Whitewater: Council hears presentation about improvements at Fox Meadows

By Kim McDarison 

The Whitewater Common Council Tuesday received a presentation about improvements made at Fox Meadows, an apartment building on the city’s west side. 

The apartment building was a topic of discussion during a council meeting held in September, during which time Police Chief Dan Meyer expressed concerns with over-occupancy at the site and shared statistics noting an increase in calls for service. 

In September, Meyer compared an eight-month period between January and August, during three consecutive years: 2020, 2021 and 2022. Meyer said in 2020, the department responded to 30 calls for service at Fox Meadows; in 2021, the department responded to 26 calls, and in 2022, the department responded to 125 calls. 

He listed turnover of on-premise management, missing smoke detectors, drug paraphernalia, stains from excrement and urine, and the presence of cockroaches in the building as among additional concerns. 

Aided by slides, Jessica Peterson, a vice president with Madison-based property management group BMOC Tuesday offered an overview of the Fox Meadows property, 291 N. Fraternity Lane, Whitewater, along with initiatives taken by the company to address identified concerns. 

Introducing Peterson to council, Whitewater Neighborhood Services Director Chris Bennett said that he, a Neighborhood Services Officer Derek Johnson, and Meyer met with the management of Fox Meadows on Nov. 11. 

He described the meeting as “productive,” further noting that “some of the matters that we’ve all heard about in the community and that the police department and neighborhood services have been dealing with for quite some time,” were addressed. 

Advancing to the podium, Peterson said that BMOC is a management company of properties for third-party owners, focusing primarily on student and conventional housing. 

The company has been managing Fox Meadows since November, 2020, she said. 

Sharing a slide, Peterson said the management team at Fox Meadows includes a property manager, maintenance technician, leasing agent and regional manager. 

The team, which was formed over the past six months, includes two bilingual members, she added. 

Among team members, she said, the maintenance technician lives in Whitewater. He along with the property manager are on-premise in a full-time capacity. The regional manager, whom she described as “new,” is based in the Madison office. 

Presenting a slide, titled “Fair Housing,” Peterson noted that in Wisconsin, it is “illegal to deny housing or to treat someone different on the bases of sex, race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religion, national origin, marital status (or) family status,” which the slide stated, “includes children in the home.” Also included were status as a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, lawful source of income, age and ancestry. 

The company abides by the law, she said, adding: “We can’t rent to certain individuals and not others, and we have a very standard approach to our leasing.”  

A slide, labeled, “Resident Verify,” stated that before leasing to a prospective applicant, the company screens through such mechanisms as criminal background checks, credit checks, income verification, and identification.

The company requires a security deposit, which, the slide noted, is risk-based, and residents pay monthly charges, including rent, and fees for parking, water, electricity, and pets. 

She described the process as a “standard screening application as part of our accounting software.” 

Citing improvements, Peterson said the company had invested in the property by painting cabinets, and using virtual staging. 

“Some things we’ve taken on since I’ve been supervising the property are a lot of in-unit improvements. We have upgraded … the flooring in most of the units,” she said. 

“All of this is to help our tenant attraction,” she added. 

Peterson said when BMOC began managing the property is was approximately 40% occupied. The occupancy rate is now 96%. 

“So things have gone well,” she said.  

A slide shared the company’s pricing, noting that a unit with a single bedroom and bathroom rented in 2020 for $850 per month, and rents in 2022 for $950 per month; a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit rented in 2020 for $925 and rents in 2022 for $1,250, and a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment rented in 2020 for $1,100 and rents in 2022 for $1,500. 

“We’ve slowly improved the quality of the community with the units themselves and then increased rents accordingly,” she said. 

Citing availability, she said, as of Tuesday, four units were currently available each with applications pending. 

While the company does not maintain an official waiting list, it does contact applicants when a unit becomes available, Peterson said. 

Further, she said, improvements recently made to the property include an upgraded camera system, key fob secure entries, which, she said, are being installed this week, asphalt repairs, parking permits, improved cleanliness, monthly inspections, extermination, resident education, bilingual customer services, and the formation of a partnership with the Whitewater Police Department, among others. 

In November police and neighborhood service personnel shared brochures and other resources that could be distributed to Fox Meadows community members, Peterson noted. 

