The Spring Gate apartment complex, also known as Rockland Place, has been in existence along Martha Drive and Hannah Way in Rockland, Massachusetts for about 42-years now. Hedge-fund investors and partners receive Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and billions of dollars in government funds in exchange for lowered rents, more paperwork, and regulations that aren't often enforced according to the HUD Handbook and federal/state laws.Some people have suspected blue collar and white collar organized crime on this property. Unusual and extra heavy traffic patterns began flowing in and out of this dead-end complex sometime in the 1980's. In the nineties, peculiar business listings were published in phone directories and online. One listed phone number called an answering machine at So. Shore Voc-Tech. There was never a Mariott Hotel or a Friendly's Ice Cream Shop or even a Rockland Self-storage facility at any residential building on Martha Drive, where cocaine and other drugs were often sold. So why all the repetitive business listings in this subsidized housing complex, even after listings were reported to corporate mgmt., MassHousing Finance, and government officials? Perhaps laundering drug money?
This subsidized housing development has been financed and renovated with billions of dollars from HUD, MassHousing loans (with reduced interest rates), grants, taxpayer funds, etc. The complex holds a total of 204 rental apartments. 193 of these apartments are reserved for low-income tenants who pay 30-40% of their income toward rent payments. HUD pays the remainder of the rent to the corporate partners who own numerous subsidized properties across the country. According to police and tenants, this mixed-income, subsidized development has been a hot spot for crime in Rockland, including rapes, drugs, robberies, break-ins, mail theft, fires, beatings, threats, shootings, vandalism, and knife attacks for more than a decade. Except for the first 10 years, Rockland Place has always been a nuisance property, often unsafe and indecent, with violations in codes, human rights, and fair housing laws.
In 2008, Rockland Police Lt., Barry Ashton, explained the ongoing criminal activity to a local daily newspaper, “It’s an apartment complex, and any time you have an apartment complex with a lot of people squeezed into a tight geographic area, you’re going to have problems.” Ashton has since retired from the Rockland Police Dept. after another police officer was promoted to Police Chief.
When Rockland Place first started housing people in 1972, this 'non-profit' property was owned and managed by Edwin D. Abrams. Sometime in the 1980's, Rockland Place started adding partners like Bruce Rozet of AFC Corporation and Julie Wall of United Housing Preservation. In 1996, Cornerstone Corporation replaced Abrams Management. Rockland Place continued in its downward spiral.
From 2005, Neil H. Ellis of First Hartford Corporation and William M. Connolly of the newly established Connolly and Partners LLC were first introduced to residents and added to the mix of additional partners and investors. Residents weren't informed of Boston Capital's involvement until after it was published on this site. The newer corporate partners promised to clean up the crime and to improve the property's bad reputation by changing the name to Spring Gate.
Deceptive business practices, wastefulness, crime, and substandard living conditions continued. At least one resident with documented medical disabilities was not accommodated and escaped into homelessness with absolutely no compensation from the government financed corporate landlords. Other tenants stayed and also suffered losses with personal property damaged during shoddy repairs and renovations.
Currently, this subsidized multifamily housing complex has about 20 vacant apartments. While rents continue to increase, residents live with pipe leaks and repetitive sewerage backup, asbestos in wall panels, crime and other unsafe conditions, increased apartment inspections by a variety of government agencies and corporations, non-compliance of lease agreements, etc.
Let's face it, government programs look better on paper than they actually are. If these poorly managed programs really helped the vulnerable, more Americans would be better able to lift themselves out of poverty and dependency.
The never-ending cycle of government expansion and dependency continues under President Obama. He insists on using more tax dollars to build even more subsidized housing in good neighborhoods. So please remind me ... How does infecting more American neighborhoods with crime and socialism improve American lives?
*Here's what Dr. Ben Carson thinks on the subject. (external article)
**Who Are the Biggest Corporate Welfare Moochers? (external article)
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