New legal notices to vacate — or to evict, in cases where departing tenants have decided against paying any more rent — went out Tuesday to more residents in more buildings at the Courtyard Village Apartments complex. The complex was purchased last year by Parc Central LLC, a subsidiary of Metropolitan Land Group of Beaverton, Ore., which wants to improve the dilapidated complex and raise the rents.
A first wave of legal notices to vacate two buildings went out at the beginning of December, and several families left by the end of the month — or got two-week hardship extensions.
A second set of notices went out Tuesday. And now, according to local officials trying to help residents move out or carry on something like normal lives, things have started to get ugly.
“There is a heightened level of anger,” said Carla Felt, the Family Community Resource Center coordinator for nearby Washington Elementary School and initial point of contact for people affected by the crisis at Courtyard Village. “They feel they were told it would be a while and here it is already. There’s definitely a stronger current of anger now. They weren’t expecting this so soon.”
“What are we supposed to do, go live on the streets?” one resident — who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation — wondered in an email to The Columbian. “I have too many medical problems to be out in the cold and homeless. It’s sad how all of us that live here were lied to that it would be two or three years and now we find out that it’s going to be within the year. It’s so wrong how all of us are being treated.”
At least one family that was allowed to shift from one building to another promptly received a new notice to vacate, before family members even finished unpacking, Felt said.
“They paid their new application fees and new deposits” as required by the property’s new management, Felt said. “Then within weeks they’re asked to leave again. They have four children. They are very upset about this.”
“I am getting personally pretty upset about this,” agreed Andy Silver, the executive director of the Council for the Homeless, which has tried to cushion the blow by amassing an emergency fund that displaced tenants can tap for the up-front payments — first and last months’ rents, damage deposits — they’ll need to make to secure new apartments.
Silver said he had a friendly conversation with John O’Neil, the vice president of Metropolitan Land Group, in December and expected the firm to provide more advance notice than the bare minimum.
“We agreed to work together. I haven’t heard anything from him since then. I assumed we’d be getting a notification of their schedule (of renovations). Then all these emergency phone calls started coming in this morning,” Silver said Wednesday.
“The community has been very understanding with them and they’re making business decisions. But they are being completely inhumane in the way they are dealing with this process,” Silver said. “They’re making it almost impossible for these people to have a move without completely disrupting their lives. They are not being fair. They are not keeping their word.”
O’Neil did not respond on Wednesday to an email from The Columbian requesting comment. Last month, he issued a statement that said in part, “We purchased The Courtyard apartments in November with the goal of renovating as quickly as possible. … We apologize for this disruption but ultimately the improvements we are making will create better, safer housing for families in the Vancouver community.”
Felt reported Wednesday that residents of two buildings at Courtyard Village have received legal notices to vacate by Jan. 31 — with a possible extension until Feb. 15.
But in another building, she said, residents just received eviction notices. That’s because they were told verbally that a notice to vacate was coming, and decided to withhold their rent. One resident The Columbian spoke to last week said he was aware of people doing exactly that: hanging onto their dollars in order to invest in their future rather than their past, he said.
“If I only have $700 and that’s it,” Felt said, “I’m going to want to use it to try to get into a new place.”
Felt said she has urged families in this position to pay the rent and not get evicted. Having an eviction on your record makes it that much harder to find a landlord who’s willing to do business with you. But one family that was already late “went in to pay and the manager informed them it was too late and gave them an eviction notice,” Felt said.
Felt also said she’s heard that crews removing shrubbery, cutting down trees and using heavy equipment at the complex have run into anger from residents concerned over their children’s safety on the way to and from school.
“Which caused confrontations between the residents and the work crew,” she said. “There is also panic that not everyone would be helped with deposits and fears about how their credit history will impact their ability to rent another place.” Some residents have told The Columbian of that very problem: bad credit has torpedoed their attempts to qualify for new apartments.
Mary Marin, a residential manager for property manager Madrona Ridge Residential, said by email that residents who shift into vacant units that haven’t been renovated yet “are aware of the renovation plan and they agree to sign a month-to-month rental agreement.” They know that they’ll be paying a first month’s rent plus a security deposit that’s “based on credit score,” she said.
According to Marin’s email, renovations to the complex will consist of new windows and flooring, new lighting fixtures and appliances, new cabinets, new paint, new countertops, “and any other plumbing or electrical repairs as necessary.” There are also plans for a fitness center and resident clubhouse, according to the Madrona Ridge website.
Bigger trends
According to a Jan. 5 story in The Wall Street Journal, average rents across America rose every year for the past five, “as strong demand and short supply left vacancies near historically low levels.” An apartment-construction boom has already hit large cities like New York and San Francisco, helping to temper rising rents with a greater supply of apartments; but improving economic and employment conditions in smaller communities like Vancouver are outpacing the construction of new apartments, resulting in a very tight and competitive rental market.
“In Portland and Vancouver, it’s a really hot multifamily market right now,” said Joshua Schwartz, a broker with Kidder Matthews in Portland who said he grew up in Vancouver and went to Hudson’s Bay High School, which is not far from Courtyard Village.
“Investors are coming from Seattle and San Francisco and looking at our area. What they can get for their money in Portland and Vancouver right now is unsurpassed. If they have the capital to invest, they’ll be able to recoup their money plus more to come,” he said.
Vancouver City Councilwoman Alicia Topper said the council is considering what steps it might take to prevent more “mass vacate notices” from going out. A city council workshop will be scheduled, she said.
