I’ve been in and around the rental housing business for nearly forty years and during that time I have seen the job of the housing manager change dramatically. I’ve had students in my classes audibly gasp when I’ve told them about ads run in local papers back in the day saying something like: “Caretaker couple wanted for apartments. Husband to do light maintenance. Wife to show apartments and do paperwork.” Back then, the job of the housing manager was rarely viewed as a professional level position. No special skills or knowledge were expected. Pay was low and opportunity limited. Not surprisingly, it became a job that “attracted” a disproportionate number of females – not because it was so great, but because it wasn’t.
A lot has changed since then, much of it for the better. Equal employment opportunity is the law of the land, and, more importantly, the ethic of most businesses. Housing management has evolved into a true profession. Salaries, while still not great, have improved significantly. Opportunities to advance into jobs with greater responsibility and compensation are widespread. As a testament to this fact one need only look at the many, many CEOs, executive directors, and other senior level staff in public, private, and non-profit organizations who got their start working at the site level.
But along with the good comes the challenging. Over the years I have witnessed first-hand the incredible expectations that have been piled on to the housing manager. These days the manager needs to have expertise in areas ranging from financial management to maintenance management to human resource management. Then add in the need to be fair housing experts and, in the case of affordable housing, the ability to implement federal housing program requirements that make the IRS code look like child’s play. And if they happen to manage senior housing, throw in another dozen or so areas in which special expertise is needed.
To be perfectly honest, all of this has been great for the National Center for Housing Management. The number of people attending our training and certification programs has never been higher. Our outstanding programs and staff have much to do with that, but the reality is that a lot of our growth has been driven by the incredible amount and diversity of what managers and other housing professionals need to know to carry out their job responsibilities.
Yes, housing management has come a long way since the days of the caretaker couple, but can we continue to ask managers to do more and more and still expect them to be effective? The fact is you can only stretch a rubber band so far until it breaks. The challenge ahead is to find new ways to help the manager accomplish all of what they need to do. Smarter systems would help. More staffing may be needed. Less regulation would be great (though highly unlikely!). Better training is a given. It would also help for all of us in the industry to simply recognize the pivotal role that housing managers now play in the success of our properties and do our best to help support them.