As 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):

Along with this flier from HurricaneHousing:

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 schemes 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.