Fight Back Against Drugs and Crime

By Phillip E. Bonham

President, Management Alert Group, Ltd.,

Co-chairman Drug Abatement Task Force San Diego Apartment Association

Worried about drugs in your apartment complex?  Given the scale of the drug problem in San Diego, most owners are . . . or should be.   But now, instead of just throwing up your hands in despair over the magnitude of the problem, you can do something.

SDAA will launch a Drug/Crime Abatement Task Force in 1989, which we urge you to join.  Just call the association office at 297-1000 and let us know you want to fight back against crime in rental property.   The new task force will work closely with an existing group of owners and managers in southeast San Diego who have been working for a year to chase crime out of their properties.  They are called the Management Alert Group and here is their story.

Management Alert

In January 1988, a group of rental owners and managers with property in southeast San Diego met at the San Diego Police Department’s storefront office on Euclid Avenue.  Ali Hassan, the Community Relations Officer for the Southeast Division, was instrumental in setting up the meeting.  After being involved in many problems in the area, he felt that owners and managers with similar concerns might benefit from the association.

The group has now evolved into a more formal organization which meets monthly.  Guest speakers are invited; topics generally cover effective ways to deal with drug-related or crime-related problems in rental property.   The goal of Management Alert is to eliminate drug-related crimes and other problems on our rental properties.  The agenda includes:

Dealing with problem renters:

• Drugs and alcohol,

• Property Damage,

• Gang Acitivity.

   

1.       Available Resources:

• City Hall,
• Police,
• Housing Authority,
• Other owners and managers.

3.       Crime Prevention:

• The ultimate goal is to create a crime-free atmosphere for residents and to protect the property owner's investment.

Facing the problem.

As owners and managers, we are faced with many problems:

• Evicting the renters who use or sell drugs and engage in criminal activity,
• Keeping drug traffic off the property,
• Preventing gangs from setting up business on the property,
• And hoping that our good residents do not get so scared that they move elsewhere, leaving us with a crime-ridden building and a high vacancy rate.

We believe the best solution is to take whatever steps are necessary to create and maintain a property which will attract good residents and keep them.  The Management Alert Group advocates an active approach.  This isn’t easy.  Management must constantly strive to maintain an atmosphere which fosters goodwill among residents, makes good residents want to move in, and convinces current renters to stay.  If, on the other hand, the rental owner takes a passive approach, drug and gang leaders will find out about these lax policies and they will target that property as a place to do business

It is not realistic to take the attitude that “it can’t happen to me.”  It is far better to take action now to keep gangs and drug dealers off the property than to have them go through the tremendous expense (and aggravation) of lost rent, evictions and repairs.

Additionally, because of the City Attorney’s enforcement of Section 11571 of the Health and Safety Code, an owner who does not actively and successfully eliminate the drug-and-crime related activities from his property can expect at some time to hear from the City Attorney.  (See articles in the June and October 1988 issues of Rental Owner on the City’s drug abatement program.

Many governmental agencies are looking at other ways to deal with the drug problem, so owners and managers can expect that various provisions of the Civil Code, Health and Safety Code, and Building Codes will be used to prod owners into taking more responsibility for problems on their properties.

Drug dealers and gangs generally do not want confrontation with law enforcement or management, but once they sense that they have gained the upper hand, they  become very aggressive in attempting to control a property and the other renters.  Drug dealing is very big business, and they will use any method that works in order to expand their operations.

Management Alert believes that the most effective way to deal with drug and crime-related problems is for owners and managers to become actively involved.  As a group that shares common concerns and goals, we can have a positive influence on our rental neighborhoods.  We can share ideas and information on methods of handling problems and anticipating potentially harmful situations.

More importantly, we are able to work closely with those agencies that directly affect us, such as law enforcement, the Housing Commission and Urban Development, the city planning and building department, and local councilmen and supervisors.   In future issues of the Rental Owner, we will discuss specific problems and the possible solutions we have found for them.

About Management Alert

Management Alert is currently led by the following concerned individuals:

Officers:

President Phillip E. Bonham,

C.E.O. International Capital Asset Group, Ltd.

Vice President Scott Silverman,

President SHS Development

Secretary Joan Brown

Manager, Ozark Apartments

Advisory Panel:

Daniel Morales

Special Assistant to Councilman Wes Pratt

Nancy McPherson

Police Executive Research forum, Bureau of Justice, Washington, D.C.

Captain Gerald Sanders

S.D.P.D., Southeast Division

Lieutenant Bill Becker

S.D.P.D., WE-CAN Unit

Officer Jim Kelly

S.D.P.D., Community Relations

Management Alert meetings are held in the auditorium of the Coca Cola Headquarters at 47th Street and Federal Boulevard.  The meetings for 1989 will begin at 3:00 p.m. on:

Reprinted from

Rental Owner Magazine