Partners in Crime

Attorneys, Owners, and Management for Rockland Place Apartments LP, Rockland Place Apartments LLC, Connolly and Partners LLC continue with their deceptive and retaliatory patterns of doing business. Hopefully, the state of Massachusetts, Dept. of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), Southeastern Housing Court, and HUD won't continue to support the numerous underhanded methods of these corporate partners.

To see how well our system really works against vulnerable citizens, please read just one investigative report at: http://www.boston.com/news/special/spotlight_debt/part3/page1.html

Did you notice the name, Kevin J. Dalton, in that investigative piece? Well, guess whose name shows up on a deceptive complaint by Rockland Place Apartments. Yes, Kevin J. Dalton, Constable of Rockland and owner of South Coast Legal Services, Inc. Why would Southeast Housing Court or Kevin J. Dalton threaten to remove a person or his/her personal property from a said premises when the person and that property are already gone? Can anyone tell me how to invest in a Boston Capital hedge fund property where nobody knows your name?

More questions: And how many months is your annual occupancy agreement in effect? How many times each year must you fill out an annual recertification? Tell me, has Rockland Place Apartments stopped towing the vehicles of their law-abiding residents yet?

Slip-Sliding Away...

Reports of continued walking hazards, including icy walkways, concern several residents, especially those residents and guests with physical disabilities.

massresources.org defines private subsidized housing with the following text: Private subsidized housing is privately owned low-rent housing for low-income families, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Private subsidized housing developments are owned and operated by private owners, not the government. These owners receive money, called "subsidies," from the government to help pay rents, building costs, or other expenses. In return, they set aside some apartments for low and moderate-income households and charge low rents.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and MassHousing fund and regulate these programs. All private subsidized housing developments are owned and managed by private organizations. Some of these organizations are large for-profit housing developers, and some are small non-profit community development corporations (CDCs).

According to my housing experience at this privately-owned subsidized complex: In return for providing unsafe and substandard housing, corporate partnerships get rich and powerful through government funding while violating several state and federal laws. These owners selectively arrange tenant waiting lists to their liking, discreetly discriminate, contribute to the harassment of certain households, etc. etc. etc.

As Mr. William Connolly explained, "It's all about politics."

Deceptive Business Practices

(click on photo collage for large view.)

It appears agencies and corporate owners can't figure out the date of purchase, and who really purchased Rockland Place Apartments, I mean, Spring Gate. Their 'facts' are ever-changing. One paper reads the owner is Cornerstone, another lists Rockland Place Apts. LP, another First Hartford Corp., another states Connolly and Partners, LLP, while another document lists Boston Capital Tax Credit. Residents received certified mail stating the new ownership and management began on November 1, 2006. Mishaps and chaotic construction by 'new owners' began August 2006.

My usual ANNUAL recertification took place November 1, 2006. I was, again, ANNUALLY recertified in mid-March 2007, without a 90-day notice, as my November's recertification document promised I would be. Beginning May 2007, I paid their rent increase, for the increased amount that my 2nd ANNUAL recertification document stated. Sometime in late August, I received another stack of papers with a court date, falsely stating I owed an exhorbitant amount of rent. It wasn't the first time low-income residents have been deceptively overcharged higher than usual rents for this 204-unit subsidized housing complex. The outlined photos show different contract rent amounts for the same sized unit at Rockland Place Apts. dba Spring Gate. Discrepancies always favor these corporate landlords.

Residents are rarely provided legal or sufficient notice for repairs or renovations to be made. Personal property gets damaged by workers. Don't waste your time requesting a reasonable accommodation. While you wait for their answer, you'll get a court date instead. MassHousing continues to grant these corporate partnerships more rent increases while they're in non-compliance of laws and regulations. Residents are required to sign misdated and deceptive documents (1-sided leases, misdated and inaccurate recertifications, etc.). Corporate owners know they can threaten residents with eviction proceedings and, more often than not, residents will go along with the illegal and unfair situation(s). This is not only greedy, but clearly an abuse of power. It certainly isn't fair housing!

I've never found Spring Gate Apts. to be a 'welcoming environment', but I hear cockroaches and bedbugs are trying the place out. For me, Spring Gate Apts. was not a home; it was a noisy construction site with owners who have little regard for residents' quality of life -- But then again, I don't earn at least $25,000. annually, as owners required in a few Apartment Guide listings. Do they discriminate in the enforcement of their policies and procedures? Yes.

I really do think it's time the state of Massachusetts and our federal government stepped in and did a thorough and impartial investigation for fraud, discrimination, and deceptive business practices which has been, and still is, costly in several ways to innocent and vulnerable taxpayers.

You can add your own text too.

