On Feb. 17, 2023, a dozen residents of the Cedar Run Apartments in southeast Denver gathered outside the 384-unit complex to protest what they said were squalid living conditions.
Holding signs that read “coldest showers in Denver” and “moldy units for rent,” the tenants picketed to raise awareness of the lack of heat and hot water during cold winter months, as well as cockroach infestations, broken pipes and black mold.
Just 10 days earlier, a third-party inspector had failed the building during a walk-through required by Denver’s Residential Rental License program, a nascent city initiative designed to ensure minimum habitability standards for renters. The inspector noted several units lacked heat and smoke detectors.
Residents say the apartment complex immediately went downhill after new owners took over the building in 2019. City health inspectors, in the year leading up to the residents’ protest, found holes in the walls, cockroaches and mice, busted pipes, mold, and broken doors that allowed anyone to enter the premises.
Yet despite years of resident complaints and findings of violations by Denver’s health department, the third-party inspector in April 2023 gave Cedar Run’s owners a passing inspection. The following month, the city handed the owners a residential rental license.
By June, Denver public health officials once again found the building lacked hot water. In the months that followed, Cedar Run continued to collect a host of egregious violations, including human hair strewn in a stairwell, feces smeared on doors, hypodermic needles on the playground and drug paraphernalia in the laundry room, city inspection records show.
The Denver City Council passed an ordinance in 2021 requiring all residential rental properties to be licensed. The goal, officials said at time, “is to proactively enforce minimum required housing standards to ensure public health, safety and welfare.” The city pledged to “eliminate slumlords” and make Denver the “safest place to rent a residence in America.”
“Renters can be assured that their homes meet required standards,” the city says on its website. “Owners can be confident that they’re providing a quality place to live.”
But a Denver Post investigation found the city has handed out licenses to building owners with years of documented violations, who continue to neglect their tenants immediately after receiving the all-clear. The newspaper reviewed public health inspection records for the five most-fined apartment buildings in Denver, as well as several of the city’s most frequently cited properties. All but one received licenses, despite mountains of allegations from residents and serious habitability infractions.
One building had unhoused individuals urinating and defecating in the laundry room. Another had cockroaches in units and building doors that wouldn’t lock. A third complex had no heat and a blood-like substance on the stairs. All received city licenses.
“It feels like a betrayal,” said Mark Sokolaj, a longtime Cedar Run resident. “The whole reason we are constituents is so we can put people into power to protect us against capitalist interests. They’re saying, ‘Your life is less valuable than this dollar.’ ”
The owners of Cedar Run, Gelt Venture Partners, in a statement to The Post, pointed to a judge’s recent ruling to throw out a lawsuit brought by tenants as evidence the company is complying with city orders. A tenants’ rights organization acknowledged “significant” changes at Cedar Run since the lawsuit was filed in March.
“Cedar Run has worked diligently to repair past maintenance issues caused by individuals who are not residents of the apartment complex,” said Karen Crummy, a company principal.
Without enough city inspectors to visit the tens of thousands of rental properties in Denver, the city ordinance instead allows landlords to hire third-party inspectors. Some of these inspectors are landlords themselves who have publicly questioned the licensing program.
“I feel like if we’re going to legislate that everybody has a Mercedes-grade rental property, it’s going to create challenges where people who don’t want to pay as much for a Mercedes can’t really live in Denver anymore,” Hasso Fleming Schutrumpf, an independent inspector, said in a 2023 YouTube video.
Denver retains the ability to revoke or suspend landlords’ rental licenses, but the city hardly ever does that for fear of displacing tenants and removing housing stock.
Officials with the city’s Department of Excise and Licenses, in an interview, noted the program is still relatively new and marked the largest expansion of licenses in Denver’s history. Some of these problematic properties failed initial inspections, they said, proving the system is working to catch and fix habitability issues at the beginning of the process. If a licensed property continues to be a problem, the city has tools to address those issues.
