Mold, Mice Alleged In 2 Apartment Complexes, Tenants Sue: Report

LANGLEY PARK, MD ? A coalition of renters is suing the landlord of two Langley Park apartment complexes, a press release announced Monday. Immigrant advocacy group CASA said it organized the lawsuit. CASA identified the residences as the Bedford Station Apartments and the Victoria Station Apartments.

The owners damaged the community by breaking federal law and contractual obligations, lawyers argued. CASA alleged that the developments are "riddled with vermin, mold, broken appliances, and crumbling infrastructure."

"Our pleas have continued to fall on deaf ears," CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres said in the release. "We do not want slumlords in Langley Park. We do not want an out of state property owner who intentionally divests from our community because of our country of origin or the language we speak."

CASA wrote that 85.2 percent of residents at the two compounds are Hispanic or Latino. The other 14.8 percent are Black, the advocates mentioned. None of the occupants are white, CASA reported.

"I am worried about my daughter?s health and wonder if she?ll catch an infection one day," CASA Member and Plaintiff Maria Lara added in the release, pointing to a poor maintenance record and her $1,613 monthly rent. "The question I ask the landlord is: would they live in these terrible conditions? Do they think they can get away with this because we?re poor, because we?re immigrants, or because we don?t speak English?"

The release listed the defendants as:

• The Arbor Realty Trust, Inc., a real estate investment trust incorporated in Maryland
• Arbor Realty Limited Partnership
• Arbor Management Acquisition Company, LLC
• Arbor Realty SR, Inc.
• Bedford United, LLC
• Victoria United, LLC
• Hyattsville United, LLC
• Realty Management Services, LLC

"As a publicly traded company, Arbor needs to ensure profits for their shareholders," stated Joseph Donahue of The Donahue Law Firm, LLC. "But above all, they need to provide safe homes for their tenants. Arbor has violated their duties to their tenants ? our clients ? because in the end, the profits for the shareholders were more important."

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The release informed that the renters are also represented by Jonathan Nace of Nidel & Nace, P.L.L.C.

"During a time when working families are still climbing their way out of the implications of the pandemic, the home is a place that provides a safe haven," noted Calvin Hawkins, the at-large member and the chair of the Prince George's County Council. "Healthy and safe standards of living should be maintained no matter one's residential or immigration status."

Other complaints in the write-up included:

• Flagrant neglect
• Hazardous and unsanitary conditions
• Cockroaches
• Bedbugs
• Rats
• Mice
• Failing refrigerators
• Stoves that leak gas
• Broken heating and air conditioning units
• Faulty lighting and electricity outlets
• Trash on the property
• Defective flooring, bathrooms and ovens

"The residents of Bedford and Victoria Station Apartments are living under inhabitable conditions due to the degree of neglect and disinvestment," commented Deni Taveras, the Vice Chair of the county council and the representative of District 2. "We must work together to make Prince George?s County a healthy and happy place to live."

Bedford Station and Victoria Station are home to 589 one- or two-bedroom apartments, CASA indicated.

"Doing business the way Bedford/Victoria Station owners have is unacceptable in Prince George?s County," concluded Del. Wanika Fisher, the representative for District 47B. "My residents deserve better conditions and treatment."

Patch requested a comment from The Arbor Realty Trust, but we have not yet heard back. We will update this story if the company responds.

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