Once residents of the Greenewood Senior Apartments confirmed that the board of the non-profit Greenewood Homes planned to sell their residences to a private, for-profit company and to increase rents to an amount yet undetermined, understandably, the residents had many questions, concerns and ideas. So, they invited Sid Jones, chair of the Greenewood Homes board, to attend their monthly potluck for a conversation on these plans, that, if implemented, will deeply impact all current and future Greenewood Apartment residents. Sid said he would arrange these meetings and we expect he will.
The purpose of this letter is to communicate our ideas, questions and concerns in a public forum and, in so doing, open the discussion of what is best for the future of the Greenewood Apartments to the wider community. Doing this is necessary because the board meetings of Greenewood Homes are not open to the public. In deciding the future of the Greenewood Apartments, certainly, the wisdom of the community is greater than that of a few people working behind closed doors.
In seeking to sell the Greenewood Apartments to a private party, the board would be changing the legal structure of the Greenewood Apartments from a non-profit to a for profit model. Doing this would inevitably result in higher rents for senior citizens as a for profit organization needs to include room for profit in their rents while a non-profit organization only needs to cover capital expenditures and on-going costs. In addition, residents would lose the protective benefits of a board of directors to ensure the mission of providing safe, low cost housing for senior citizens in our community continues.
The residents of Greenewood Apartments ask the board to open their financial books so all can know the amount of reserves now held as a way to see if increased rents are needed. Likewise, we ask the board to submit a plan of how the residents will benefit from the increased rents they would pay. In other words, how will the increased rents be used to take care of deferred capital projects and other needed on-going maintenance? The residents argue that raising the rents to make it easier to sell the property to a for profit organization who would charge higher rents is not in line with the mission of the Greenewood Homes or the generosity of a community member who, decades ago, “sold” the land for $1 for the purpose of building senior housing.
While we argue against selling Greenewood Apartments for the reasons explained, if they were sold, this raises questions about what to do with the proceeds from the sale and what impact the sale would have on the congregate meals program? These decisions should include the wider community.
So now, community members have the opportunity to let your voice be heard rather than simply waiting to see what the Greenewood Homes board decides and presents as an already decided and done deal. In our view, the Greenewood Apartments are too important to allow that to happen.
Bryan Helmus, Greenewood Apartment resident and the Potluck Team
