Apartment managers send rude letter to tenants about COVID-19. Social media isn’t having it
Words like, “unacceptable,” “humiliating” and “inexcusable” are being used across social media, blasting the property managers of a low-income housing complex in Bradenton after they sent a threatening letter to tenants about the coronavirus pandemic.
The letter, dated March 23, set social media abuzz and now the managers are apologizing, saying it wasn’t meant for everyone.
The letter was signed by Robin’s Apartments property managers Debbie Sipps and Kristi McClellan. In it, they told tenants in no uncertain terms, “If you think that you don’t have to pay rent because of the pandemic, you are mistaken.”
The letter goes on to say that those with disabilities or those receiving social security “have no excuse to fall short on paying their rent. However, some of you believe we cannot file eviction for nonpayment of rent. This is not true.”
Sipps and McClellan attempt to explain that current delays in evictions and foreclosures due to the pandemic are for housing managed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “so you must pay your rent.”
They go on to write that any tenant who has had their employment affected by the virus should “keep watch in the laundry room for postings for jobs and or assistance for rent,” but go on to threaten to close the laundry room if tenants don’t follow the rules.
“If you would like to discuss with us how any of this, or the spread of the virus is our fault, please come see us in the office,” they wrote.
The letter goes on to threaten tenants with eviction if they violate any other rules, such as having guests over.
Robin’s Apartments, a former motel at 2303 First St., was converted into a low-income housing complex in 2016.
Affordable housing champion and philanthropist Harvey Vengroff spearheaded the project. Vengroff died in 2018 and his son Mark Vengroff now oversees much of his dad’s affordable housing legacies.
Vengroff apologized on behalf of his property managers and his One Stop Housing company, “for the message that went out earlier this week and have redistributed a revised notice.”
Vengroff said it was an unfortunate decision to rush something out to all of the residents in response to, “a few individuals whose actions,” put others at risk of being exposed to the coronavirus.
Sipps and McClellan made it clear in the letter to all tenants that if they don’t like the rules, they should look for another place to live. Vengroff stood by those words, but that they weren’t meant for everyone.
“If they don’t like it, we are an extremely affordable option and if they don’t like those rules, there’s other places they should look,” he said. “We’ve got great people there. They’re lovely and law-abiding and have become an extension of our families.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 10:32 AM.
