Crime at complex comes to a head

Monday, March 10, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

Fed-up neighbors derisively refer to it as "that pink place."

It's an innocuous name for what they complain has long been a crime-riddled, 160-unit, 10-building apartment complex with a history of scandal and a future that includes a lawsuit and an ongoing fight that pits neighbors and local officials against the property owner and the federal government.

Sierra Pointe Apartments at 1064 Sierra Vista Drive, near the Boulevard mall, has been a blight for years, neighbors and local authorities say. They say they have been unable to get much done about it because federal housing officials side with -- and funnel money to -- its owner.

Perhaps the worst aspect of the complex is the way it affects public safety in the area, critics allege. Metro Police say they were at the complex 497 times last year, an average of more than once a day.

People who live, work or own property nearby say that when it gets dark, an assortment of drug peddlers, gang members and the occasional prostitute gather outside Sierra Pointe on the corner of Sierra Vista Drive and Cambridge Street.

Sierra Pointe resident Shawna Pittman, an unemployed single mother of two who is seven months pregnant, said there have been five murders in the vicinity of the apartment complex in the two years she has lived there. Gunfire, she said, occurs inside the complex at least twice a week during the evenings, causing her to grab her children and hit the floor.

"I blame a lot of it on the security there and on the police," Pittman said. "When the police come, they usually don't arrest them. They let them off with a warning. You have people who carry guns and threaten to kill other people every day. They'll threaten to kill another drug dealer who got a drug deal first.

"We have cameras in the courtyard, which tells you there's a problem. But no one does anything about it."

While residents such as Pittman live in fear, the owner of the property, Sierra Vista Housing Associates, reaps "above market" rents for what has been designated as a low-income federally subsidized apartment complex. In fact, it is the largest federally subsidized complex administered by the Clark County Housing Authority.

The housing authority objects to the "above market" rents collected by the owner, but the payments have the blessing of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The federal housing officials say the owner is a responsible landlord who is doing what he can.

The housing authority, however, says it wants nothing more to do with the property. The local agency is frustrated by years of crime, high turnover of on-site property managers and the ongoing disputes with HUD and the property owner -- who is suing the housing authority for monetary damages that could exceed $1 million.

Under a 1987 agreement with HUD, the housing authority disburses federal rent subsidies to owner Sierra Vista and inspects the property. But the authority does not intend to renew its agreement with HUD when it expires in two phases in August and October.

"We do not want to be the contract administrator anymore," authority Executive Director Betty Turner said. "It has been a tenuous relationship between the property owner and the housing authority. I can't talk much about it because of the pending litigation. But for us as an agency that contract has been difficult to administer."

The housing authority is not alone in its frustration over Sierra Pointe.

Fifteen surrounding property owners and managers and businesspeople who make up the Cambridge Area Management Council signed a letter last month that, together with a petition signed by 150 area residents, will be forwarded to Nevada politicians and federal and local prosecutors.

Together they represent an area densely populated with large apartment complexes.

The letter and petition express concern that Sierra Pointe generates crime, including drug peddlers "who often beat up our seniors and sell drugs to the children." They want HUD to terminate its subsidy agreement.

"If they want to be HUD housing, they should play by the rules like everyone else," the neighborhood council chairwoman, Myrna Kokesch, said. "The apartments there are dirty and there have been reports of mold. There's an extremely large amount of drug activity going on in there.

"I've been told that there have been several managers who attempted to clean up that property, only to be fired."

A responsible landlord

Las Vegas attorney Philip Dabney, who represents Sierra Vista, and Kenneth LoBene, director of the HUD office in Las Vegas, said Sierra Vista general partner Bobbie R. Scott of Las Vegas is a responsible landlord who is doing what he can to improve the property and its relations with Metro.

Sierra Vista first existed as a Colorado corporation in 1986. Scott, who became general partner of the company in 2000, transferred the corporation to Nevada last year.

