Housing and Human Welfare Committee - Regular Meeting

Committee on Tuesday '17 at 05:11. At this time I will have a roll call. Alderman Smith Brown.

Present.

Alderman Cohen T. M. Present. Alderwoman O'Neil is not here. Next on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Can I have a motion?

Yes I move to approve of the agenda.

All in favor?

Aye.

Next on the agenda is business and miscellaneous approval of amendments. Do I have a motion to approve the recommended?

Yes, I move to approve of the amendments. In The minutes of January 20 meeting. Thank you.

Thank you. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Next on the agenda is the general discussion section. First up is ID 526. I see no motion. Next on on the the agenda agenda is will be I the 2126 Wilborn Estates Penrose.

Yep. Hi, miss Hall.

Hello. Hello. She has to turn on the mic.

Push the

push. Okay. Sherry Hall, Wilborn Estates with Ben Rose.

Hi. Thanks for coming. I just wanted to have you come and give us an update on the property. I know you said that you weren't here, but I just want you to give like an update on the property

for us. Oh, okay. Like, we have 78 apartments, five are vacant. We have people on a wait list that are gonna be moved in. I'm not really having any issues.

We don't have a property manager. I'm an assistant property manager and I have a temporary person helping me. Or she's not a temporary person, she's a real person but she's helping me temporarily. The biggest thing I think we're seeing is I think because the property is so new and it's starting to settle, we're finding some cracks around the baseboards and that kind of stuff that we've called vendors in to take care of that stuff. We have a few appliances that are failing even only after four years.

And so I as the assistant property manager am trying to find out where those warranties are because we shouldn't have to be paying for things if they're still under warranty. But not really a whole lot of issue really. We have a resident who does call HACA quite a bit, but we're dealing with that in our way. I don't know what else to say other than I'm happy to have been able to be here. I wish I knew more so I could give you more information. But if you have questions for me,

Okay, the first is do you mind sharing your name with us and again, and where you, address I believe it is or where you're from.

Well I'm Sheri, C H E R I, Hall, H A L L, with Wilborn Estate which used to be I think Newtown 20. And it's at 801 Newtown Drive here in Annapolis Two One Zero Four One 21401. I'm an assistant property manager if I haven't already said that.

Okay. Do you happen to know why there is not yet a property manager?

Nope. I've been asking for a property manager. I came on the September and at the December they let the property manager go. And I've been asking for someone to come and give me some assistance since then. So a little over two weeks ago, I finally was able to secure a person from a temp agency who's really, really well versed and is very, very helpful to me. We are way behind on research and that's what we're concentrating on.

What are some concerns that you believe you may have as you've taken on this role as assistant property manager?

That they're never gonna get a property manager and I'm gonna continue to be the acting property manager and they know very plainly I've made them know that. Excuse me, but I've told them you could pay me a thousand dollars a day and make me the queen. I don't wanna be the property manager. I've been a property manager my whole life. I applied to be a leasing agent. Maggie, who I've mentioned, she called me and said you're overqualified and I said yes, I know. She said so and I said so thanks. She said but wait, you know, how about coming in as an assistant property manager to our manager? Sure. So I came September 29 and that manager was let go on December 2. So didn't have a whole lot of time with her. And I've been flying solo since.

Were there any supports you think us as voting members of the city council can do legislatively that may support with requiring fully staffed managerial roles at these properties that we have partnerships with?

Well, know I don't know because Penrose is a for profit company. They're not an organization, know they're not nonprofit. And I don't know how deep you would go into that with a for profit company. They're headquartered in Pennsylvania, which is already an issue for me because they're a few states away. For instance, the vice president of operations who was gonna be here lives in Tennessee.

My supervisor, the regional director, she's gone. She left Friday. We Tanya ill Tanya. Tanya was your supervisor. Tanya what?

Was your supervisor?

Well, she was the regional manager and since there was no manager, I I, you know, did did everything with Tanya. I saw, yeah, so she didn't tell anybody till Friday they sent out an email saying that she was leaving. Didn't get a whole lot of notice. There were rumors but you know, what do you do with rumors? You just let them bounce off of you and keep doing your job.

But I'm willing to talk to council members and do whatever we have to do to get whatever needs to be done. It's a great property. It looks nice and it's well kept. And there aren't a whole lot of issues, physical issues. And there are very few issues with lease violations and people who choose to be apart from the lease. We do have security every weekend from Friday night till Monday morning. That seems to help a lot.

Good. I got a question for you. Yeah. What is the process for a person who has a one bedroom but receives custody of a grandchild? Like what's the process?

Well, we would wanna see the custody papers, first of all, to make sure it's, legal. And then, because you can have two people in a one bedroom, it's not a high priority to get them into a two bedroom. But we do we do want them to be in the two bedroom to make everybody comfortable. And so then we just well, we we get three or four vacancies a year, so it's really hard to to change people around, to do that.

Okay, thank you.

I mean I have someone in that situation right now.

I know somebody there that's having that situation so that's why.

They are in our only market rate apartment and so they they would have to qualify for affordable, you know, light tech apartment with their income in order to be moved out into another apartment. That's a specific that would be a specific thing to have to have happen. Not everybody has to because there's only that one market rate. But for instance, if someone is in a one bedroom, whatever their set aside is, thirty, fifty, or 60 at our apartments, we would have to put them in the same set aside.