Said Peterson: “We have been providing resident education in both English and Spanish for common housing concerns that we have, common lease violations. We’ve actually translated our move-in process in Spanish and so it’s really clear where the trash goes, and what it means to be a resident and a participating member of the community. And that’s been very well received. 

“We’ve also been, I think, partnering really well with the Whitewater Police Department. I know there was a concern of the number of calls and I had them, too. And when I have reviewed the most recent call reports, I’ve actually noted that our management team, our maintenance staff, are actually the ones making the calls. So, you know, we have an illegal person, we have somebody that’s trespassing, we have a suspicious person on the property, and so we’re actually generating those calls and working together with the police department.” 

Looking through 60 days worth of incident reports, Peterson said she was able to group them into one of three categories: “Management,” under which the following types were listed: suspicious activity, dumping, speeding, trespassing, and vandalism; “Social Services,” including school-related truancy, runaway teens, and family disputes, and “Lease Violations,” including noise complaints, drug use, illegal occupants, neighbor disturbance, and fire hazards such as smoking and overloading laundry machines. 

While she was aware there had been some concerns at the property, she said staff had become “very diligent” in its efforts to “know what’s going on at the property and taking proper action.” 

Looking at goals for 2023, she said they would include the creation of a lease application in Spanish, and the organization of new resident orientation meetings. The company also would plan to partner with schools to ensure 100% enrollment. The company would plan to engage in in-person leasing renewal meetings and a two-strike policy as part of its retention program, with the added goal of maintaining a 100% occupancy rate and an 85% renewal rate within the building. A final goal was to increase rates and fees. 

During new resident orientation meetings, the company would work to make sure those within the Fox Meadows community would understand how to “handle things properly so they don’t call the police if it is not a police matter,” Peterson stated. 

While partnering with schools, the team would work to help parents of school-aged children understand where and how to enroll their children, Peterson said, but, she added: “We don’t have an active role in enrolling students, we are just trying to share information.” 

Peterson expressed an interest on the part of the company to work with the “few large area employers,” whom, she said, employ a majority of the residents that have applied lately.” 

She said the company was looking to work closely with UW students. 

“The students are applying for next fall — it’s a pretty busy time — this is one of the campuses that a lot of individuals are looking to start leases in May, instead of August; it’s just a different cycle, so we are trying to work with the current residents living at the property to understand who is interested in renewing next May or will be vacating for student housing,” she said.  

Referencing occupancy, Peterson said, “the goal is to have a less transient community,” which she added, would be achieved through the renewal rate. 

Adding community activities for residents was among ideas to help stabilize the Fox Meadows community, she said. 

Questions from council members 

During a question period following the presentation, Councilwoman Carol McCormick asked: “What’s your occupancy with students as opposed to families?” 

Peterson said she thought about 10% of the Fox Meadows community was comprised of students, but, she added, “I would say our applicant base is about 50%. She described that base as comprised of new applicants looking to move in to the building next year. 

Councilman Jim Allen asked: “So you have a loss of students over time then?” 

Said Peterson: “Our units are an interesting makeup for students in that they are two-bedroom, two-bath, and we have tried to start marketing individuals so there would be two separate leases, so two individuals, two roommates, sign two leases, each rent a bedroom in the space, like we do with standard student housing. It was really challenging. Individuals either left school or didn’t come in with a roommate — our roommate matching was really challenging — so we’ve kind of, by default, gone back to leasing the entire units.” 

She said finding two students who are comfortable with making a year-long leasing commitment can be a challenge.  

Still, she said, the company is receiving student applications daily and parents are touring the apartments. 

Allen asked: “So do you think your property has become less desirable to UW students?”

Said Peterson: “I wouldn’t say less desirable, I would say that we’ve had a lot of turnover recently, and, again, we are trying to work on retention, and with retention is understanding, I think, we missed the student leasing window this year. We didn’t have a lot of availability in May. So I don’t think we got a lot of new students … I think that during that time there were a lot of transitions going on with the property; we were doing a lot of renovations and improvements, and I just think we missed the leasing window for students.”  

Said Allen: “You mentioned a two-strike policy, what happens after that?” 

Peterson responded: “Then we would file the legal recourse for a lease, so, again, an example would be a lease violation party, something like that, we would give out a warning, and then the second violation, a five-day notice, which is to stop the activity or vacate, and then we would proceed with the eviction steps.” 