"My client is doing everything he can to keep the apartment complex in as good shape as possible," Dabney said. "For the other property owners to point fingers won't fix the problems. The fact is that it is not a very good neighborhood. Murders have occurred in that neighborhood. But no one can come up with evidence that the crime is linked to my client's management of the apartment complex."

LoBene said Scott, who also owns three other federally subsidized apartment complexes administered by the Las Vegas Housing Authority, has a good working relationship with the local HUD office.

"He has a history with this office of being a responsible owner," LoBene said. "The property (Sierra Pointe) appears to be well run."

LoBene said he knew of only one documented mold complaint, and the affected resident was temporarily moved to another unit until a contractor rid the apartment of the mold.

But Sierra Pointe residents say the mold problem is more widespread than LoBene believes.

Pittman said she had to be moved to another apartment last month after mold was discovered throughout hers.

"It was really, really bad and it was making my 5-year-old sick," she said. "My son has severe bronchial asthma that he didn't have before. The walls were black with mildew and the insulation inside the walls was wet and black. I know they had to rip out walls in the kitchen and bathroom. There was also mold in the shower, which was disgusting.

"I'm staying in the apartment I'm in now because I'm afraid to go back to the old one."

Fellow residents and single mothers Felicia Chambers and Cindi Royer also said they have mold problems that have caused illness and that some of their neighbors do as well.

"You can't see it but you can smell it," Chambers said. "It will knock you out. They're supposed to come out later this week to tear down my bathroom walls. I've got three children and all of us are using inhalers. Every time we pass the bathroom we get sick."

LoBene said the owner is in the process of performing exterior landscaping -- Sierra Pointe is surrounded mostly by dirt -- and plans to paint the off-pink complex, which is currently dotted with splotches of white primer.

But Royer and Chambers allege the exterior work is simply being done so that the owner can get his rent subsidies renewed by HUD.

"They just want to make the outside look good," Royer said. "They should just tear it to the ground and build new buildings."

New "no trespassing" signs have been affixed to the complex. But another type of sign also appears on light poles surrounding Sierra Pointe, a wanted poster that promises a $5,000 reward for information on the assailant who shot and killed 21-year-old James "Goo" Taylor outside the complex Nov. 12. Police believe several men in their 20s may have been connected to the shooting.

Chambers, who lost her job as a maid when the Desert Inn shut down, blames most of the crime on Sierra Pointe itself, saying the complex attracts unsavory individuals.

"If they tore it down, it would stop most of the crime occurring over here," she said.

And Royer said that after police throw troublemakers off the property, they come back again.

"They're always shooting off guns over here," Royer said. "I always have to take the kids into the house because they can't even play in their own courtyard."

Taxpayers' money

The complaints from residents and the owners of surrounding properties prompted Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who represents that area, to call a private meeting Feb. 3 that included LoBene,Metro and the housing authority.

One thing that could not be resolved at the meeting was the dispute between HUD and the county housing authority over the subsidies. The authority is practically the local arm of the federal agency, so the two entities are usually on the same page. But not when it comes to "that pink place."

The authority repeatedly recommended against rent increases at Sierra Pointe, only to be overruled by HUD. At the time the subsidies began in 1987, the owners were subsidized for 75 percent of fair market value. But over time, with inflation factored in and a series of rent increases approved by HUD, Sierra Vista began collecting above-market subsidies.

Housing authority attorney Scott Marquis said the owner now fetches $75 to $220 a month per unit above fair market value.

"HUD required that they get retroactive rate increases on a number of occasions," he said.

Qualified residents pay no more than 30 percent of their adjusted gross income in rent, meaning that in most cases they are paying only about $50 to $300 out of their own pocket. But the fact the federal government subsidizes the remainder of the rent for a total rate that is above fair market value does not sit well with Marquis.

"That is a waste of taxpayers' money," he said.

Last fall, the housing authority had to resort to filing a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain public information -- the agreement between HUD and Sierra Vista. It wasn't until earlier this week, four months after the request, that HUD complied with the request for public information. LoBene said delay was because the authority's initial request for information was too vague.

