Journal of Property Management

that at all times the mix of residents at Welch Plaza meets the terms of the property’s tax abatement and loan.

“There’s a lot not to forget,” said Barry Blanton, CPM, and president of Lorig Management Services.

In addition to running the usual credit and criminal background checks conducted at any residential building, managers at mixed-income sites must certify applicants’ income. Often when people change jobs, they must be recertified to ensure they are still eligible to live in the development. At Channelwood Village, Hite processes an average of 50 income recertifications a month. Annual recertifications in the late fall push it as high as 80 a month.

Sometimes the government agency overseeing the project prefers the information electronically, even if there’s no way to transfer it easily, Cipollone said. In those cases property managers enter residents’ information into their own systems and then key it into the agency’s system, effectively doubling their work load.

On top of the paperwork there are the inspections. Channelwood Village hosts inspectors each year from HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center, the Assisted Housing Services Corporation, Ohio Finance Housing Agency, Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing and the city of Akron. Cipollone deals with three or four inspections a year at her properties. Since each can take 30 days to prepare for, her site managers spend between a third and a quarter of the year prepping. She likes to dream about the agencies developing a single, universally accepted inspection process.

social scene

Mixed-income communities often provide social services that wouldn’t be available at a standard development. McCormack Baron Ragan in St. Louis manages mixed-income properties in 19 states, and the company’s Vice President, Claudia Brodie, said it is important for property managers to meet with owners before signing a contract to establish the owner’s expectations for the site, and then square them with the reality of the budget.

Ideally, mixed-income communities generate enough rent that, after paying rent, utilities and payroll, there’s enough left over to hire a social services coordinator, Brodie said. A social services coordinator can organize after-school programs for neighborhood children, train low-income residents to use computers, help people find childcare—whatever residents need.

It’s imperative that everyone is treated the same. A person can’t tell from the curb which home cost the market rate and which home is subsidized.

—BARRY BLANTON, CPM®

If there’s not enough money for an on-site coordinator, property managers refer residents to nonprofits in the community. They also partner with local players. At a McCormack Baron Ragan property in St. Louis, for example, students from Washington University’s social work school do internships at the site.

“We in the property management
business don’t see ourselves as social
service providers,” Brodie said. “We
want to hook up with someone [else]
who does it.”
Property managers are generally
responsible for enforcing social norms,
such as ensuring apartments are cared
for. Hite said she’s had to teach a few
people about cleaning their stoves,
as “grease and open flames don’t get
along,” for example. Punitive mea-
sures can be used, but Brodie said
they try to temper those measures by
offering help. For example, if a teen-
ager is dealing drugs from a grand-
parent’s home, the manager might
write up the violation but also link the
grandparent to a social worker who
could help resolve the situation.