Getting Legal Help Can be a Barrier for Low-Income Colorado Families Who Need Safe, Clean Housing

"She wasn’t alone in having to do without hot water or heat for weeks, then to struggle to eradicate bed bugs. But Amber Celaya is unusual among residents of an Englewood apartment complex: She’s taking the Denver-based company that owns the place, SKM Management Co., to court.

Celaya said she learned from her neighbors at the 204-unit Golden Nugget Apartments of problems with heat, water and pests that long preceded the three months or so she lived there last year.

But lawyers are expensive — Celaya’s attorney in her Arapahoe County civil case will be paid only if she wins. Also daunting for many, Celaya said, was fear that speaking up would end with them being forced to leave a place, however substandard it might be, and searching for a new home in a tough market. Celaya, who’d been paying about $800 a month for her Golden Nugget apartment on Belleview near Broadway, didn’t consider filing suit until she had found a new place for her and her 12-year-old son..."

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