LoBene, in turn, wrote a letter to Turner after the Feb. 3 meeting to inquire what steps the authority was taking to resolve problems at the complex. LoBene convened a second meeting at his office Feb. 20 that included Williams, Scott and Metro.

But missing were the entities lodging the complaints -- the neighborhood group and the authority.

LoBene said he chose not to invite authority representatives because he "felt it would be a more free-flowing meeting if we didn't have the housing authority there."

Williams said she thought the second meeting was fruitful.

"We came to some understanding," she said. "There are new owners there, and they have invested heavily to clean it up. And they will continue to do that. They can't be held accountable for what someone else (previous owners) have done."

The county has "worked hard to upgrade that area," she said. "We want to make sure everything is moving along to resolve the difficulties from the past."

One item that came out of the meeting was an agreement between Metro and the property manager to do a better job communicating with each other on police calls to Sierra Pointe.

"We're looking for the owner to bring the property up to HUD compliance, which he is doing to HUD's satisfaction," Metro Sgt. Chuck Pierce said. "The property manager has been there for a year and is willing to do whatever we ask. The property has been cleaned and all of the residents I've talked to are happy."

A different picture is painted by Chambers, Pittman and Royer. The three mothers said they would consider moving elsewhere if they had the choice but cannot because of the lack of affordable housing locally.

"Hopefully, they would give us Section 8 housing somewhere else so that we can be helped out with the rent," Chambers said. "I'm sure there are people that would work with us."

The pending lawsuit

By all accounts, Sierra Pointe had been a well-run complex until about the mid-1990s, when its occupancy rates declined. It was also a period when the complex had begun going through numerous managers. In 1999, when former HUD Undersecretary Philip Abrams was the last of the original general partners of Sierra Vista, his company sued the housing authority to seek monetary damages for the alleged loss of income associated with the higher vacancy rates.

Sierra Vista alleged that from at least early 1997 forward the housing authority did not live up to its agreement with HUD by maintaining a waiting list of income-eligible tenants to fill vacancies at the property. Instead, it was alleged that the authority made false statements to prospective tenants about the quality and safety of Sierra Pointe and steered them to other complexes owned by the authority.

"The plaintiff has repeatedly and continuously advised the defendant housing authority of the vacancy problems and demanded that the problems be corrected but to no avail," Sierra Vista alleged.

As a result, Sierra Vista charged that it was on the verge of defaulting on its federally insured rehabilitation loan because the high vacancy rate had hurt its cash flow. The housing authority denied the allegations.

District Judge Lee Gates appointed former Judge Earle White as a special master to examine the dispute. White found that by November 1997 the vacancy rate had reached 56 units, or 35 percent, and that the authority was not doing all it could to resolve that problem. On White's recommendation, Gates issued a preliminary injunction in September 1999 that transferred the responsibility for screening and processing prospective tenants to the property manager.

Dabney said the arrangement has worked and that occupancy rates are back to satisfactory levels. But a trial has been scheduled for June on Sierra Vista's remaining claim that it suffered financially as a result of the low vacancies. Dabney said it is possible his client would seek more than $1 million from the housing authority, though he said he was hopeful of an out-of-court settlement before June.

Scott, a 40-year resident of Las Vegas, replaced Abrams as general partner of Sierra Vista in 2000.

Even though the Las Vegas HUD office thinks highly of Scott and the new property manager he brought in, that has done nothing to change the authority's mind about wanting to opt out of its agreement with the federal agency to administer the complex's subsidies.

"The housing authority does not believe that that property is properly managed," Marquis said. "They've had new managers in there constantly. I was floored by the unanimous complaints from the other property owners in the area."

LoBene said it is possible that HUD will take over administration of Sierra Pointe. He also said it is possible that administration of the complex would be transferred to the Washoe County Housing Authority, which administers other subsidized complexes, some in Southern Nevada.

"We don't have an opinion on that as long as it doesn't affect our continuing operations," Dabney said.

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