Midnight in the Garden of Azalea

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It seems that an unwillingness to adddress the concerns of several tenants at Frank Lee Homes has tarnished the recent groundbreaking ceremony of Azalea Gardens. Several tenants of Frank Lee Homes were allegedly threatened with having the locks on their apartments changed for failure to pay either late fees or lawn care fees, and the amount ranged anywhere between $10-13. The tenants stated that they paid their rent, but said they were being evicted for lawn care fees and late charges. In all, there were about eleven residents that claimed they didn't receive any notice to appear in court. All of the residents said they were never served by the constable, a problem that has occured often in that particular area of town. It costs $64 to file a justice court claim against a person. It seems reasonable that they would require the person getting served to sign something in order to verify they received their summons. Better yet, it would make sense if they mailed the summons via certified mail with a signed receipt, but if they implemented that policy there wouldn't be a need for a constable. Back to the matter at hand, the tenants involved tried to resolve this matter for the last two days, but the manager of Frank Lee Homes wasn't intersted in hearing what they had to say. Somehow, the tenants were able to get through to the news department of WDAM and had the opportunity to present their side of the story. I must say that I was surprised that WDAM responded, but the fact that the manager didn't want to address the matter with the tenants has led to this incident being linked to the $9.5 million dollar senior living complex, Azalea Gardens. In an effort to provide a well-rounded report, WDAM wanted to know if MRHA was connected with SMHD. For the record, the two share an office building but they are in different suites. The property for Azalea Gardens was donated by MRHA, but they have two differnt CEO's and are two differnt companies, but they receive a lot of their funding from the same corporations. It's been a while since I worked as a property manager, but to my knowledge, tenants can't be evicted because of late fees or lawn care fees, but I'm not sure how the manager of Frank Lee HOmes is presenting the charges when she goes to justice court. Unfortunately, it seems that unwillingness of the management of Frank Lee Homes,with regards to the summons, has inadvertently cast a dark shadow on Azalea Gardens because the two were linked in the story that is scheduled to air on News 7. I don't understand why the management of MRHA would risk having this incident connected to the ground breaking of Azalea Gardens, but I don't think the managemnt of Frank Lee Homes thought the tenants would actually band together and fight for their rights. Usually, MRHA, use their divide and conqure techniques when trying to get rid of problem tenants, but since most of the people that were being targeted aren't the trouble-makers, their task was a little more complicated. The tenants involved were told they could remain in their units and have been given another court date, which is Thrusday, April 3, 2012.

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