GREENSBORO, N.C. — Residents at the New Garden Manor apartments in Greensboro are worried they will have to leave after their property management company said their rent will be increased.
Brown Investment Properties sent a letter to residents in February notifying residents that rent would be increased to $1230 per month in June. This applies to residents with expired leases and are thus living month-to-month at the complex. In the letter obtained by News 2, the company said the rate increase is due to the "escalating cost of operation and the need for significant capital improvements." Currently, residents pay between $575 and $675. The increase is legal and company officials said it's typical to give 30 days notice rather than the 90 days they gave those at New Garden Manor.
"Ninety days is, in reality, not enough for some of the folks that are living in this complex," said resident Kathy Daily.
Residents came together and sent a letter back to the management company, asking for the first increase to be $725 per month and then give them until September to make the larger increase. The management company said they were continuing with their original plan.
"They said they appreciated the letter and all the kind things that we said about the property and the previous management but it was not up for negotiation," said Daily. "As a community, we need to come together and consider that not everybody can afford $1200 a month and there are folks that need assistance."
Now residents like Daily are searching for an affordable, safe place to live, but are finding it difficult with the current market.
"We have tried to look into other places to rent and the rent is high and also there’s a waiting list," said resident Judy Byers. "I wake up in the middle of the night and I’m on Redfin, apartments.com, I’m on realtor.com. It has really thrown us into (...) high anxiety about all of this."
Many of the residents at the apartments are elderly, some with disabilities, and are on a fixed income.
"We are just begging for help," said resident Lisa Evans. "We are desperate. A lot of us worry we are going to be out in the streets or living in our cars at this point."
The Greensboro Housing Coalition is helping residents try to find a place to live if they won't be able to afford the new rent.
"There are people out here that pay the rent, we’re good citizens and we have a housing problem," said Byers. "I don’t know where some of us will go."