LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Apex Apartments are crime-ridden. Police are constantly at the complex. There are deplorable conditions.
The county is trying to take action.
In the meantime, the owners have been collecting public tax dollars at the complex near Twain Avenue and Cambridge Street.
Amy Erwin, a resident at Apex, wonders how that can be. “So where’d our money go? They don’t fix anything. They don’t help us,” she said.
Clark County spent more than $326,000 in the past year to help tenants at Apex pay back rent, according to a Clark County spokesman.
That’s while conditions at the unlicensed property have drastically deteriorated.
California-based company Pro Residential bought the place in January of last year. The county is now suing the owners, alleging they conspired to illegally provide unsafe housing in multiple states to collect coronavirus relief money and schemed with criminal enterprises. One example: allowing drug dealers to advertise on signs.
Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who represents this neighborhood, said he was here two weeks ago asking the owner to make repairs and to hire security.
“The fact that this landlord would get county money to support this is pretty crazy,” Segerblom said.
Then on Sunday, someone opened fire in the courtyard.
“They promised to have security. How could that happen if you have two security officers here full time?” Segerblom asked.
County records reveal that marks the fourth homicide in a year here along with nearly 700 calls for service, a stabbing, 19 shootings, a SWAT search for a drug house, and 50 burglaries or robberies.
The county alleges property managers aren’t willing to walk the halls here because they know it’s unsafe. Officers were on standby during our visit with the commissioner.
Squatters are also an issue here. We saw one woman leave what was a boarded-up unit.
“They’re taking money from these tenants,” Segerblom said. “Think about the neighbors around … they have to live in this environment. There’s a lot of kids that live here. There’s an elementary school just down the road.”
Segerblom said the county is trying to avoid shutting the place down, but might have to. County representatives would help residents find a new home.
Segerblom also says he wants to create a law making the landlords’ actions a felony.
“They should be going to jail,” he said.
The I-Team’s requests for an interview with the owners have been ignored.
The county sent us a statement: “While withholding CHAP funds from certain landlords may have helped with other concerns, it would have also resulted in evictions and homelessness for some tenants.” That was the county’s primary concern.
