Apartment Reviews for Rio Santa Fe Apts. - Avondale

Ever seen a rap video and said to yourself, "I need to get up my street credibility. I want to sound tough too. But I've never even SEEN a housing project, let alone lived in one. What can I do'"

Well never fear young wannabe, you can get the full experience of living in an urban ghetto RIGHT HERE, at the glorious Rio Santa Fe federal housing project, right here in Avondale.

I'm from Chicago where housing projects are plentiful, so I know a thing or two about crappy housing situations. And let me tell you, this is the real deal.

Here's a sampling of what I'd experienced within the 5 MONTHS that I lived there:

1. Incompetent management. It took all of one week to figure this out. They screwed up on my lease and had the wrong date for the end of the lease. I was afraid it was too late to change since I'd already signed. Luckily for me, when I went to them to point this out, they had LOST my lease!!! AND they said, "We've been looking for you, where have you been, we need you to re-sign your lease because we lost it!" Really, I'm renting an apartment from you and you're "looking for me"' Um how about knocking on my door or calling my phone number.

They also maintain this large apartment complex without any, I mean any, system of managing the parking spots. Simply put, they have no idea whose spot is whose. When I moved in they told me, "Try number (whatever number they said), if someone gets mad and tells you that is their spot, just come back and we'll try another one." Wow.

One time, before my internet was hooked up, I went to use their "business center" which requires me to give up my Drivers License to get a key. Well on this day they decided to close the office early and not alert me, so when I went back to return the key the office is locked and my License is still inside! Luckily I caught one of their ditsy employees as she was getting in the car to drive to whatever equally crappy apartments she lives in and I was able to retrieve it.

What else... They also have an "outgoing mail" box that is basically an open tray sitting by an unlocked door at a desk that is often unattended.

And let's see, they've screwed up on processing my rent payment, lost my mail, and were rude to me on several occasions when THEY ended up being wrong about something.

They told me there was a roaming security or police car that came through here periodically. Not so.

They told me the pool was heated. It's not. It's not cleaned either. Ever.

Basically, this place is run by idiots. Rude, lying idiots.

2. Bug problems. I moved in and found a dead roach, a dead scorpion (in the overhead light fixture - see more on this later) and a live black widow. Continued to have roaches during my entire stay despite spraying bi-weekly and sometimes weekly. Other units near me and outside hallways had scorpions.

3. Terrible maintenance service. An overhead light fixture went out, so I took it down to change the light bulb... and found it was filled with water. After rain, the water actually was leaking through the roof and into my apartment THROUGH A LIGHT FIXTURE. I called the emergency maintenance number, I talked to the office several times, and for weeks was told "we'll be there tomorrow" and they never were. I am no building expert but most 5 year olds can tell you that water electricity is a bad combination, yet they showed little concern. It wasn't until I went to management yelling and angry and threatening to call the city and file complaints that they finally fixed it.

As for the scorpion in my other light fixture... they acted like I was making an unreasonable request telling them to come get it out. I'm sorry, if I move in and find a deadly creature in the apartment you're renting to me, I'm not gonna be the one to fish it out. So they finally remove it.... and when I look up there, I see the body is gone but the stinger has been broken off and is still sitting in the light fixture. Is that someone's idea of a joke'

Not to mention... the hallways are filthy. Just filthy. Always.

Oh and when the neighbors turn on their heat... my bathroom shakes. When they turn on their air conditioning, my living room vibrates. Fun stuff.

4. Horrible neighbors. I've given names to them. Below me is "Domestic Violence Donald", who can be heard beating up on his girlfriend, playing loud music, attempting to rap over the loud music, and who provides my apartment with the lovely aroma of marijuana through my vents on a near-nightly basis. The residents of that unit suddenly find a way to get quiet as soon as the cops show up at their door. All their marital problems go out the door as they join together in acting like they're not home and shutting the **** up for the night.

Then there's "Couldn't get into College Cameron" next door. He thinks these apartments are dorms, and since he was too stupid to get into one of Arizona's wopping 3 universities, him and his friends live out their fantasies of dropping out of college in their freshman year right here. They run through the hallways, spraying silly string, jumping off the balcony, and having nerf gun fights. Losers.

Let's not forget "No Job Jonathon" who sees no problem having parties every weeknight, sitting out on his balcony with his similarly unemployed female friends talking loudly until 4am about fights, video games, weed, and other things most people leave behind once they're old enough to sign a lease.

And that's just in MY building.

The worse news is the buildings are TERRIBLY labeled so when you call the cops, they have no idea which building to go to in order to find the offenders. The good news is the above mentioned people are cowards, and after yelling at them myself they shut up and cut out their bullsh!t.

What the **** kind of screening process do they have here' "Oh, you can walk upright almost, here ya go here's your keys."

There's always some riff-raff walking by the area as well, at all hours. I guess being next door to a wal-mart brings out the undesirable foot-traffic.

Let's also not forget the weekly garbage pickers, who pull up to the dumpster outside with their pickup truck and start rifling through everyone's trash. In broad daylight.

Oh, and there's a gang of loose cats that roam the ground at night. Maybe this is their version of a security system. Maybe this is how they plan to handle the bug problem. Maybe they actually charge the suckers rent. Or maybe the people who live here aren't even responsible enough to keep their own **** pet in their house.

Oh, something positive, um, the grass always looks really nice.

(Need a visual' If you are a fan of the Simpsons... these are the apartments Milhouse's dad lives in.)

So in closing, if you want to get the feel of "roughing it," don't move to south Phoenix. Come to the Rio Santa Fe, where all your communal living nightmares can come true.