History of my attempts to to get Hebrew SeniorLife to comply with the law - Part 2

> Several months after moving in, I began speaking with Andrea, who was then head of the Social Work Dept., about these issues. I approached her several times but she avoided involvement. At one point, after multiple requests, she reluctantly had a casual word with H., the man who ran up and down the hall. He denied engaging in his activities, and that was as far as it went. I also began discussing with Andrea the possibility of moving to another apartment, and I requested a one-bedroom unit for the following reasons:

   1. I’d be far less likely to hear goings-on in the hallway. In addition to the issues with H. and the caretakers, the elderly residents frequently shout at one another to make themselves heard.

   2.If someone above me were moving around at night, it would be more likely to take place in his/her living room, not above my head.

   3. My bed would no longer be next to the air conditioner, as in the one-bedroom apartments, the air conditioning unit is located in the living room.

> In April of 2009, I told Andrea I could no longer live with the situation as it was. She scheduled a meeting for both of us with Carolyn, the Property Manager, an extremely difficult and unpleasant woman who disliked me. The meeting lasted approx. 20-30 minutes, during which the following occurred:

   1. They told me they didn’t believe me about H., assumed I was exaggerating and refused to do anything to curb him.

   2. They refused to move me to a one-bedroom unit. They did agree, reluctantly, to move me to another studio, but told me I’d have to pay a $5,000 “turnover fee”. I was told the reasons for the fee were twofold:

      a) It served as a deterrent so that the elderly residents, who tend to complain, wouldn’t ask to be moved for frivolous reasons.

      b) It allowed them to recover their renovation costs (which was unwarranted; they did a fair job cleaning up my current apartment before I moved in, but they didn’t renovate it and it is obvious that they didn’t spend $5,000).

I asked if the fee could be waived; Carolyn told me it could not be. This was untrue; I have a history in property management and am aware of the legal requirement for reasonable accommodation (I also learned later that the imposition of this fee is in violation of both Center Communities’ policy and the law). They then told me to sleep with ear plugs. The meeting ended with no resolution.

> Shortly after the meeting, I approached Carolyn in her office and tried to discuss the matter further. She took offense that I was bringing it up again and became agitated and confrontational. I walked away and had no further contact with her for two years.

> A few weeks after the meeting, an inspector from the Brookline Housing Authority came for my annual inspection. I discussed this situation with him; he was upset about it and incredulous that they wanted to charge me $5,000. He urged me to speak to a case manager at the Leased Housing Dept. at BHA, which administers the Section 8 program.