I live in an apartment complex. A hive, I call it. Across from my doorway is an apartment that has been vacant for two months now.
There are 1,000 evacuees from Katrina coming to Portland who need shelter. State officials are trying to line up housing for them. People are volunteering space in their own homes.
And those apartments, at least a dozen in my complex alone, sit empty.
I am trying to get the owner of my apartment complex to donate at least one empty apartment to the relief efforts, and I encourage all you Kossacks to do the same. Read more of my saga after the jump.
As
Radical Writ faithful may know, I am on a one-man crusade to get just one of the many empty apartments in my complex donated to a family evacuating from New Orleans to here in Portland (see
My letter to my Apartment Complex Manager), perhaps through the auspices of
HurricaneHousing.org (see
Help house a family from New Orleans).
My first move was to submit a letter to the manager of the complex (see link above). I got absolutely no response from that. So last night, I made up the following flier (name of my complex ###'ed out to protect my location, because my readers rightfully made me paranoid about it):
Apartment Complex Flier
Along with this flier from HurricaneHousing:
HurricaneHousing.org flier
And I posted them where I see other residents posting "for sale" items and "lost kitty" fliers and even solicitations for Mary Kay, Amway, and other pyramid... er, I mean, multi-level marketing opportunities. I posted them on the bulletin boards in the two laundromats, I posted them near the community mailboxes, I posted them at both entrances to both swimming pools, I posted them on the wall where the rent deposit slot is, and I dropped a copy in the rent deposit slot.
This morning, they were all taken down by the maintenance crew. My wife witnessed a maintenance man take the copies down from the laundromat as she did our wash.
So I got on the phone and called the management office. A nice young clerk answered the phone. When I told her why I was calling ("I'm interested in seeing if our apartment complex would donate one of its many empty apartments to the evacuees from Katrina who will be arriving here soon?") I got the stammer I usually get from Senator Gordon Smith's office when I call to complain about him not signing on to apologize for lynching. "Just a minute," she said, "I'll need you to speak with our manager."
After a long hold time, the manager, a pleasant woman named Carrie, answered the phone. "You'll have to call the management company, we can't make decisions like that."
The management company is: Summit Real Estate Management; Phone: 503-223-9980; Fax: 503-223-9981. I called them and gave my opening spiel. Again I was asked to hold for a long time, when finally I got to speak with another nice woman named Christine.
Christine told me that they merely manage the properties; I'd have to direct my questions to the owner(s) of the property. When I explained about the evacuees and how these property owners could take empty apartments that are losing money and use them to help a family in need AND get some federal money and a tax write-off in the process, Christine agreed that it was a great idea.
She told me, however, that she couldn't give out the contact information for the owners due to privacy concerns, which I understand. So she suggested I fax them a letter, and they would pass it on to the owners. I did, and I would encourage anyone else living in an apartment complex to do the same. I encourage ANYONE who cares about this issue and thinks it would be a shame for apartments to sit empty while deserving people could use them to also call or fax the numbers for Summit Real Estate Management above.
Now I get to post a new flier with these numbers all around the complex. I also get to complain if management tears them down again. If residents can advertise their Mary Kay and lost kitties, I should be able to organize some charity help for hurricane victims.