Vivian Apartments

I lived here for a few years back in 2008. The landlady and her husband are super cool and very nice. Most of my neighbors were pretty ok too. The location is awesome if you want to be in the heart of bustling inner east Burnside/​Portland area for cheap. Although you get what you pay for. I was only paying $ 425 all utilities included for a studio with a bathroom and kitchen. The main most important con of the place is there is a roach problem. Although, if you keep your place pretty clean they’ll go to other dirtier apartments. Also the carpet was horrendous and they painted over everything including the shower which eventually just started peeling away and changing colors. Last bit is the company who manages them. Reality Property Management. Girls at the counters are sweet but the old guy who’s the owner is a total prick. All in all you get what you pay for.

I lived in these apartments for about five years. The first week I lived in my apartment my George Forman, food processor and mixer all blew! The landlady told me a week later that they hadn’t updated the electricity since the 60s. And my apartment had water damage from the previous upstairs tenant that flooded their apartment in retaliation. The carpet in my apartment was old! We are talking pink flecked with green, flat, early 90s carpet. The sink was painted! The shower was painted and peeled, bubbled and looked like something out of a silent hill movie. The landlady also painted as high as she could reach, my walls were 3 shades of white with roaches painted over. I had scraped up the roach patches and the floors were so filthy that I scrubbed and cleaned 8 hours a day for three solid days, scraping up paint on the wood entrance, animal or human shit and after I moved in and it was «Move in ready» I opened my oven and lotion bottles and tissues were on the bottom rack.
They call these apartments «Affordable living» but a person died in my apartment! On the radiator! They painted over the decomp! There was a decomposition stain on the floor that ate through the wood. The first winter when the steam heat turned on… There was a funk I couldn’t place. This sweet sickening smell. A year later I was given the story! A man died and landed on the radiator, he baked on the radiator! Until the landlady found him.
When I moved! They charged me for damages! Damages that came with the apartment, like the broken window… They charged me 300 for $ 40 blinds they bought at Walmart. How do I know this? They told me where they got them.
Your neighbors will be kooky. I lived across a hoarder. When he broke his foot he trailed shit all over the hall. There was shit on the wall of the hallway.
You want to live in a nightmare? Move to the Vivian. I wrote a lot of fun stories about the place.