CLEVELAND — The dilapidated Blue Ridge Apartments in Cleveland are not just an eye sore, they have become a “hot spot” for drug activity and earlier this month a gang member was arrested there.

Police Chief John Foster said Wednesday he told the owner to clean up and renovate the apartments or he will shut them down.

“We don’t want to do that but if we can show that it has become a drug haven, it can be declared a public nuisance and they can be made to close down,” he said.

At Monday’s Cleveland City Council meeting, Foster said police have a lot of problems at the apartments at 105 Bryant Street. He said Monday morning they had been called out for an incident in which a female resident had her throat cut. Foster said it turned out that she cut her own throat in an attempt to commit suicide.

On July 1, he said a suspected gang member was arrested on drug charges by Cleveland Police and the Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Agency

Foster said the apartments are falling down and that they no longer have a single outside light because of the drug activity. All of them have been knocked out.

“We need to look at a maintenance ordinance for apartment buildings,” Foster told the city council.