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40R HIGHLAND AVENUE - FAIRWEATHER RESPONSE TO SENATOR JOAN LOVELY'S LETTER rr POAH COMMUNITIES September 14, 2022 RECEIVED The Honorable Joan B. Lovely SEP 19 2022 State House, Room 413D Boston, MA 02133 CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH Re: Fairweather Apartments Dear Senator Lovely: Thank you for bringing to our attention the concerns raised by several residents from Fairweather Apartments. Below,please find our responses to each issue. Nonpayment of Rent (Salem & Danvers) Throughout our portfolio, POAH Communities has worked hard to prevent evictions and to access emergency rental assistance for our residents,whenever possible. Unfortunately, some residents at Fairweather Apartments continue to be behind in rent despite our best efforts and we have had to issue some notices to quit. In fact,the state RAFT Program now requires a legal notice to quit to access that program. In three instances, we realized that there was an error in the amount of rent we thought was owed. In those small number of cases, the property manager corrected the problem and issued a letter of apology to each resident. Temporary Relocation of Salem Residents As part of the renovations we are undertaking, HUD has required us to retrofit a certain number of units to make them fully ADA compliant. This involves a substantial rehabilitation of the apartment and temporary relocation of the resident, whether on-site or off-site. There are 7 affected households at Fairweather Salem and our Relocation Specialist provider, HousingToHome (HTH),has been working with each resident to prepare them for renovations in their apartments. Residents are being provided relocation assistance, including proper notice about their move, temporary housing accommodations, and no increased housing or other expenses due to the renovations. HTH has met with each affected household to discuss their reasonable accommodation needs and explained the process and assistance they will be provided. All residents are receiving full moving and packing assistance from a bonded, licensed, insured, and professional moving company. Residents do not have to do any packing or moving of their furniture out of their unit before renovations begin or back to their unit once they are completed. Boston: 2 Oliver Street, Suite 500, Boston MA 02109 T 617-449-0894 F 617-261-6661 Kansas City:920 Main Street,Suite 115, Kansas City, MO 64105 T 816-531-1920 F 816-531-1930 TDD 7-1-1 info@poahcommunities.com • www.poahcommunities.com POAH Communities will accommodate residents based on their needs and is phasing the construction at Fairweather Salem to utilize as many on-site vacant units as possible. This will allow residents to move to another unit on-site and not have to relocate outside of the property. Some residents can move to another vacant unit if they do not wish to return to an apartment with Uniform Federal Accessibility Standard(UFAS) features. If residents are temporarily staying off-site in a hotel, their furniture and belongings are being moved to a safe and secure storage facility through the moving company. They receive the same moving assistance as residents moving on-site. All residents will receive the same assistance out of their units and back once renovations are completed. HTH will provide transportation to the hotel, upon request. The residents mentioned here will not have to relocate to their temporary, on-site units until October. We understand the impact a temporary move outside of the building will have on residents and have informed them we are working on a plan to provide a seamless transition. This is being done in parallel to waiting for vacant units at the property to become available and ready for occupancy. Building Conditions and Property Management • Pest Control: As of today, we have serviced 4 units in the Salem building for bedbug infestation. Each unit received a second treatment as a follow-up measure on September 121h. This past week,we received a complaint regarding one unit in the Danvers building. The unit infested will be treated this week along with two adjacent units as a preventive measure. Please note it is POAH Communities policy to treat all bedbug infestation with"heat"treatment. Adjacent units are also treated as a preventive measure to avoid spreading. Burgess Pest Management continues to service all pest control needs at the property. They are working on a treatment plan to address the roach problem in the Salem and Peabody buildings, called the dust- powder treatment, which targets every common area wall. The treatment is introduced through the baseboards. • Response to Residents: We strive to adhere to our company-wide policy of providing a response to residents within 24 to 48 hours. In addition, our staff is available to residents during business hours and makes a great effort to respond to residents' calls or concerns in a timely fashion. The management office remains open during regular business hours from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. To improve communications with residents and staff, we will schedule monthly meetings to keep the dialogue open. • Bullying: POAH takes seriously any allegation of bullying among residents and will continue to address this issue. We encourage residents to bring to our attention any specific concerns they may have. We have an open-door policy and are committed to providing a safe place for our residents. If a resident is hesitant to speak with the property staff, we encourage them to reach out to the Community Impact Coordinator for assistance. • Package Delivery: While our general policy does not provide specific guidance for package delivery, we would be happy to work with the limited mobility residents to assist with secure package retrieval. We understand our site has unique scenarios that arise due to the population we serve. We also ask that residents report any missing or damaged packages to the company of origin for resolution. • Maintenance Issues: The onsite maintenance team responds to service requests as quickly as possible. Residents are encouraged to contact the management office with the service request. Fairweather also has a 24-hour answering service that will allow residents to call after business hours. • Resident Services: We are happy to share that we have filled our critical Community Impact Coordinator(CIC)role. The CIC position was vacant for several months,but we now have a full-time CIC and a part-time CIC assisting the residents. They will both work to bring events, activities, and other programs that will improve their experience while living at Fairweather Apartments—all of which we were unable to do during the pandemic restrictions. • Security: All Fairweather locations have controlled access and residents are the only ones allowed to access to the building. On numerous occasions, we have communicated to the residents the importance of not opening the building door to strangers. We will continue our communications and reemphasize this in our monthly meetings. • Vehicles: Repairs made to vehicles are usually conducted when our staff are not on the property. Residents are encouraged to report any illegal activity that occurs during off business hours. Our onsite team will continue to monitor the parking lot for any illegal activities or abandoned vehicles. Residents are encouraged to report any illegal activity by calling 911 or our 24-hour line at 978.744.7835. • Disruptive Behavior: We have encouraged residents to report any disruptive behavior involving alcohol or an illegal substance to our management team. Our staff will take the proper legal steps to address any concerns. • Pets: All Fairweather locations are surrounded by ample green spaces that pets could use daily. We will follow up to try to clarify what residents are requesting. Residents accompanied by their leashed pets always have access to the elevators. • Ventilation: All units have a ventilation system. Air conditioning must be installed by the resident using the AC sleeve available in each unit. If a limited mobility resident needs assistance with installing or removing their units, we are always happy to work out a solution with our maintenance team. • Heating: Landlords are required to provide heat during the period of September 15 through June 15 per city officials. Often, some of the months in this range are warm where the heat may not be needed, but the system must be operating. Residents can reach out to the onsite staff team to assist with adjustments to the HVAC. • Water Intrusion: Water intrusion was addressed when the repairs were made to the buildings in early Spring. • Other: In relation to the complaint on unit#109, our team will follow up on the allegations and address them accordingly. POAH Communities takes all these complaints seriously and will follow up with the Fairweather residents to ensure each outstanding issue is addressed quickly. After facing a staff shortage at this property and some others throughout the country during much of the pandemic (as have most of our peer organizations nationwide) we are pleased that we are now almost fully staffed at Fairweather Apartments. This should go a long way towards improving the living situation of our residents and enhancing communications. We are also excited that we will be undertaking significant renovations soon to address some of these challenges. I will work with your staff to coordinate a meeting with our property management staff and senior leadership so that we can continue to discuss progress on these issues. Sincerely, d* Aaron Gornstein President and CEO cc: David Greenbaum, Salem Board of Health Sharon Cameron,Peabody Health Department Frank Giacalone, Danvers Health Department