In the wake of 12 break-ins and a homicide within the past six months at Camden College Park apartments near IKEA, the College Park City Council sent a letter Tuesday night to the apartments’ management outlining residents’ concerns.
The council addressed the letter to the regional vice president of Camden Property Trust, the Houston-based company that owns Camden College Park, requesting a meeting to discuss management’s perceived unresponsiveness and disregard for resident well-being.
“The unfortunate part of things is that the management has not been quite responding the way they should,” said District 1 Councilman Fazlul Kabir, whose district includes Camden. “That’s why we sent them the letter — to bring them to the council and ask, ‘Why?’”
One concern the city council outlined in the letter was a lack of adequate security, which arose following a “rash of break-ins,” beginning in October because of broken security gates, among other security lapses.
“The world is not perfect — you’re going to have break-ins,” said Cory Sanders, president of the Camden College Park Residents Association. “But 12 break-ins, including four in one day? That’s not normal.”
Camden Property Trust representatives did not reply to requests for comment by press time.
Sanders created the Camden College Park Residents Association in response to crimes in the building and to address resident concerns.
Residents reached out to management in October asking for a plan of action to repair the gates and take other precautions, but they “never heard back anything,” Sanders said. It wasn’t until Stefon Powell, 22, was shot and killed on the property on New Year’s Day that management agreed to meet with residents and discuss their concerns.
“Camden security cameras stopped working two days before the homicide,” Sanders said. “Long story short, the management wasn’t working with us.”
Camden residents turned to the city council for help after management answered requests to install deadbolts on doors with a $50 charge and then a claim that deadbolts are against city code, which the letter states is incorrect.
“We reached out to the city council and said, ‘You have not taken a stake in Camden at all — you dropped the ball on Camden,’” Sanders said. “‘You allowed a million-dollar empire to come in and build a complex, and you haven’t been on our side.’”
Sanders met with Mayor Andrew Fellows and other council members to talk about security and construction concerns.
With some balconies left under construction, frequent false fire alarms and the crime rate, Sanders said, some residents are losing patience.
“We’re dealing with a Camden mass exodus of residents moving out,” Sanders said.
Sanders decided he will run for city council in its November election after he began to think the council was unable to assist him and other Camden residents throughout the past few months, he said.
“College Park needs a makeover regarding its relationship with students and with residents,” Sanders said.
Fellows said city officials responded to concerns as quickly as they could and have been taking steps to address the issue for a while.
“The council members in that district have been involved in a series of things to show support and demonstrate our continuing interest,” Fellows said. “It’s more of an issue that we were aware of the murder and some of the issues, but weren’t aware of the extent. … We represent all the people who live in our districts, not just those who own homes.”
As one of two councilmen representing the area Camden lies in, Kabir said he is committed to resolving the concerns of the apartments’ tenants.
“We have mutual interests to move forward,” Kabir said. “We would like to help them any way we can.”
