NAA affiliates help hurricane evacuees.

NAA affiliated apartment associations and member companies across the country were integral in housing the tens of thousands of evacuees who fled the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast this past September. They rallied employees and residents to donate millions of dollars, devote countless hours to volunteer efforts and personally welcome individual evacuees and their families into apartment homes.

Following is a small sample of the diverse ways apartment associations are aiding those displaced by the hurricanes, serving as an example of how the industry can mobilize in times of crisis.

Utah Resettles Quadriplegic 

The Utah Apartment Association (UAA) was successful in housing and resettling a quadriplegic Paralympic athlete, David Richard, and his wife, Mary.

Initially, the couple chose to stay in New Orleans as the waters rose and watched their home fill to the second floor when the canal flooded. Having prepared with ample supplies, they stayed six days; but, on the seventh day, a rescue helicopter dropped a basket and, as the husband put it, "We said, 'What the heck?' and went ahead and got in."

The couple were flown to Utah. Because of the husband's disability they needed an accessible unit. They also wanted to be downtown. UAA set to work, quickly finding an accessible unit at one of the President Elect's properties. Despite taking a cut in rent to work with the housing caps, the community willingly embraced several hurricane refugees, placing almost 15 families in all.

When UAA told the couple where their new home would be, in a new apartment located above the premier mall at the Gateway Development in downtown Salt Lake City, they broke into tears. The husband asked if it was close to the Delta Center, where the NBA franchise Utah Jazz play. Being just one block away, he was so excited to see the team that was formerly the New Orleans Jazz, a basketball team he watched as a boy.

Before this couple and other refugees moved in, residents of the apartment community, unsolicited, had filled the office with new pillows, blankets and other household items the refugees would need. UAA members pitched in to donate furniture, gift certificates and much needed moral support and encouragement, accepting the refugees like family.

AACS Relocates Troubled Evacuee Family

The Apartment Association of Colorado Springs (AACS) helped an evacuee and her two children find a safe, new place to live.

The woman and her sons had gone from hurricane ravaged New Orleans to a town in Colorado, where they had hoped to find a new home. There, however, they did not find the warm, caring community that they later found in Colorado Springs.

One son, who is handicapped, suffered tremendously at the hands of schoolmates who had teased him and called him derogatory names. The woman, who tried to earn a living for herself and her children by taking a job at a local fast-food restaurant, was snubbed by patrons who would not go through her line.

AACS received a call from this woman in tears. Pat Stanforth, Past President of AACS, was so disgusted by what she heard that she called her contacts at the Red Cross Center and found a volunteer to pick up the refugee family and bring them to a better environment.

They arrived at the Red Cross Center in Colorado Springs late in the evening. The family was put up in a hotel for the night, and the next day, AACS provided them with an apartment. Volunteers gathered all the necessities as well as gift cards for the children to shop for school clothes.

AACS has helped the family find a new home in Colorado Springs; the family now plans to make it their permanent home.

AOBA Joins in Two-Phase Outreach

While many associations and members focused or] first response and immediate needs for hurricane victims, AOBA of Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland, partnered with Fairfax County's (Northern Virginia) Fairfax Families Care (FFC) plan for second phase assistance to Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

FFC, a regional coalition of public and private organizations, developed a plan to provide support to evacuees who have made their way to Fairfax County. Extending beyond evacuees' immediate needs, this plan develops phase two--helping people reestablish their lives through long-term recovery efforts by focusing on: employment, housing and education. This means matching Katrina evacuees with jobs and housing--provided by AOBA members--and providing room in county schools.

AOBA members were asked to identify and provide either free rent, reduced-rent or market-based units for a period of nine months. Members contributed more than 145 units.

PMA Donates 20 Free Apartments

Members of the Property Management Association of Michigan (PMA) donated approximately 20 free apartments to Hurricane Katrina victims, with no expectations attached.

The program, supported through International Aid & Christian Reform Church, is a non-denominational effort to help hurricane evacuees coordinated through ACCESS.

For this program, an apartment owner sends a list of available apartments to the contact at ACCESS with all necessary information about the unit. ACCESS then pairs a church or synagogue, etc., in the local area of the apartment so they can enter into a lease with the apartment owner for a family. Apartment owners perform their own screening.

A church leases an apartment for one year when a refugee arrives. No rent is expected for the term of this lease unless the refugee qualifies for federal or state rent support.

North Alabama Holds Job Fair

In Huntsville, Ala., an estimated 2,000 evacuees are currently living comfortably in apartment homes throughout the area, and there are roughly 500 vacant units ready to be leased to others. Members of the Apartment Association of North Alabama (AANA) published ads in The Huntsville Times offering available units to evacuees. AANA also participated in local job fairs to assist evacuees with finding employment. The association also donated, as part of a raffle for eligible to evacuees, a $50 gift certificate to a nearby Wal-Mart.

RELATED ARTICLE: Part of something bigger.

The property management industry has experienced tough times over the years. However, it has stayed the course and focused on the bottom line. It has overcome many obstacles through bankruptcy, recession and low interest rates and it still survives.

It is a competitive industry with each apartment company trying to conjure new ways to better the other, providing more amenities, better-looking product and more services. It employs talented marketing people to get us through tough times with creative advertising and maintain a cutting edge.

It is that same competitive spirit that inspires the industry when those are in need, such as in response to the country's worst natural disaster--Hurricane Katrina. Its members are no longer competitors, but are part of the same team. This industry provides for that; it lends itself to that spirit. This industry changes the lives of people, not just when devastation strikes, but every day.

In light of daily responsibilities, it is apparent that we have not lost our souls in the midst of doing business. The residential division of Lincoln Property Company donated $100,000 to the relief effort and has released an employee-matching program in conjunction with its commercial division to raise additional funds. Lincoln is one of the many property management companies to rally their employees, clients and residents to give some of what they have to the less fortunate. This is what staff and residents remember--being a part of something bigger than an apartment unit and rental office.

Mary Ruggerio

Regional Director of Marketing and Training

Lincoln Property Company, Oak Brook, Ill.