The City of San Antonio’s Development Services Department (DSD) has decided not to revoke the certificate of occupation for Aristo at Medical Apartments following a stairwell collapse last Thursday. No tenants will be asked to leave their apartments.
The city had given the owners of Aristo a notice last Friday that they would revoke the certificate — which would end the owner’s ability to rent out units and force tenants to vacate — if immediate repairs were not made to damaged stairwells at the property.
The deadline for those repairs was today. A spokesperson for the DSD said the owner had made sufficient temporary repairs and had committed to making permanent repairs to stairwells on all buildings within the next six weeks under the supervision of a structural engineer and city staff.
The spokesperson added that staff from the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department would be on site over the weekend and into next week to support tenants who still wish to find new housing or who want to be connected to other services like food stamps.
Distirct 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez said he remains concerned about the tenants living at Aristo, which sits in his district.
“This incident has left me very worried for these vulnerable tenants. It’s clear that this irresponsible landlord FINALLY got the message that the nuclear option of shutting them down is on the table,” Pelaez said. “It took that threat to get them to do the right thing.”
Rich Acosta, the president of housing nonprofit My City Is My Home, helped set up a housing assistance event on Tuesday. He celebrated the city’s decision to keep Aristo open.
“This is great news,” Acosta said. “We definitely needed more time to support the tenants, as we will be supporting the American Muslim Community Center on Tuesday for more housing relocation support.”
Acosta said he will continue working to help tenants get out of Aristo, especially the many Afghan refugees who have been settled there by the federal government.
“The Afghan refugees should be treated as our veterans are, as they kept our veterans safe overseas, now we should be keeping them safe in their new city, their new home,” he said.
Tenants on the property who attended Tuesday’s housing assistance event had expressed their displeasure with Aristo’s management that went far beyond stairwell damage. Tenants pointed to rat infestations, mold, a lack of hot water, broken AC, and nonfunctioning locks on their doors.
One tenant, Ana Gonzales, said on Tuesday that she’d lived at Aristo for six years and wanted to get out even before the stairwell collapsed.
“All I'm saying is sometimes you can’t afford to move and you’re stuck,” she said.
Faridullah Noory said he and other Afghan refugees were treated poorly and discriminated against by Aristo management for at least a year.
“They want to increase their rent, but at the same time, nobody can speak English,” he said. “So when they go to the office to talk to them, their behavior was so bad with the people. They have no respect, they act like the people are like slaves, you know?”
He added that refugees wanted the city to help them relocate.
The DSD spokesperson said the department would remain focused on other code violations on the property, and that DSD staff had been invited into some tenants’ apartments in the last week to view conditions for themselves.
For now, the apartments will remain open.