Oh, yeah. So if she's on the market, it would go up because she's getting a two bedroom.

Well, her her rent would probably go down, but she has to qualify for that rent. But we would more than likely have to put her in a 60% because that would be the highest rent and also the highest allowable income.

Okay. Thank you.

Acting City Manager Vicki Buckland. Just wanted to ask a question. You clearly have a long history working in this area. You said you've been a property manager for a very long time. Can you talk about how your the practices or experiences at where you're working now compare and contrast with your experience as maybe in other locations, are there differences in how this property gets managed compared to others?

Now I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but I have I can honestly say that I've never had to scramble around to get help in any of my other properties. When there was a need, they found help. Whether I was a property manager needing a leasing agent or an assistant or whatever. And this is real different for me at Penrose. I have been asking since December 2 when the other property manager was let go.

But I think because of that, and this isn't a good thing, they give me some leeway. Like for instance, our research are really late. But there's nobody saying, hey, let's bring a whole bunch of people over and help you with your research or and and our research is really late. If I were the property manager, I'd be reamed. But they're not doing that. Not that I wanna be reamed for anything, mind you, but it's almost like they don't notice. Are you agreeing, Scott? Okay.

So another question that we had is what is the delinquency rate with the do you happen to have that information with you today?

I don't have it with me but I will tell you because we have started having people pay with rent cafe, I don't collect a lot of physical payments in the office. And I just pulled a delinquency report today but I just really can't recall what it is. People usually are caught up by the end of the month as far as making their monthly payment. Some people aren't. Some people go to other places to get help.

But they're really good about asking for help and they're really good about getting help from churches or other entities. City of Annapolis has helped some folks. So it's not like they're late on their rent and they're just thumbing their nose at it. They're making concerted effort to try and get those balances brought down.

Any more questions for her? I think that's it. Thanks for coming.

Well that was easy. And you have my email if you have other questions like if you wanted to know our delinquency. I couldn't tell you who of course, but I could let you know what percentage. You just email me.

And if there's maybe a presentation that you would normally give at some event or meeting that you can maybe provide to us in the future, that'd be great to have.

As as I know what's required, I didn't know. I just was on an email distribution list and saw that nobody from Penrose was showing up, and I thought, well, I should go to this. Cause I have come here before representing HACA. Somebody should definitely come. And I and I did.

And so we're asking of that for maybe next

time. Yeah. So just yeah. Just let me know. I'm happy to make the time

k. Thank you.

To to come and do this. So so so do I stay or go?

You free

to believe me.

Okay. Well, thanks.

Sorry.

Well, I I kinda would like to hear what what's happening over and over. Okay. Sure. Because

At this time, we'll have anyone who wants to come forward for public testimony. You have three minutes. And I need you to get on the mic and speak your name and where you live.

Hello. My name is Ketora Kali. I am the president of Aubrey Court Penrose. And I just wanted to say that some residents do have some concerns about their units. We have one resident. She's complaining about mold in her unit. She said that she had told them that the mold was only for her sink and they did not go in to check. So when they were in there, she would go back and forth to see what work they had got done to her unit. And she called me and was stating that the mold was still underneath of the zinc. She keep on calling, keep on saying stuff to Tonya.

Tonya didn't she act like she didn't care. I know she called to the rental office multiple times. I just don't know what else she can do. And I told her, I'm like, I don't know what else you can do to be honest. Tanya is no longer there. Ginger is no longer there. It's nobody you can talk to. Amber don't know too much. She need help. She's there by herself. It's no she's a leasing agent. It's no property manager, no assistant property manager. She's just a lonely soul. So the trash, that's another issue. Today was trash pickup.

I still have trash in my trash cans out front. I called Amber and asked her, did she know why they didn't come through? She told me she was gonna ask mister Albert, which is the maintenance man, and get back with me. I still don't know why they didn't come. The trash up in over a court in is that Pleasant Street.

Pleasant, over a court, and then I wanna say there's another dumpster up there. They don't get picked up either. It looks like it's a mess. So I'm not sure what they're gonna do about the trash. It's just not it's unacceptable the way that the residents are living.

We can't get anything new. We have to wait. I have one residence that live on Bertina Nickway. She was waiting for a stove and a dryer, I believe, for like over a year or more. When Ginger came in, she got what she needed.

I just don't know. I really don't know what instead of sending out people at corporate to walk through, they need the business owners. They need the owners of Penrose to come through and see what's going on in their places where people are living. So that's all I have to say.

Thank you. You're welcome.

I make a motion Madam Chair.

Yes.

Okay. I would like to move for the Office of Law to summons the following properties. Annapolis Gardens, Homes At The Glynn, And ByWaters Apartment Complexes to come to the next Housing and Human Welfare Committee meeting on 04/21/2026.

I'll second that. All in favor?

Aye.

Next on the agenda, the agenda is complete. I will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. All in favor say aye.

I move to adjourn.

Aye.

Aye. Thank you. Have a blessed

that eventually became available that may have trickled down, maybe totally dried up. We we have to face that.

Yeah.

That that that risk or that possibility. And it probably will be us again helping

us