Start shredding the news: to help curb identity theft risk among residents, some management companies have hired a professional paper shredding company that destroys junk mail and other documents.

Renee Clark, CAM, CAPS, is not always shoulder-deep in her residents' trash. But on this particular day, the Senior Regional Manager of Gables Residential Properties in Austin, Texas, has been rummaging through the mailroom recycling bins and wastebaskets searching for valuable pieces of mail. What she found were credit card offers, shopping receipts, pay stubs and bank statements.

"We went through the trash--because when people throw it away, it's public and legal--and we found all this private information," she said. And it would be that easy for a thief to find that information, too.

Recently the media have been focusing on identity theft, one of the fastest-growing crimes in America. Approximately 13 people become victims of identity theft every minute, according to Gartner Research and Harris Interactive, 2003.

"There is not a person out there who is not susceptible to identity left," Clark said. "And you have to educate your residents."

Clark's own education about identity theft began when a local mobile shredding service owner approached her about starting a shredding program at the nine Gables communities in the Austin area. After finding piles of her residents' personal information and junk mail, she knew something had to be done.

"I was instantly convinced," she said. "This is a really great concept."

In July 2005, Gables Residential Properties, with 2,715 units, became the first owner of apartment communities in Austin to start a shredding program for its residents.

Weekly Destruction

For about $200 per month, a large truck with an on-board shredder arrives at the communities weekly to destroy all documents that have been tossed into special padlocked bins. The truck is equipped with two cameras that allow residents to watch on a built-in monitor as their private information is destroyed.

Clark chose to use a mobile shredding service instead of an onsite paper shredder because of the service's security and reliability. An onsite paper shredder can jam, break or cause injuries, making it a liability. A mobile service is also much faster at making personal information practically disappear; it would take a paid worker days to manually shred 20 pounds of paper, while it would take a mobile service only minutes.

Clark ran a 30-day pilot program at Gables at the Terrace to test how well the residents would receive the new service. Bins were placed in the mailroom next to trashcans. Clark sent letters to the residents at the nine communities that detailed how the shredder service works and when the service was to begin. She also included a list of items that should be shredded to protect residents from identity theft, which included mail that to many could seem to be perfectly innocent.

"Magazines that you've subscribed to can lead to identity theft," Clark said. The labels pasted on the covers of magazines are printed with the subscriber's name, address and account number. That information alone could be a goldmine for identity thieves, Clark said.

It took about a month for residents to start regularly using the bins, during which some residents continued to cut or shred their mail by hand. Some would shred their mail and then toss it in the bin. Still some had to watch the truck shred their mail before they trusted the service.

"We tell our residents that we help protect them from identity theft by providing this service," Clark said. "Now residents have really taken to it. It's been a hit with every demographic, from the higher end to B-class properties."

Along with the bins in the mailroom, shredder bins were placed in the managers' offices for destroying private business information.

"We get residents who say, 'I want you to shred my application as soon as I'm done with it so no one sees my Social Security number.' Residents are in tune, very savvy and very smart," Clark said. "Offering this service is just one more step in providing good customer service."

The Grateful Shred

Kaye Rogers, ARM, Marketing and Leasing Manager of The Preserve at Travis Creek in Austin, said that her two months of using a mobile document destruction service have been a success with her residents, and she has sent emails to other Greystar Management Services' communities to spread the news about the value of the service.

"Managers must always be aware of all situations," Rogers said. With the recent publicity surrounding identity theft, destruction of personal information has been a big concern for apartment managers.

"We're always trying to fill our residents' needs," Rogers said. Although residents hadn't been requesting a shredding service, the bins are being used every day by nearly all the residents. "The feedback about the service has been great."

It took Travis Creek's residents about two weeks to adjust to the new system, but when their initial confusion and curiosity wore off, residents stopped overfilling the recycling bins with their credit card offers and junk mail and instead started tossing their mail in the shredder bins. Residents love the service because it makes them feel relieved and safe, Rogers said.

"The residents appreciate it, they use it, and it's very secure," she said. "Now our recycling bins are down to just newspaper ads."

The shredding service provides instant recycling, and in a city like Austin where it is mandatory for all apartment communities to recycle, that instant recycling is beneficial. After the paper is shredded, the truck takes it to a local recycling center where it is sold at $5 per ton to be made into other products.

Kate Pierce is NAA's Coordinator of Design and Production. She can be reached at 703/797-0619 or [e-mail].