HUD Launches Fair Housing Probe Into Buri Building

The Buri Building, a $28.4 million low-income apartment building on Northeast Glisan Street, is the subject of a fair housing investigation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“I can confirm that we have a fair housing investigation open,” HUD spokeswoman Vanessa Krueger said. Government policy prevented her from saying much more about it, she said.

The investigation began after a complaint by Daybelis Gonzalez, a former tenant who uses a wheelchair. She alleges that the building’s management never responded to her request for an evacuation plan that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, even though the fire alarm sounded at least once a month.

“The fire alarm in our building has been going off for three years,” Gonzalez wrote in her complaint. “There were only two or three alarms that were actual fires. Because we live on the third floor, and I am in a wheelchair, we asked for an ADA evacuation plan in email that was never responded to. We also asked them to make repairs to the alarms and it never happened. Instead, we received a rental raise.”

The Buri Building was the subject of a WW story last week that detailed problems at the 159-unit complex, including fentanyl smoke in the elevators that sickened residents, defecation in public stairways, and a woman who roamed the hallways with a hatchet threatening tenants.

Many residents complained about the elevators being out of service on a regular basis, another concern for Gonzalez, who lived on the third floor. When WW visited, the down button for one of the two elevator banks on the fourth floor had been pried off.

The LLC that owns the Buri is controlled by Northwest Housing Alternatives, which calls itself “the leading not-for-profit developer of affordable housing in Oregon.” The property is managed by Cascade Management, a firm that oversees 11,000 units in 250 different developments across Oregon.

“We are aware of the complaint and have been fully cooperating with HUD,” Tiffany Bachman, chief business development and marketing officer at Cascade, said in an email. “We also have worked hard to ensure the building is ADA compliant and follows all fire safety guidelines. We take complaints seriously, but the process with this complaint is still open with HUD, therefore, we cannot comment on the specifics.”

Gonzalez, 32, and her partner, moved into the Buri in February 2021, seven months after the building opened. The fire alarms—almost all of them false—began going off soon after and never relented, she says.

When one sounded at midnight on Jan. 9 of this year, Gonzalez’s partner pressed the manager to tell him if there was an actual fire. The manager ignored him, leaving his question unanswered. “They stonewalled him,” Gonzalez says.

Gonzalez and her partner sent an email to Cascade about the incident the next day, according to Gonzalez’s HUD report. They stayed in a hotel that night because of another problem: The smoke alarm in their apartment wouldn’t stop going off “even though it had a brand-new battery in it.”

Though it allegedly wouldn’t respond to her concerns about fire alarms, Cascade left a notice on Gonzalez’s door Jan. 27 about $1 in rent that she and her partner owed from a payment error in October 2022. On Feb. 1, Cascade sent Gonzalez notice that her rent was going up to $947 a month from $885.

On Feb. 22, she sent an email to Cascade asking for an evacuation plan in the event of an actual fire.

“I am writing to request an ADA accommodation for a fire emergency evacuation plan for those of us that are disabled in this building—including but not limited to those in wheelchairs, walkers, visually and hearing impaired, and the elderly,” Gonzalez wrote. “In my specific case, I am in a wheelchair and cannot walk down the stairs, use a walker, or crawl down the stairs. I am also a fall risk, so if I am dropped, I can be severely injured. Every time the fire alarm goes off, I am left wondering where to go and if it is a real fire. I’ve mentioned the evacuation plan for those of us that are disabled and living on the upper floors several without a response.”

As was the case with other requests, Gonzalez says she never got a response.

Gonzalez filed her complaint with HUD on March 27. She moved out three weeks ago.