LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The 8 News Now I-Team continue their quest to find out why a local apartment complex near Twain and Cambridge, run down and considered unsafe, continues to operate without a permit. It’s a story that the I-Team has been following since August.
Apex apartments are at a busy intersection with a park across the street, a school on the corner, another apartment complex. But Apex has boarded up windows, there are often squatters here, and police say it’s a magnet for crime.
It affects the neighborhood, tenants and ratepayers. As 8 News Now’s I-Team first reported, landlords have received COVID-19 rental relief money.
The I-Team attempted to approach a California manager on Thursday, but she fled the camera. This was shortly after a meeting between Apex Apartments management, Metro Police and Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who represents that area.
California-based Pro-residential Services bought the place in January 2021 and operates without a license. In a previous email to the I-Team, Pro-residential said they were working to convert the place from a motel to an apartment, but our maintenance requests were ignored.
Commissioner Segerblom and his team tried to avoid closing it, giving owners multiple chances to make repairs and secure the property. He had a condition that he has security.
One resident, Amy Irwin, told I-Team she didn’t feel safer. I don’t let my child play outside and I don’t even want to walk him to school,” Irwin said. She added that she did not see any security on the property.
The owners also received public funds according to Clark County. A spokesperson said the county spent more than $326,000 last year to help tenants pay their rent.
When the I-Team tried to ask the manager if people could live like this while receiving tax security, they intervened while the manager continued to run and hide. The I-Team was then escorted off the property by security.
The manager refused to show up for an interview, and again it looks like the county is waiting to see if the owners will clean up the place.
When the I-Team asked Commissioner Segerblom why she was receiving so many chances, he pointed to the severe shortage of affordable housing. He also says he wants to create a law that landlords like the ones here could face criminal charges.