Spring Gate: The Unwelcoming Environment

Not only does this corporate landlord over bill for subsidized rents, workers recently cut cable lines to residents' apartments without notice. This interferes with phones, internet and televisions. Workers enter apartments with insufficient notice too. Rent payers are also ordered from their units for some of the unnecessary renovations. Residents at Rockland Place Apts. dba Spring Gate continue to live in chaos while Landlords breach their warranty of habitability and make a larger profit in rents for 2007. Is this what Mr. William M. Connolly meant when he promised Board of Selectman he would turn Rockland Place into an asset? I would think these terrible conditions would warrant displacement funds for residents needing a safe, decent place to live.

More Discoveries

* SEC Info - Boston Capital Real Estate Investment Trust Inc -POS AM-On 4/2/07-EX-99

* amNewYork (outside news): Meritless Lawsuit?

In Summary...

How does Rockland Place Apartments Limited Partnership and Connolly & Partners LLC accommodate residents with disabilities? They don't.

Ask for a reasonable accommodation for a specific disability and they will use their knowledge of that particular disability to harass you from your subsidized unit; therefore, deliberately denying you access to a state and/or federal program.

Fairytales, Falsehoods, and Fibs from the Crib

During several meetings, 'new owners' promised to keep tenants 'informed every step of the way' during renovations. They even promised to provide residents with the option of storage, trucks, and/or renovated units during this difficult time.

Residents asked 'new' landlords what plans they had to rid the complex of drug dealers. Mr. Joe Caffey insisted 'drug dealers would see they had a new sheriff in Town and just leave'. Tenants were told security cameras would be installed in common areas and a police substation would exist on the property.

Included in these fairytales was the promise of a new handicapped-accessible shuttle to and from the Abington Commuter Rail and Super Stop & Shop at least a couple of times per week. However, since the official takeover of 11-1-2006, residents of Spring Gate have only recently been invited to share use of a free school bus with senior citizens in another complex. It only travels on Thursdays from 9am and returns by 10:20am. This old school bus is not even handicapped-accessible.

Time and time again, residents were promised that our apartments would be 'affordable into perpetuity' by Mr. Joe Armstrong and staff of the 'new' Rockland Place Apartment complex, dba Spring Gate. Meanwhile, MassHousing continued approving rent increases while Management is, and has been, in non-compliance of subsidy programs. Recently, I received a notice ordering me to pay more than 30% of my income while on the HUD section 236 program. Corporate landlord claimed I should pay them an amount above and beyond what I receive each month. 'Affordable into perpetuity?' ..... I think not.

With a MassHousing representative present, I again requested landlord comply with Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 186 in regard to obtaining property insurance information. I reminded executives that I've provided numerous written requests over several years, and have not yet received this information. Mr. Armstrong promised he would get this to us very shortly. Four months later, residents are still waiting.

Insufficient Notice of Entry

This is how Management disregards my written request for reasonable accommodation even after being contacted by Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston: (click on images to enlarge)

Thursday afternoon August 30, 2007, I received a notice from this property mgr. that workmen will need full access to my apartment 'Starting Tuesday 9-4-07 from 8am-4pm'. No one showed. No one called.

On Wednesday 9-5-07, I was startled from a sleep by an unfamiliar workman inside my living room after he ripped open the locked patio door. Is this what 'having the right to feel secure' inside your home means? I called Management to ask her about this situation. She claimed she gave me sufficient notice. Really? And how long does 'STARTING TUESDAY' last for?

On Thursday and Friday, instead of finishing up the work they started, workmen worked on other uncompleted buildings. Residents have been seriously inconvenienced and unexpectedly disturbed with noise, interference, and inaccurate notice of work schedules.

Without notice, Saturday 9-8-07, I was awakened by loud hammering and drilling outside my third floor bedroom window. I looked out to see a workman raising a hammer toward my window and walls. Again, no notice. It sure would be nice if leases and laws for tenants were enforced on these HUD/Mass Housing properties.

Even with all the overtime, the windows and patio doors still aren't complete. Neither are the common areas. It is a hazardous and stressful place to have to live. Let's reward these corporate landlords with another rent increase for being in constant violation of occupancy agreements.

Management's convenient misdates and miscalculations reminds me of a suspicious building fire in July 2001, when damaged apartment doors were shown to an insurance adjuster. By now, all hatchet-damaged doors should have been replaced. Perhaps door installers weren't able to gain access to vacated units?

And, where are all the handicapped people for all those newly-renovated handicapped units?

And, where is the answer to my request for reasonable accommodation? Is it in Management's 'STARTING Tuesday' notice? Perhaps their response to my request is in the Summary Process for Eviction?

Spring Gate's renovated dumpster area.