Public "Safety" Push from Landlord
January 26, 2024 3:58 PM   Subscribe

Our apartment management is encouraging tenants to complain about visible homelessness in our neighborhood. This all feels wrong and terrible (because it feels like they're trying to get us to push local government to get the local unhoused folks out of sight, without caring about whether they actually get help) but also pushing back feels like it could endanger my tenancy. What do I do?

My apartment building is owned by some corporation; the building manager lives on site. The building manager has been very active lately, emailing the whole complex (presumably, the emails sound like all tenants are bcc'ed) to encourage tenants to attend public safety meetings and generally call in complaints about unhoused people in the area. One of the emails the manager sent encouraged us to visit a nonprofit's website. The linked org sounded like a nonprofit for supporting the needs of unhoused people but turned out to be a bunch of property and business owners more interested in protecting property values than paying taxes for social services. The tenor of the emails feels very politely scaremongery, if that makes sense. Like the landlord is trying to launder their attempt to increase property values by getting us to howl about unsafe it makes us feel to witness homelessness.

I am not someone who talks to my neighbors (social anxiety, high likelihood of undiagnosed autism), so I don't feel like I could chat anybody up about this. And I'm worried that if I go to a public safety meeting and say something against sweeps or criminalization or push back on these emails that I'll get blacklisted somehow and they'll start looking for reasons to evict. But the emails feel gross, I don't know what to do, what do I do?
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? to Grab Bag (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You can probably submit comments to public meetings by email ahead of time, which would give you time to compose your thoughts and consider your tone etc. I think you’d still be on record as making a comment, if that’s a concern.
posted by Suedeltica at 4:07 PM on January 26, 2024 [1 favorite]


LOL, people are so stupid. There was a wealthy guy who routinely bought the most expensive seats in Yankee Stadium. He happened to rock a wild style for his hair and beard. So the comments on Yankees fan sites routinely were like, "Hey! Whoo's da homeless guy behind home plate???!!1!!1!?"

So to answer your question, in your place I would be sure to add to my written comments, "X Corp. is simply defaming our neighbors. They have no idea where anybody lives and no evidence that anybody on Z Street is homeless. Nobody out there has been a threat to anyone. X Corp. is just wasting your time."

I'm assuming the facts as I believe you've stated them in your post. If there are really for sure homeless people out there, like they've pitched their tent next to your front door, please modify my suggestion.
posted by JimN2TAW at 4:56 PM on January 26, 2024 [1 favorite]


You don't have to go to a public meeting and speak out loud in order to comment on this issue. You an also submit comment in writing. Any email you send will become part of the public record and anyone can look it up, but they would have to make some additional effort to download something or make a special request.

Will someone in your building or the property manager make the effort to track that down and then read all of the written comments to find your name? Only you can say that.
posted by brookeb at 4:57 PM on January 26, 2024


Can you just...do nothing? If the mgr is sending mass e-mails to the entire building, I'd just ignore it.
If you'd like to counteract his/her request without directly opposing it, perhaps donate/volunteer with a local aid organization?
posted by bahama mama at 5:31 PM on January 26, 2024 [26 favorites]


Our apartment management is encouraging tenants to complain about visible homelessness in our neighborhood.
One of the emails the manager sent encouraged us to visit a nonprofit's website.


Encouragement is not being told to do anything or ask you to do anything. You are aware of zero requirement to do anything publicly here, nor have you been asked to. You can simply do nothing.

On the very off chance your landlord tries to tell you to complain, you have found a truly hellacious place to live, and you should leave regardless of your feelings on the matter.
posted by saeculorum at 5:38 PM on January 26, 2024 [1 favorite]


Yeah, just don't.
posted by rhizome at 5:50 PM on January 26, 2024 [3 favorites]


Best answer: In your place I would ignore the whole thing. If you were the type to speak to your neighbors I would suggest gently pushing back if it came up in conversation, but since you aren’t that concern is moot.

One thing you could do is your own research to find a local organization that actually does support and advocate for the unhoused in your area. You could donate to them if that’s feasible, or you could send them a message about what’s going on in your building. There might be resources like informational pamphlets or flyers that they could distribute nearby, or methods of pushback against the group mentioned in the manager’s email that are already going on that you could participate in.

It’s good that you’re concerned about this crappy behavior. But if doing anything about it causes you outsized amounts of stress or difficulty, save your energy for other things. Don’t invent things from whole cloth either; I guarantee that there are already people in your area who are already doing lots of things to help. Find those people and do what they suggest will be most effective. Or, focus on helping the helpers so they can do their thing even better.
posted by Mizu at 5:57 PM on January 26, 2024 [3 favorites]


I posted a similar AskMe when my own building manager did something similar when there was a similar regulation up for a vote in New York (not this blatant, more something like, the city wanted a regulation saying that landlords could only go so far with background checks for potential tenants). One of the best suggestions I got was to forward the emails to my local city council member, to ask "Hey, is this....cool that my landlord is doing this?" It seemed safest, because a) My name would not be on record as having spoken up, so that avoided the "problematic tenant" issue and b) that's what the city council member is there for. My landlord just stopped doing it, though, so it just hasn't been an issue anyway.

Maybe reach out to your city council. At the very least, they can be a "sanity check" for you to find out "yeah, it sucks, but it is legal for them to do this" and give you other ideas on how you can help the unhoused people in your neighborhood. You also don't have to "speak publicly" to do that, necessarily; you can just call them.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:33 AM on January 27, 2024 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Submit comments in writing from an anonymized email and mention that at least one landlord is sending out blanket emails pressuring tenants to complain, without mentioning which landlord it is.
posted by corb at 9:04 AM on January 27, 2024 [2 favorites]


If your property manager won't recognize you, you can also just testify but not give your name. "Good morning, Mayor and Council Members. I'm a neighbor and ..." It's very rare that they ask. There might be a comment card where you have to sign up to testify, but they don't check ID so any sort of nickname that accurately identifies you (but might not be recognizable to your landlord) would also work. You could also forward it to a social justice advocacy group or leave them a voice mail anonymously.
posted by slidell at 1:35 PM on January 27, 2024


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