Residents are concerned after Aurora threatens to close apartment complexes in Colorado due to unsafe and unsanitary conditions

The city of Aurora is threatening to close two troubled apartment complexes that are at the center of a controversy that is reaching nationwide proportions Criminal gang activities. The city already has closing another apartment complexall three owned by the same management company, due to unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Jose Moreno is having major problems with his apartment in the Whispering Pines Apartment Complex in north Aurora. He has a broken washing machine, leaky plumbing and broken heating and air conditioning systems, which could be dangerous with winter approaching.

“We need to buy a heater,” Moreno said through an interpreter.

A Venezuelan immigrant, he says he's grateful to have an apartment and a job, but relocating to Colorado wasn't without difficulties.

“I work for a company. It's a very good company. We don't make much money, but it's a good company. Recently I got my job and I was forbidden to say that I was Venezuelan,” Moreno said through an interpreter.

He says racism and xenophobia have limited his options, including finding a new place to live.

“The thing is, we are already looking for an apartment. When we applied, we had mentioned that we were Venezuelans, and they said that the apartment would not be ready until October or November, “suddenly,” Moreno said through an interpreter.

He currently lives in a CBZ Management building, which he and his neighbors say has been abandoned by the owners. They say there is no trash service and management has not responded to service requests.

They fear the city of Aurora will close the building and leave them out in the cold.

“We're asking that they either come and fix it or, if they let us move, cancel our contracts so we don't have to pay monthly anymore,” Moreno said through an interpreter.

His worries are not exaggerated. The city closed a Nome Street building owned by CBZ Management this summer and CBS Colorado on Thursday I received a letter sent to CBZ management from Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain, who explains that if they don't clean up their homes at 12th Avenue and Dallas Street, they too will face closure.

These buildings have been the subject of a national discussion about immigration because a Video showing suspected gang members He breaks into an apartment with large weapons. But the city and residents say the trouble began long before the gang showed up.

The Housekeys Action Network, which advocates for residents of CBZ-owned buildings, says it is still helping people who remain homeless since Nome Street closed nearly two months ago.

V. Reeves of the Housekeys Action Network says another shutdown just before winter would be inhumane.

“We expect that many of these people will become homeless en masse. And that’s incredibly cruel,” Reeves said.

They say they tried to work with the city to keep residents of CBZ-owned buildings in their homes, but were caught off guard by this letter.

“It’s really painful and I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Reeves said.

Housekeys advocates say city inspections have already taken place at the Whispering Pines buildings where Jose lives and are not going well. They say they don't want more closures, but want the building owner to be held accountable.

“I think he’s a monster of a person who doesn’t care at all about the tenants of his buildings,” Reeves said.

Jose wants the same thing and wants the community to stop discriminating against him and his fellow expats so they can achieve the American dream.

“They say, 'Oh, it's about the Venezuelans,' but there's none of that here. We are good people,” Moreno said through an interpreter.

The city says it tried to get the building's owners to make repairs, but they say the owners have been unresponsive. CBS Colorado has also reached out to the owners multiple times and has not received a response.