I did talk to the park owner the other day, and he basically told me the same things the property manager told me…However…I also talked to the park owner’s mother, and she told me she had gotten three complaints about the tenants children running around the park unsupervised, and tearing up one of the other tenants potted plants. At that point, all I could do was tell my property manager to contact my tenant again and tell her to supervise her children closely. What was really amazing was that after I had that nice long chat with the park owner, about five minutes after I talked with him, he called me back and said “listen, I know boys will be boys, so don’t worry about all of this. You’ve got plenty of other things to worry about so don’t worry about your tenant. We can work this out, o.k.?” Talk about a change of attitude…one minute he was hacked off, and the next he was back to his old self. I suppose he came to his senses right about the time those prayers got past the roof of my house. I don’t know why I didn’t pray sooner! Anyway, I told him he made the right choice, and I didn’t want to see either of us get involved in a lawsuit over racial discrimination anyway (just him of course, but I was trying to soften him up). We will see how this works out. If I lived where those trailers are, I could have worked this out in about five minutes…so much for long distance management.
One thing I know is that you can’t change another person’s mind for them. There are lots of people on death row who still think they are good people and shouldn’t be getting this kind of treatment. Such a shame.
Posted by Todd in OH on October 25, 2000 at 10:27:00:
Obviously, I echo the suggestions that support Fair Housing Practices and Federal Law. The original poster needs to talk to a lawyer.
In any event, the “easy thing” (i.e. all the big players involved “quietly” urging the tenant to a place where she “belongs”), is probably also the stupidest thing in the long run. In the long run, the tenant (and their free legal team) could make a convincing case that you ALL conspired against her for racial reasons and steered her to racially biased housing. Doing the quiet, easy thing may be the most illegal and costly thing in the long run.
I couldn’t agree with you more; a person will only change his heart and mind if he chooses to. But at least a lawsuit lets him know there are consequences to his actions. It’s an imperfect solution, true, but you use the the tools you have at your disposal. It’s better than nothing.
BTW … glad to see your REI is hitting stride. Nice work!