Gabes Place Apartments

 The City of Urbana could now shut down Gabe's Place Apartments in Urbana, and the owner hopes it does. Landlord Gabriel Omo Osagie hopes that would give him a fresh start at his site in the 1500 hundred block of east Washington Street.  The list of violations from city inspectors includes broken or missing windows and doors and It doesn't stop there. Crime in the area is another problem. One person I talked to says its so bad she didn't want to show her face out of fear. She blames Omo Osagie for how bad the apartments have gotten. She describes it as, "hell, the people in Iraq are safer that we are here. It is not fair for innocent children to not to play outside because they don't feel safe here."
   Crime in east Urbana has been climbing for the last several years. Most recently, there's been a shooting nearby and a fire and stabbing inside Omo Osagie's apartments.
  Amber Hendricks lives and works at the apartments and she says it's only getting worse. She believes her neighbors are bringing the trouble. She seen, "people that buy and sell drugs, and a lot of them aren't working, o they're hanging out there all hours of days." She adds tenants have trashed the place, broke the windows, doors, threw garbage all over, threw bottles all over, syringes all over the building."
    City inspectors looked for themselves and they say buildings aren't safe to live in. They found loose wires, missing fire alarms, and even charred doors. The City's safety manager describes what he saw as, "disappointing." The landlord agrees, and he wants the city to condemn his buildings so he has a chance to re-build and find new tenants. Hendricks hopes the change will bring a better home for her and her family.  She says the troublemakers give other residents a bad rap, "there are low income people that aren't bad, so we deserve a decent place to live." The City says it's up to the landlord here to board up the place.
    Urbana just started a new rental registration program to clean up apartments like Gabe's Place around town. Some landlords fought that program. The City says this situation is a prime example of why its needed.