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Larry Kluetsch is executive director of the Mutual Housing Association
of Southwestern Connecticut, the developer of Maplewood School Mutual
Housing in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The initiative was the recipient
of a $160,000 grant from the Bank's Affordable Housing Program in
1997.
Maplewood Court is 32 units of family housing on the west side of
Bridgeport. The initiative involved the renovation of two 100-year-old
school buildings. It's truly a beautiful property. It sat vacant
for 10 years and was renovated in 1997. It came out wonderfully.
We were able to pull off this development with help from a lot of
people, including the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. While funding
was there to develop the property, we knew we had limited funds
to operate it. This makes it very difficult. There will always be
financial restraints on how the property is run. This property has
one of the highest per-unit costs of all our properties, and, given
its location, we always try to offer moderate rents.
The development has some of the inefficiencies and financial constraints
associated with a relatively small historic property. We always
recognized that Maplewood Court was going to struggle because of
this. Issues of efficiency come into play in managing the property
because we're dealing with the renovation of two historic school
buildings with wide hallways and lots of extra common space. The
main building has 24 units, and the smaller building has eight units.
Every classroom was basically made into a unit. We've developed
an attractive courtyard between the two buildings.
Maplewood Court itself occupies part of a large block, which makes
it a difficult site to control. Also, keeping the historic features
of the buildings is a challenge to good property management. Maplewood
has five entries into the buildings that have to be maintained to
preserve the historic look of the building. This creates all kinds
of security problems.
It's quite different from the way we managed our first property,
Trinity Park in Stanford, another project assisted by the Federal
Home Loan Bank of Boston. When we took over that building we consolidated
the entry points into one entry and one exit stairwell. This gave
us more control over what happens in the building. Trinity Park
is now one of our most successful and cohesive buildings, even though
it's a seven-story building.
Our biggest challenge now is to control the site and cut down on
the vandalism that occurs from time to time because of where we're
located. The west side is one of the strongest neighborhoods in
the city but it has pockets that are problematic. Maplewood Court
is located in a pocket that has been going through changes. We are
looking at adding control features, such as a security camera in
the courtyard and gates and fencing.
We're also trying to get residents more involved. It always helps
when you involve people and get them to take more responsibility
for what is going on in the building. Addressing physical issues
is easier than addressing the resident piece, particularly if the
neighborhood is a challenge. Crime is down elsewhere, but it has
been going up in Bridgeport. We're always on the front lines.
Getting the support of the other residents is important because
we can't be there all the time. We want the residents to feel a
sense of ownership, which is in line with the mutual model. If they
walk down the sidewalk we want them to pick up pieces of paper and
not throw paper down. It starts at this level.
If a resident knows that somebody is breaking a window we need to
know who is doing it so we can deal with the problem. You have to
create an environment where they feel safe to come forward. We always
tell them that we're in it together. Vandalism hits them in the
pocketbook. It costs money to fix a broken window, and in many cases
the cost will be passed on to them.
Behavioral issues in the building are a problem from time to time,
and we deal with it family by family. I'm more concerned about the
31 families that have to live in a disturbed environment than the
one we have to evict for disturbing them. There's zero tolerance
if drugs are involved. We address other issues - such as
letting too many people into the building or too much activity -
by working with the residents. We tell them that maybe mutual housing
and Maplewood Court are just not right for them and try to work
with them to find alternative housing.
Family housing often involves behavioral issues involving kids and
teenagers. This is the biggest challenge. The parents are working;
the kids come home early from school and are probably alone in the
house; they let in their friends and suddenly you have issues. As
they get older and become teenagers it's not too hard for them to
step over a line so that problems start to happen and something
gets broken or there's a fight. Families can't be there all the
time; families these days are struggling with jobs and being able
to make enough money to live, so it's not always the parents' fault.
I like to say that 90 percent of our residents are great and 10
percent are troubled. But that 10 percent causes 90 percent of the
problems and takes up 90 percent of our time.
We're very proud of the property. It's one of the most beautiful
properties we have. This motivates people to want to keep it up.
We're fortunate that our Bridgeport office is at Maplewood Court.
Proximity is always an important factor in managing a building.
You need boots on the ground. We have a great committed group, but
there are too few of them. For the nonprofits and affordable-housing
managers, there's never enough money for management and oversight.
That's the challenge.
If we've erred in the past, it's that we've focused too much on
keeping our rents and costs down. We used to pat ourselves on the
back for averaging maybe 1.5 percent a year in rent increases. But
I think we've learned that that approach may not be the best one.
If we're doing this effectively, rent has to increase sufficiently
to cover the additional costs. If we're going to do this, we've
got to be able to pay for it. That may mean residents will have
to pay a little more, but hopefully the outcome will be a place
they're proud of.
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