Year-End Story #2

BNCLT Resident Speaks on Our Property Management Transition

BNCLT residents meet with new partners to discuss property management transition in November 2023.

Today, we are in the midst of an exciting transformation in the way we manage our properties.  Since we began acquiring buildings 10 years ago to take them off of the speculative market (first as COHIF, and now as BNCLT), we are driven by the singular goal of upholding a model of affordable housing that puts our residents and surrounding community at the center. At the same time, we have relied on third party management companies to attend to the needs of the properties and residents. However, there has been a chronic mismatch between our CLT model and that of standard property management companies who are better suited to serve a different model and scale of housing. This year, we are rolling up our sleeves to build out a new approach to property management with partners who share our mission.  This is an exciting and transformative moment for BNCLT to address an “under the surface” structural barrier that we hope will lift up our model, bring a new level of attention, partnership, and well being to our residents, and extend to the other CLTs in our network.  

Note, we are grateful to have a property management company temporarily in place that has been playing an essential role in serving us during this transition to our new partners early in 2024.  

One of our residents describes his experience and outlook on property management (this interview has been edited for length and clarity):

a) Why is it important to get a new property management company to work with us?

The way I see it, we are different from any other — our company is really complicated compared to others. [...] First — we operate as a community. We are all involved in decision-making. We are not a company where one size fits all. The companies we had prior were not fitting to our situations. The way we’ve been treated is ‘let’s just put them in that basket, and they’ll be ok.’ For instance, I had a situation where I lost my key one day. I went to one of the management company, I told them ‘I lost my key.’ They said ‘Ok, just go home. We’re going to be there in 20 minutes.’ Nobody ever showed up. [...] If you have a problem, to fix it […] you don’t even know what they did. We need somebody who cares about our situation — who cares about our building. Because we want to keep our building for a long, long time — for generations and generations. We need to find [...] somebody who will see us as a community, not just ‘they’re just renting an apartment.’ This is our home, we own it. That’s the way it is. [...]

b) How are residents involved in the property management transition, and why is it important for residents to be involved?

The residents should be involved because we are the owners of these properties. We care about our properties. And also, we’re the ones who live in, and know, these properties. I’ve been here for 13 years. When I got in here, in my kitchen there is a big hole on the floor. The ceiling was falling apart. Everywhere was in disarray. My cousin used to own the building — he lost it. Everything was in disarray. [... BNCLT] came in and looked at it, and did something about it. They fix it, and they make sure it’s livable — because it wasn’t livable at all. It’s livable, and we’re still here. [...] We stayed [in the building]. We say ‘we’re not going anywhere.’ Because we lost our building — we lost other community we’re in. We care about each other, and we care about what happens to another person in that community we have. 

c) Is there anything else you think is important to share about the property management transition, that you haven’t already mentioned?

[…] We need somebody who is going to stick with us. Who understands us. Who knows what we’re trying to accomplish. Because a lot of people don’t know what we’re trying to accomplish. They need to study what BNCLT, to know what BNCLT is all about. We’re not rich people. We’re not contractors. We’re just trying to save housing for people who cannot afford to stay in their housing. Because gentrification is getting to us so bad here where I live. […] All those people coming to those new buildings is people who don’t live around here, at all. And then the people we know around here are moving out — we don’t know where they’re going. And they used to be my neighbor — we talk, we say hi, everything. And they’re just gone.

By contributing to BNCLT, you give us the support we need to transform invisible but essential "underground" structures that underpin our work. Your support fosters this mission that you care so much about and propels us all forward!