He’d be homeless, but through the help of a community-based organization, he moved into a one-bedroom apartment near his job. Located at 32nd Avenue and Indian School Road, the apartment was in a complex called Buenas on 32nd.
Miles has lived there for five months now, and his living conditions have not nearly improved as much as he hoped they would. The pool has been filled with green, unswimmable water. Mailboxes are busted open, and his home has been burglarized — twice — leaving him without most of his belongings. He lost his socks, his electronics and even an in-window air-conditioning unit.
He never thought about moving. He felt stuck there.
“I just got out of being homeless,” Miles said at a hearing Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court. “I was trying to have a home and live a safe normal life.”
Miles was testifying in an ongoing court case against Buenas Communities LLC, the corporation that owns the apartment complex. In July, Phoenix New Times reported that Buenas tenants had been without working air conditioning during what has been the hottest Phoenix summer on record. In early August, the landlord was sued by the office of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. In part, the suit seeks a permanent injunction to prevent Buenas from renting to Arizona tenants ever again.
Nearly two months have passed since the lawsuit was filed, and at Monday’s evidentiary hearing, several tenants said their living conditions remain uninhabitable. Miles testified that he’d spent the night in his car or kept his apartment door open to survive the heat. It took about two months for Buenas to replace his stolen window unit, he said.
Tenant Roberto Godoy testified that he left his apartment to live with his mother over the summer because sticking it out in the heart would have only worsened his health. Godoy relies on an oxygen pump to help him breathe. He’s now back in his home — “As far as air goes, everything seems fine,” he said — but he had worried that the summer was going to have been his last.
“I thought I was gonna die here if they didn’t fix it soon,” Godoy said of his decision to leave the complex over the summer. “If I wait another day, I’m gonna die here.”
Residents were given chiller systems midway through July — the attorney general’s office and lawyers for Buenas have argued in court filings whether a chiller constitutes air conditioning — but tenant Sally Rivera said they’re not working. Rivera, who brought the conditions at Buenas to the attention of the attorney general’s office, said she’s been relying on her window unit.
State prosecutors also used the hearing to highlight many other issues that plagued the complex and its roughly 200 apartment units. In addition to the sweltering interiors, failing chillers and janky window units, the complex has asbestos and mold, according to the attorney general’s office.
“None of these tenants are asking for luxury accommodations to be provided to them,” Assistant Attorney General Amanda Salvione said in court. “They just want to come home to a safe place with working air conditioning, working plumbing, no sewer leaks, no ceilings caving in on them. Simply what the law requires.”
An air-conditioning unit hangs out of a boarded-up window at the Buenas on 32nd apartments.
Morgan Fischer
‘I can’t just get up and move’
The attorney general’s office is asking Judge Randall Warner to force Buenas’ owner to improve the conditions of the apartment complex. However, Denise Holliday, who is representing Buenas Communities in the case, argued that improvements have already been made.She said each apartment has been given two in-window air-conditioning units to make up for the lack of central air. And residents have been given one-third off of their rent for three months to compensate.
“There are bad landlords. And there are slumlords, and they need to be shut down,” Holliday told Warner. “This is not that client.”
Holliday also shifted the blame to the area’s unhoused population. She said people have squatted in vacant apartments, cutting pipes to steal the copper and vandalizing apartment property, including chillers and mailboxes. Lashon Newton, the company’s regional manager, testified that people have “saw(ed) through doors with a chainsaw” and “literally tunneled through” units.
Holliday claimed that tenants have contributed to the complex’s problems by not informing management of issues and not providing the maintenance team with unfettered access to their apartments. Additionally, she said, many continued to renew their leases.
However, tenants such as Miles and Godoy testified that breaking their lease and moving is not a practical solution. “Because of my breathing, I can’t just get up and move,” Godoy said. Another tenant, Herbert Johnson, wanted to move out due to conditions at the complex, but he’d have to pay $3,000 — or two months’ rent — to break his lease.
Monday’s hearing was held only for the state to demonstrate its likelihood of success should the case continue to trial, and Warner is expected to rule soon. In the meantime, tenants are still waiting for conditions at Buenas to improve.
During Johnson’s testimony, Salvione asked if he felt “like you were stuck and had to stay in your unit.”
“Yes,” Johnson replied. Before he left the witness stand, Johnson turned to Warner and asked if he could help get him out of his lease.
“I can’t answer that question,” Warner said. “But that’s what we’re here to decide.”
