^{Wealth & Poverty Review} Property Managers: The Hidden Heroes of Housing

Within the span of a month, two national headlines had the potential to make anyone working in housing management reconsider their employment. “Couple tied up apartment employee during final walkthrough” hit the news in St. Louis followed by “Minneapolis man allegedly attacked apartment manager with ax after lease not renewed” a few weeks later.

In the St. Louis incident, two tenants tied their property manager to a chair at gunpoint during her walkthrough inspection of the home before move-out. Fortunately, she was able to escape. In Minneapolis, an irate tenant broke down the property manager’s office door with a sledgehammer and held an ax to her neck after she informed him that his lease would not be renewed — one can only guess the reasons behind the non-renewal. The manager was saved by fellow residents who restrained the attacker until law enforcement arrived.

These stories are extremes. And there will always be stories of wrongful behavior, by both residents and property managers. You do not need to look far for stories of poor, or even abusive, property management. The point is that the victim-villain framework for tenants, landlords, and property managers is not a correct understanding in either direction. No one involved in a rental agreement has license to mistreat the other party.

But the pervasive narrative in cities like Seattle dismisses violence, instead emphasizing the “systems of power” at play between renters and those they rent from. Last year, a journalist invited the public to participate in a “take back your power” march on behalf of a tenant who committed suicide after open firing on sheriffs during an eviction.

But is “power” the right framework for viewing the relationships between landlords, property managers, and tenants? Property management is the glue that holds the rental housing market together. Without managers, multifamily housing could not operate. In Seattle, increasingly as part of their role, staff are tasked with handling unpleasant, challenging, or outright dangerous situations.

It is property managers who are left picking up human feces and needles, shouldering a barrage of hateful comments, wading through homes decimated by neglect, and even calling animal control to remove dead pets left behind. A manager in Pierce County told me that “it’s sad to see how the residents’ decisions impact their housing conditions which spills over to how they treat their homes, employees, and neighbors.” Managements’ jobs are often thankless and unnoticed, even though they have an important role in helping residents feel safe and comfortable in their homes.

Simply put, property managers are the hidden heroes of rental housing, but often lost in a smoke screen of hierarchy-smashing politics. In a city known to see systems of injustice around every corner, the Seattle Times now describes the affordable housing industry as “dysfunctional,” and a more accurate view is coming into focus. One step in addressing the dysfunction, is ensuring that property managers are safe and respected in their jobs. That means ditching the “take back your power” narrative, taking strong stances against violent tenant behavior, and halting policies that make it difficult to remove tenants who are a threat to those around them.