with tenants last week and told them we had to condemn it and give them a deadline before the USDA would issue vouchers. We are not going to kick them out."
A few of the tenants have been in contact with Española City Councilor Denise Benavidez, who also said the city plans to give tenants time to find new housing before boarding up the building.
In Española, one of the few other options for tenants is La Vista del Rio Apartments, which is also run by Bosley Management. City officials have expressed interest in investigating that facility as well after recent public testimony from firefighters and social workers indicated conditions there to be even worse.
"One of the things I did not want to see happen was to have any of these individuals on the street," Benavidez said Friday. "That's not what anyone wants."
According to city officials, 32 out of 44 apartments in Santa Clara Apartments were occupied in a recent count.
Benavidez said she was disappointed to witness Bosley's response during the city's Nov. 7 hearing to condemn the property. Several city employees described shocking scenes of drug use and neglect at the apartment complex, with Code Enforcement Officer Armando Rodriguez calling it "beyond repair." When told it was his turn to speak, Bosley — participating via video call — declined to comment.
"It was sad that he had nothing to say," Benavidez said. "It put out the message that he doesn't care for any of the individuals there and that he is willing to wash his hands of it."
Benavidez's sentiment was echoed by the building's remaining inhabitants, who frequently referred to Bosley as a "slum lord."
"This building got condemned because John did not do his job," said resident Polly Rudolph, who has lived in the complex for five years. "The thing I'm most bothered about is the incompassion for his own tenants, especially the ones who have lived here for a long time."
Neither Bosley nor the complex's manager, Judy Bustamante, returned calls or emails from The New Mexican seeking comment.
On Friday, Rudolph stood in her bright, tidy apartment — a striking contrast to the dingy hallway outside her door. A few boxes sat in her living room, already packed, although she still did not know where she would go when she eventually has to leave.
Rudolph has been contacting state and local agencies asking about assistance for herself and her fellow tenants. She said she secured temporary hotel vouchers through the New Mexico Home Fund as well as potential discounts for moving trucks and storage space.
"This is the time when we have to come together," she said. "This man should have provided housing for us."
Samuel Herrera, 50, has lived in the complex for 26 years. His apartment's walls and shelves were full of knickknacks, posters and a proudly displayed collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia. He showed off a helmet he wore when he portrayed Juan de Oñate in the 2016 Fiesta de Española.
"Look at everything I have," Herrera said. "I wouldn't have anywhere to go. Where are we going to cook our Thanksgiving dinner?"
Down the hall, Michelle Sandoval, 52, has lived in a unit for 15 years with her fiancé.
"It wasn't a bad place to live as long as you didn't answer the door," Sandoval said.
She gestured toward a framed picture of a teenage boy hanging on the wall. She said her son, Raymond Sandoval, died in the apartment in 2015 of unknown causes. Tears welled in her eyes as she described the morning she tried, unsuccessfully, to wake the 24-year-old for his shift at Walmart.
Sandoval said Española is her home, where she was born and raised, and she doesn't want to leave.
Downstairs, a woman and her husband were hauling furniture out of her sister's apartment. The woman's sister, she said, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
"It was a shock," she said. "To get the letter, to have five days to get out."
She said she called more than 20 different property management companies, looking for somewhere her sister could live. She finally found an apartment in Albuquerque.
"The main problem," she said, "was not getting any help."