“How long have there been slumlords in cities? A long time,” said Eric Escudero, an excise and licensing spokesperson. “That problem, will it be fixed overnight? Probably not.”
But advocates say the program is simply not working as intended.
“When the city considered the residential rental licensing program, it was presented as a licensing program,” said Eida Altman, director of the Denver Metro Tenants Union. “What we ended up getting with the first trove of licenses is a registry program. These two things are not the same.”
‘Invasion of the giant cockroaches’
Lynette Rhodes moved into the 561-unit Mint Urban Infinity apartment complex near Glendale in December 2020 on the recommendation of a friend.
Shortly after settling in, however, Rhodes started to see the cockroaches. She found them in her bed, in the kitchen, in the living room.
“It was like a movie,” Rhodes said. “Invasion of the giant cockroaches.”
She lived in constant fear of the pests, electing to sleep for weeks in her recliner chair, a cover over her head and the lights on. Rhodes stopped inviting family and friends over to her apartment.
“It was horrible,” she said. “Not a good place physically or mentally.”
Residents say that in 2021, everything went downhill. Fires broke out in the laundry room. Trash overflowed in the hallways. Unhoused people slept in the stairwell. Black mold. Broken elevators.
“You expect to live in a place that doesn’t threaten your life,” said Raylene Keely, another former Mint Urban resident. “When it feels like everything threatens your life, it doesn’t make it nice to be home.”
The building had long been on the radar of the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, records show.
Investigators in 2022 found cockroaches, no working elevators and nonfunctioning laundry machines. They observed that the outside building doors didn’t lock, issuing 17 notices of violation when management refused to fix the problem.
In November 2022, Mint Urban failed a third-party residential rental inspection, with the inspector finding violations over lack of heat, exposed wiring and no smoke detectors.
Over the next five months, city health officials issued 13 separate fines — totaling more than $33,000 — for persistent noncompliance with city habitability laws.
In May 2023, the outside inspector gave the building a passing inspection. The owners received a residential rental license in August.
City officials, just a month after Mint Urban passed inspection, dinged the apartment complex with three more citations.
The following year, Denver public health officials issued the building’s owners 25 citations for failure to comply with city orders, resulting in more than $74,000 in fines.
The city found Mint Urban to be the most fined building since 2021. “Candid response,” Denver’s public health program supervisor said in an email obtained by The Post, “I don’t think it is even close.”
A Denver jury in March 2025 awarded millions of dollars to former tenants of the apartment complex who had sued the property managers and owners over systematic neglect and habitability concerns.
Cardinal Group Management, which runs Mint Urban, did not respond to inquiries for this story. Company representatives, after the March verdict, said they “work incredibly hard to maintain this property in the face of outstanding obstruction by the owner… We have a track record of diligent operations that cares for the 100,000 people we provide housing to each year.”
The complex’s owner, Glendale Properties, could not be reached for comment.
Persistent issues don’t prevent a license
Issues at the Golden Spike Apartments, a 200-unit building for seniors and people with disabilities in southwest Denver, have been going on as long as tenants can remember.
The heat comes and goes. Hot water, the same. Roaches and bed bugs in nearly every unit.
Edwin Mankinen, a five-year resident of the building, said he’s been forced to throw away his bedding, frame and mattress three times because of bed bugs, costing him some $3,000. He sees human feces and graffiti in the halls. Holes in the building never get repaired.
“I’m 65,” he said one April day outside the complex. “Why would I want to keep on moving? I have the energy, I just don’t have the strength.”
Half the days, the elevators don’t work, residents say, trapping older, handicapped tenants on high floors. When the water gets shut off without notice, tenants said, some people have resorted to using adult diapers.
“This place should be condemned,” said Anne Allee, 80, who’s lived in the building for 10 years.
City health records show tenants have been complaining since at least 2022 about bed bugs, roaches and black mold.
