Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 9-24-21

Feature
Former Complex Manager Says ‘Crime-Free Multi- Housing’ Program Was ‘Positive’ For Tenants
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
There has been much talk in the community since the ar- ticle written by Christopher O’Donnell appeared in the Tampa Bay Times last week and again on Sunday.
The article focused on Black people who were evicted from their residences, and gave the appearance that it was law enforcement officers of the Tampa Police Depart- ment who were making the decision to evict people.
A former housing complex manager says that’s not how the program was operated, if managed properly. “I think it was an excellent program that protected the residents,” Mrs.
Yolanda Amos said. “The program was not about kick- ing people out; it was about making sure they had a safe place to live. The program en- hanced what we were already attempting to do.”
As the former manager of Tampa Park Apartment Com- plex, Mrs. Amos said each of the residents knew about the program.
“When they renewed their leases, they had to sign a form that informed them of what was expected as tenants. One of the forms was about the Crime-Free Multi-Housing Program. We had an open- door policy and anything you did not understand, it allowed you to come in and ask ques- tions. We met monthly with
YOLANDA AMOS
resident captains, put out no- tices, embraced the hired se- curity personnel so they could help us to keep the residents safe,” she further explained.
Adding, she said if there were problems in the areas of the captains, they’d report the
problems, for instance domes- tic violence cases.
Kay Andrews, former Vice Chairman of the Board of the 374 units formerly known as Tampa Park Apartments, says landlords had to agree to participate in the program. “It was not just a program where the police came in and evicted people. The program helped us when we had problems in units that received numerous complaints. The eviction process is more complicated than a police report. A resi- dent is given a notice, and usually they already know why. If the head of the house- hold can rectify the problem, it’s not processed by the prop- erty attorney. However, if they disputed it, a judge had to sign
off on it. If the resident took it to court, in some cases, Bay Area Legal Services repre- sented the tenant. If the judge threw out the eviction, then the property ended up incur- ring the cost of the legal fees and had to continue to house the tenant,” Andrews says.
“My grandfather would say to me, “even a fool has an opinion.” I was young, and didn’t know then, that he was telling me, that my opinion about something I had no idea about was foolish.”
The majority of our resi- dents were good tenants, but unfortunately we had resi- dents who allowed folks who did not live on the property
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