“Is there a time period?” Allen asked. He clarified: “If there’s a violation, say there’s one, when does it become a second first violation versus a second violation? Six months? After a year?” 

Said Peterson: “I would say within the lease period.” 

Peterson said the team was meeting and reviewing incident reports, which will serve to guide a decision about whether or not to renew a tenant.  

“Our goal is that we are not having these continuous issues — following fair housing, of course — but these continuous issues with repeat violations, illegal pets or illegal guests surfing, things like that.”  

Allen asked: “You showed pictures of people who you said lived on premises. Do they actually live in the building?”

Peterson said they did not.  

Asked Allen: “So you don’t have anybody there on-premise?” 

Peterson said that was correct, but added that the leasing manager has a family member who lives onsite and the maintenance technician lives under seven minutes away. The property manager lives about 15 minutes away.  

Said Allen: “The things you mentioned are all self-reported. So we don’t have an ability to verify pretty much any of them except for making sure that complaints coming from all of our various city departments go down. Because under your management, this property has become a nuisance property. So, I don’t know if Dan (Meyer) wants to speak to any improvements he’s seen or not, but that’s going to be the judge for, I think, most of us up here is you know whether or not these things curtail.” 

Peterson agreed, saying that an officer who has frequently answered calls at Fox Meadows told her that he believed the calls had decreased. 

Allen asked Peterson who owned the property. 

“It’s an investment group out of the Asset Managers in Illinois and Florida. And they have owned the property for 15-plus years. So for a significant amount of time,” Peterson noted.  

Councilwoman Brienne Brown asked: “So given that the police department has had many calls there and you have implemented these steps, I’m curious, when did you start implementing them and have the calls gone down?”

Peterson said she believed the steps had been in place for five months.

“I would say from my review of the October/November police reports, yes. The caveat to that is that there are school-related or child-related or social issues that I don’t think we can necessarily impact, and so those have not decreased.” 

Brown asked: “I have not been there in four or five months, but before that, I had come by a number of times for reasons. I never could find anybody in the management office. It was closed. So I’m wondering if you fixed that — where there is actually somebody who is there regularly.” 

Peterson said the office is manned and maintains regular hours. She said the manager and the maintenance technician often are at the property on weekends.  

Councilwoman Jill Gerber said she appreciated the changes the company was making. She said she was glad the company and the various agencies — police, social services, the county and others — were working collaboratively. 

Referencing goals presented earlier on a slide, she asked: “Can you tell me what you have planned, because it looks like it was all for 2022. Do you have anything coming out in 2023, or going forward?” 

Peterson explained the company’s process for inclusion of capital projects. 

“We have proposed — you kind of send a wish list — and how our third-party management world evolves is that we prepare an operating budget and then a wish list of 15 to 20 different items for capital projects.” 

She added: “I’m not an investor, so I don’t make those decisions. And it’s all a tradeoff.” 

Said Meyer: “I don’t have hard data to confirm what our call volume is, but I do want to say I’ve noticed a big difference with the cameras being installed. So we appreciate that. The fob system is something that we’ve been keeping an eye on because I think that will make a big difference.”  

Addressing Peterson, he asked: What, if anything, is the management doing to address the over-occupancy issues?  

“We are obviously aware of the issue of individuals leasing an apartment and having individuals, friends, family, move into the apartment, stay for, on average, a month to two months, and then apply for an apartment. That was kind of the cycle that we saw,” Peterson said, adding that she believed in-person inspections would help alleviate the situation. 

The company gives notice of issues in English and Spanish, she said. 

She cited “maybe three units” within which, she said, “we are still trying to make sure that only the leased occupants are living there on a daily basis.”  

Said Allen: “I appreciate you’re working with the truancy aspect of it. That’s not your responsibility, but providing information to the people who move in there both in English and Spanish — they don’t know what our societal norms or expectations are until somebody tells them, and not speaking English, that makes it a little more difficult. We appreciate what efforts you are making. You’ve got a difficult situation with the building right now.”

An earlier story identifying Fox Meadows as a source of increasing calls for police service is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-police-chief-expresses-concerns-with-ongoing-influx-of-new-community-members/.