Dealing with manager burnout

Several years ago, when I was the COO of a property management company, I had occasion to be walking one of the more “challenged” properties in the company’s portfolio with the site manager and her boss, our vice president of property management. I had only been with...

Preserving historic buildings and neighborhoods

As American cities age, local governments face the challenge of how to handle the large stock of old, vacant, and potentially unsafe structures that crowd the cityscape. Cities like Baltimore, Atlanta, and Los Angeles are challenged to find funds to address this...

HUD mandates smoke-free public housing

Smoke-free housing is not a new concept for HUD. Over the last decade or so, HUD has encouraged both public housing authorities and multifamily housing owners to establish smoke-free communities and has even issued a 63-page toolkit to aid in the process. So what is...

A ray of hope for affordable housing preservation

“The affordable housing crisis is growing. RAD is part of the solution.” Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro The crisis Secretary Castro was referring to is the loss of affordable housing units throughout the country. The loss of 10,000 – 15,000 public housing units...

The human costs of (un)affordable housing

I recently received an email from a gentleman involved in the anti-bullying in senior housing movement (a subject of great interest to me) touting a book on adult bullying by cultural anthropologist Dr. Janice Harper. I look forward to reading the book, but bullying...

New HUD Final Rule Updates Fair Housing Act

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as amended in 1988, is better known as the Fair Housing Act. This law guaranteed that all Americans, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, have the right to equal...

Tracing affordable housing’s links to the past

A centerpiece of the National Center for Housing Management’s Registered Housing Manager (RHM) program is the property assessment prepared by candidates for the RHM designation. Candidates collect and analyze key performance data on their properties, identify any...

Housing managers cope with heavy expectations

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...

Why it’s getting harder to hire maintenance staff

If you had to hire a maintenance employee lately, chances are it wasn’t easy. Over the past few years, hiring in general has grown more difficult. Getting any useful information from past employers is nearly impossible unless you have a good relationship with...