In November 2022, a third-party inspector gave Golden Spike a passing inspection after initially failing the building for a methamphetamine contamination issue. Denver issued the building’s owners a residential rental license in February 2023.
Just months later, city inspectors found cockroaches, excessive trash buildup and no hot water. The hot water in at least one unit didn’t come back until January 2025 — 14 months after the initial complaint, records show.
The city issued 33 notices of violation to Golden Spike management and placed a lien on the property for failing to comply with the notices and failing to pay city fines.
Representatives from Golden Spike could not be reached for comment.
One inspector, three problem properties
Three of the five most-fined properties in Denver were inspected by the same person: Hasso Fleming Schutrumpf.
Schutrumpf is a landlord himself, managing a portfolio of rental properties.
In February 2024, he gave The Felix apartments, a 418-unit complex in southeast Denver, a passing inspection after initially failing the building for not having fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and compliant outlets.
Just 11 days earlier, more than 100 residents rallied outside the complex to protest mice infestations, intermittent heat and hot water, mold, trash piling up and unfixed holes in their units.
Two months after the passing inspection, city health inspectors found 54 instances of non-compliance with Denver housing codes, including mouse and cockroach infestations, overflowing trash, broken outlets, lack of hot water and water leaks.
Denver ordinances only mandate that third-party inspectors look at a random selection of 10% of a building’s units for the residential rental license program. An analysis by the Denver Metro Tenants’ Union found 60% of the units Schutrumpf inspected at The Felix were vacant at the time of inspection.
In multiple videos, Schutrumpf expressed skepticism about Denver’s residential rental licensing program.
“We as landlords see ourselves as providing a beneficial service to tenants, providing a home, but we’re following the same workflow as a marijuana dispensary applicant or a strip club or a tobacco retailer or a liquor store would have to follow,” he said in one video. “It feels a little like we’re put into a category that I don’t think landlords are part of. We actually provide benefits to society.”
Schutrumpf, in an interview with The Post, said inspecting only 10% of the units leaves a staggeringly high margin for error.
“If you tested 10% of Colorado students, you wouldn’t have a good idea of how Colorado students are doing,” he said. “Ten percent is really, really low.”
Changing the law, he said, would prompt different results.
“My sample size is not enough to guarantee the other 90% are safe and habitable,” Schutrumpf said.
Responding to the allegation that he focused on inspecting vacant units, Schutrumpf said some residents are antagonistic and refuse entry.
Representatives from The Felix could not be reached for comment.
Molly Duplechian, executive director for Denver Excise and Licensing, said the city must balance cost versus compliance. If officials mandated a higher percentage of units be inspected, costs for those inspections would rise and compliance with the licensing program would drop.
“We have to make sure it’s not overly burdensome, which would drive down compliance,” she said.
‘Uncharted territory’
There’s perhaps no more well-known example of poor living conditions in Denver rental apartments than the three properties controlled by CBZ Management.
The New York-based company made waves last year when it claimed one of its Aurora apartment buildings had been taken over by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, prompting President Donald Trump to come to Colorado during his campaign to announce his mass deportation plan.
The Post previously found, though, that while some gang members lived at the property, CBZ had for years allowed the building to devolve into disrepair.
The situation was no different at the company’s Denver properties.
A third-party inspector, Woodrow Hoffman, on Jan. 9, 2023, passed the Courtyard on Vine apartment complex near Cheesman Park, noting no violations. Seventeen days later, the city handed the owners a residential rental license.
Just a month after the passing inspection, city health investigators found cracked windows, piles of feces around the property and broken hallway lights. The following month, investigators found mold-like substances. By May, residents were reporting no hot water.
Tenants told The Post that they encountered water leaks, mold, infestations of rodents and sewage backing up into people’s bathtubs.
Peter Svaldi, a former resident, said he was in the midst of final exams when the hot water went out. He was forced to withdraw from classes, delaying his graduation. Svaldi’s mental health suffered.
