Christmas shock as apartments condemned
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, December 23, 2025
RAYMOND — Days before Christmas: could there be a worse time to lose your home?
This is the shocking situation for around a dozen residents inside an apartment complex at 400 Ninth St in Raymond on Dec. 17 when the city of Raymond notified them they must get out. They’re now scrambling to find housing and move belongings before the apartments are sealed off.
The city posted official notices condemning the building on Dec. 19 giving occupants until noon Monday, Dec. 22 to vacate in order to prevent potential loss of life or serious injury.
City officials inspected the complex Dec. 16 and found a multitude of alleged code violations that presented significant risks to the apartment’s occupants. The violations and conditions reportedly put the building at risk of causing a “fire and injuries.”
Raymond Fire Department Chief Bill Didion and another firefighter helped some occupants haul belongings down the building’s non-code compliant stairs. Didion and Channell were also seen speaking with residents about the impacts of the situation.
“This is an incredibly difficult situation, and our hearts are with the residents who have been displaced,” Raymond Mayor Dee Roberts said. “We understand the stress, fear, and uncertainty this creates for families and individuals who suddenly have to leave their homes. This decision was not made lightly, but the conditions inside the building left us no safe alternative.”
“Our foremost responsibility is to protect lives, and we are committed to doing everything we can alongside our community partners to help affected residents find support, resources, and a path forward during this time,” Roberts added.
The apartment complex is owned by Kevin T. George, currently in the Philippines on business. George owns another apartment complex in Raymond located at 526 May Street along with three houses located in the Riverdale area.
Documents outline issues
Until this month, the city and property owner engaged in a back-and-forth regarding the exterior of the Ninth Street apartment complex starting in 2022.
Raymond Code Enforcement Officer Tia Channell handed occupants at the apartment complex at 400 Ninth St and the Observer a packet with documents regarding the condemnation.
The documents show the city started taking a closer look at the apartment complex in 2022 after receiving a complaint about “trash and rubbish in and around the property.”
George was issued a violation on Sept. 21, 2022, and another on Dec. 14, 2022, for failing to address the issue.
A multitude of issues were noted in a Sept. 21, 2023, email from Channell to George regarding several of his properties.
“Throughout 2023 the city engaged in repeated e-mail and in person communications with Defendant regarding corrective actions despite extensions of time and opportunities to make repairs of the property defendant failed to fully correct the ongoing issues…,’ the court filing stated.
“He has done a few things, [temporarily] to make sure gurneys can get up but they are temporary,” City of Raymond Public Works Director Eric Weiberg said. “It’s just one of those things where what he has done is to by the time, and it just continues to deteriorate at a faster rate.”
According to Raymond Mayor Roberts, the city received an anonymous tip about the building’s interior issues after someone helped a tenant move in. The tipster said that they looked at the interior and were struck by the conditions.
“On Dec. 13, 2025, the City received a complaint from a citizen assisting a new resident moving into a second-floor unit at the Property,” the filing states. “The complaint described broken windows, dilapidated stairs, collapsing structural walls, broken deck areas, water intrusion, and accumulations of junk and rubbish around the Property…”
Owner explains
In George’s version of the situation, he is a victim of malicious code enforcement and public bullying — all despite what he says were his best intentions and best efforts.
“My position on this evacuation, displacement of tenants and condemnation of my building is that it didn’t happen from a lack of my trying,” George said. “Yes, I did fail. As a landlord and apartment building owner, I am a failure. I am weak and sympathetic. I let people fall months and thousands behind, trying to work with them before I go through the long struggle of trying to evict them in the Pacific [County Superior] Court.”
“I know the city, and everyone involved are painting me as this horrible slumlord who takes copious amounts of money from people while making them live in squalor. I doubt they told you I have extremely low rents. The lowest is $500 a month,” George added.
Officially condemned
Officials from the city including Roberts, Channell and Weiberg along with the Raymond Police Department, Raymond Fire Department, Coastal Community Action Program (CCAP) and Destination Hope and Recovery (DHR) were at the apartment complex as notices were posted on all of the front doors of the apartments.
The officials spoke with tenants about the issues and CCAP and DHR spoke with them about available resources. Some of the tenants are receiving temporary housing assistance and a U-Haul to help move belongings.
According to Pacific County Emergency Management Agency Director Scott McDougall, the county’s Emergency Operations Center partially activated to assist the displaced tenants with resources from the American Red Cross and Washington State Department of Health and Human Resources Disaster Assistance.
