ATLANTA — A municipal judge is fining the owner of a condemned Atlanta apartment complex - and former residents said they’re disappointed that fine isn’t heftier.
Phoenix Ridge, the owner of Forest Cove Apartments, will owe $7,500 in court-ordered fines for violating several of the city's housing codes, according to officials. Issues cited include broken windows, damaged interior walls, standing water and rubbish around the complex.
The complex was vacated and left dilapidated.
Former residents are saying the judge's fine is just a slap on the wrist.
"I dealt with no air, no heat," Crystal Jones said. "I dealt with rats."
Jones lived at the complex for seven years. She said she and her neighbors had to deal with dodging gunshots and feeling unsafe.
She and her six children moved out of the complex in August 2022 - around the same time the city began helping 200 families relocate after a judge condemned the complex, citing health and safety concerns.
In June, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) canceled its contract with the property owner, rendering Forest Cove ineligible for Section 8 housing. In October, the city initiated a lawsuit on behalf of residents against Phoenix Ridge. The property owner is a subsidiary of Millennia Housing Management.
Community organizer Foluke Nunn has advocated for Forest Cove residents for years - she feels the fine doesn’t go far enough.
"Because they had not been keeping the property secure," Nunn said, "and there was a fire last weekend, and trash piling up, squatters in some buildings and Millennia has been (doing) next to nothing to keep the property from deteriorating further and from being a hazard.”
The city has now adopted a plan to revitalize the Thomasville Heights community around Forest Cove – hoping it will entice some residents to come back to the neighborhood.
Millennia was contacted for an interview Thursday and, instead, the company sent a statement instead, calling it “the latest result of the City's attempt to pry ownership of Forest Cove from Phoenix Ridge by exerting financial pressure to further the City's own redevelopment plans."
A spokesperson with the company said it’s also filing a lawsuit in federal court against the city, alleging it’s unlawfully taking the property.
Jones said while the revitalization plan may be attractive to some residents, she’s never going back.
"I just don’t want to have to remember that," Jones said. "I want to move forward, like, that’s the past”
The city said it hopes to break ground on the project in the next 12-18 months.