“I have always struggled with mental health, but I’ve now been pushed to a place where I’m in uncharted territory,” he said. “I hold CBZ accountable for that because they took from me the key factor in starting my daily routine and that was a shower. I still struggle every day to realize I can take a shower at will, even at my new home.”
A month after passing the Vine Street property, Hoffman cleared The Jewell apartments, a 930-unit complex in southeast Denver. The city quickly gave CBZ a license.
That same month, residents called city public health officials to report that unhoused people were breaking into the building and urinating and defecating all over the property. Investigators found exterior doors unsecured, allowing for the “entry of the elements, pests and unauthorized persons,” records show. A corrugated metal walkway cover was visibly decaying, city inspectors found, leaving the possibility that it could fall on residents.
In March, investigators found a section of a ceiling in a child’s bedroom to be missing, sagging and waterlogged. In May, investigators found evidence of rodents and cockroaches. In June, investigators found clogged bathroom sinks and mold-like substances. In November, the heat went out.
After months of issuing fines, Denver’s public health department in March 2024 put a lien on the property.
Hoffmann, along with CBZ representatives, could not be reached for comment.
Hesitancy to bring enforcement actions?
The city does retain the ability to suspend or revoke an owner’s rental license. But officials seldom do it.
The Department of Excise and Licensing has only suspended the license of one property, another CBZ building, the William Penn apartments in the Uptown neighborhood. In another case, the city withdrew a potential suspension after the property, 14993 E. Olmstead Drive, took action to fix the problems identified in the investigation.
Altman, with the Denver Metro Tenants’ Union, acknowledges the severe downsides for tenants if the city suspends or revokes a license. Under the current statute, suspensions and revocations both prohibit landlords from extending and entering into new lease agreements.
As a result, the only enforcement mechanism available to the city is to displace tenants. The property gets even more unsafe as it becomes more vacant, Altman said, making it a magnet for crime, vandalism and squatting.
“The remedies currently available have a chilling effect on enforcement and a chilling effect on advocacy,” she said.
Duplechian said the city is not hesitant to use these actions if the conditions are egregious and hazardous to tenants. Still, she said, “We don’t want the outcome of the action to be displacement or removal of housing from the housing stock. We want to be really careful.”
Altman suggests altering the suspension provision with the goal of stabilizing tenancy. She proposes that rents in these cases go into escrow, where the city and tenants can ensure the money is used for repairs. If the case heads toward a revocation, those funds could be held and returned to the tenants to make them whole.
“That removes the chilling effect,” she said.
On the licensing side, Altman said she recognizes the city can’t inspect each of its rental properties. But Denver could develop licensing protocols for high-risk properties so they could target inspections at specific locations, she said.
The Felix apartments are a perfect example, Altman said. Knowing the building’s owner had a pending application for a residential rental license, tenants organized and raised awareness of their living conditions. City inspectors then conducted a proactive investigation and found myriad violations.
As a result, The Felix’s license is still pending with city officials. Altman believes that without the organizing efforts, the city would have issued the neglected building a license.
Duplechian said the department is open to changes and tweaks to the program and is working closely with public health officials and the City Council to ensure “we’re growing and evolving and addressing emerging concerns.”
Tenants at these neglected Denver buildings, who have lived for years with cockroaches and bed bugs, with water-logged ceilings and broken dishwashers, with human feces and urine in their laundry rooms, say the well-intentioned city licensing program simply isn’t working.
“We are not protected,” said Sokolaj, the Cedar Run resident. “That’s because we’re treated like customers; we’re not being treated like people. It is necessary to pursue our life, liberty and happiness. The ability to live the American dream is being stolen out from under us from people who say it doesn’t matter if we die because they’re making enough money.”
Denver Post staff writers Seth Klamann and Elliott Wenzler contributed to this report
Get more real estate and business news by signing up for our weekly newsletter, On the Block.