“We have been working with the state EOC on resource requests,” McDougall said. “Lots of preliminary stuff to make things easier on Monday. We will have more [details] on Monday.”
The only way the apartment complex can be reoccupied is if all code violations are addressed, inspected, and it is deemed safe.
Tenants shed light
A resident who spoke with the Observer on Dec. 18 said the notification left residents scrambling to find housing in an area where there is a chronic shortage of affordable lodging. The complex holds 10 units of which seven were actively occupied by residents.
“Just right out of the blue,” a resident who only wanted to be identified as Chris stated when asked if the notice was expected.
When asked how the situation feels, Chris said, “It’s the middle of winter, so not too happy.”
When asked if they could get deposits or rent back, Chris stated, “We don’t know, it is just kind of up in the wind right now.”
Chris and some others were able to quickly pull together temporary housing. He will be heading to a hotel and hopes that the expense can be reimbursed by the Red Cross. Others are still scrambling to find a place.
It is a completely different situation for others including Jason Marshall. He is trying to find a way to save all his belongings and keep his dogs. He provided the Observer a tour of the conditions of his apartment including burnt power outlets, a cracked wall, a caving-in ceiling, and explained ongoing issues with rats.
Marshall has been documenting the conditions of his $750 a month apartment. He has fallen through the outside walkway on the first floor of the apartments, and his young child has been unable to stay with him due to the living conditions at the apartments.
He has pictures and videos of the ceiling leaking water and of raw sewage pumping out from behind his apartment. He has made complaint after complaint to George who he alleged is ‘living it up in the Philippines with their rent money,’ while they are all scrambling to find a place to go.
Many of the tenants fear they will not be able to save all their belongings. Marshall has a small pile of belongings waiting by his apartment door he plans to take. He expects he will have to leave behind most of his belongings including furniture and electronics.
He is trying to find a way to keep his dogs and get to his family located in the Yakima area.
The back of the building is falling apart with siding missing, wood rotting away, a window and door covered with only plywood, and a pool of water running under the apartment complex.
“One tenant puts a block of wood over their toilet to keep the rats out,” an individual speaking under the condition of anonymity said. “Their dog chases the rats back into the bathroom so they will go back down the toilet.”
Bad when bought
According to George, the apartments have been an uphill battle since he purchased them in “horrible condition” back in 2015. The purchase, he says, came with a multitude of structural issues.
“This was the first commercial building I ever owned and there were some serious hard-learned lessons coming that I wasn’t aware of,” he said. “I spent everything I had to purchase it and immediately had to start doing the most important repairs myself, within a small budget.”
George says the venture has imparted lessons about vetting tenants, legal battles about evictions, making repairs with tenants feuding, and issues with building permits including repairs after some tenants moved out.
“During the long struggle to renovate units, get new tenants and restore my income, the city, due to complaints by people who did not even live in my building, decided that I had to do deck repairs. So, thanks to some fine outstanding citizens of Raymond driving by and not liking my building, I was now forced to fix decks instead of [renovating] and [recouping] my income,” he added.
According to George, he looked at options to offload the apartment complex to rid himself of its issues.
“It was at this time I decided I was in over my head,” he said. “There was too much working against me. Not only people who I didn’t know and who didn’t know me, filing complaints, but they would make terrible comments about me on social media when I would list a unit for rent. The building was too much for me. The tenants and other people were too much for me. I started making Zillow listings trying to sell it.”
George said he did attempt to offload the property to a local buyer who took on all the responsibility for the complex.
“Having failed to sell it,” he said. “In my desperation, I made a contract deal with a local man who repairs buildings. Foundations, structure and everything. I had hired him for many projects before. He did good work for me. Our deal was that he would save the building doing all the repairs. Get it in lend-able mortgage condition and then I would sell it to him for a predetermined price.”
Recent heavy rains have complicated that plan, he said.
At the moment, George has no clear plan on how he may help the displaced tenants except for possibly getting them into a unit at his other apartment complex. That help would have to wait until he arrives back in the U.S.
“From what little information I have now, it may cost me everything I own to get out of this mess,” George said.
As for the city, George has this to say.
“They are railroading me,” George said. “I will have no choice but to hire a lawyer and spend more money just for damage control. I don’t think there’s any way out of the trouble with the building’s condition.”
