Most Orchard Place accessible apartments test positive for meth contamination
A July 29 housing authority report says about 12 of Orchard Place’s 15 ADA apartments tested positive, while three vacant accessible units require major rebuilding and repair costs remain unresolved.
About 12 of Orchard Place’s 15 accessible apartments tested positive for meth contamination, according to a July 29 Englewood Housing Authority report. The report documents one voluntary move and eviction proceedings for another resident.
Staff described contamination in most affected apartments as relatively minor and concentrated mainly in bathroom exhaust fans, but said cleanup could still be time-consuming and costly. Two ADA apartments tested positive throughout the units.
The property had eight vacant apartments. Three were accessible units requiring extensive rebuilding and compliance work, including wall removal, relocation of in-ground drain lines and electrical conduits, and construction of new walls. The authority said those units would receive new cabinets and be fully compliant when finished, but they were not available for accessible-housing lease-up while the work remained pending.
Four other vacant apartments were being fast-tracked for leasing. Staff projected that three would be ready by the second week of August and the fourth by the end of August. The remaining vacant apartment had recently been vacated and was being tested for contamination. Those were forecasts in the July 29 report, not confirmations of completed testing or leasing.
The report said Orchard Place’s sliding-glass-door replacement was complete and that additional capital-needs work tied to the property’s planned RAD conversion was underway. That list included an automatic-entry-door replacement, elevator upgrades, renovation of six conventional units, and compliance work for six ADA units and the community-room kitchen.
The records reviewed do not identify an Orchard Place-specific cost estimate or funding authorization for meth remediation or the ADA rebuilding. They also do not confirm remediation, rebuilding or August lease-up completion dates, or provide a plan from newly hired Executive Director Chris Vogel, who started July 20, for filling the accessible units.