Community Roots Housing - Seattle, Washington

Danielle P.

CRH is notorious for poor management and corruption. It's unfortunate, as accessible housing is essential for ending the homelessness crisis, but it truly requires better oversight from the city to demand compliance and maximum income legislation to prevent a pure profit motive from destroying the company from within. As a resident of over a decade it saddens me to see the decay from having an active property manager to getting a new one every 8 months, my last one whom I've never met and has never responded to a single call or email.
Do not rent with any of CRH's properties if you do not wish to get accused of not paying rent even after providing check numbers from your bank statement indicating payment. I would have to assume somebody is pocketing the rents if they keep such poor track of them that they would contact residents with notices of over 6 months back rent rather than calling them the subsequent month that it was presumed missing.

Julie

No one ever answers phones, voice messages, e-mails and no one is at the main "office" address with the door locked during business hours
What is happening at this company ?

Its a "shell" faux situation it seems.
Still waiting to pay rent

Smooth J.

I waited like 8 months for the apartment to finish being built .. roots Community Housing had me come in for a second time and verify my pay at that point we picked out a unit which was a studio. They told me I was approved. They gave me a unit number and the welcome portal app told me I would be moving in mid September, I got a call about a week after that saying that I made too much money for a studio and they can switch over my application to a one bedroom. I told them that was fine. I’ve waited all this time. I just need a place to stay through that process I picked out a unit. I got a call a few days later saying I make to much money for a one bedroom.. I was really upset but I needed a place to go so I said well I guess since I made to much money for the first two units I was told I got approved for then I’ll go for the two bedroom since that puts me in the right price range of not being over qualified.. so I told them I would take the two bedroom just to be told I needed a second person living with me who doesn’t have an income in order to stay in a 2 bedroom cause I guess for the third time if that other person does have an income I will be over qualified…. Mind you this is like 2 weeks before I’m supposed to be moving in .. I wasted a year of my time with these guys I could have been in a place

sheila R.

I’ve lived in my apartment for 23 years and thought highly of it until CHHIP became Community Roots Housing. Since the change I feel the management support has diminished greatly. I’m especially disappointed with management because I’m presently in a situation where I’ve been verbally threatened with physical violence by a new tenant who moved in about 6 months ago and has disrespected, disregarded the noise ordinance rule. I directly approached the tenant and he reacted, unnecessarily, with threats of violence. He & his partner have continually disregarded and disrespected the noise ordinance rule. I have documented everything. I’ve gone to the police and the complaint is on file. I’ve asked management numerous times to hold him accountable to no avail. I’m scared for my safety and yet management will still not hold him accountable. I can’t afford to move and I can’t afford to live like this daily. The stress is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced with a fellow tenant before. I’m so disappointed Community Roots Housing will not do anything to hold this person accountable.

So I wrote the above review over a year ago and since then found out the male tenant who verbally threatened me with violence is not even a tenant. He is a guest who has managed to stay even though he’s not on the lease. With witness statement, doctor letter saying how this situation has affected my health, much documentation and recordings of the noise they were making a year ago, nothing has changed. The guest still comes and goes as he pleases. He’s harassed me in the elevator and management has done nothing. The site manager, different from the one last year, has made effort to work on this situation. However, upper management has done absolutely nothing to support me or protect me and I feel the guest has much more protection. There is a No Harassment Policy on the bulletin board posted in the lobby . It says there is no tolerance for threats and is grounds for eviction yet the guest is still here. The times I’ve asked for support from upper management they have never gotten back to me. As I’ve said, the site manager has made every effort to support me but it is up to upper management to take action and apparently they don’t seem to care. I consider myself to be a good tenant. I’ve always paid my rent on time, I respect the common areas, I’ve never complained about a tenant until the two people who moved upstairs from me, I’m quiet. It is unfortunate that upper management has absolutely no respect for my well being.

Lori H.

I lived at the Harrison at 15th for six years. During that time the management was terrible, and got progressively worse, as he was using drugs. He was smoking some thing that smelled like a chemical, and acting aggressive and paranoid. My apartment was on the top floor and he would go up to the roof to smoke, so we could smell it in the hall. This was not THC or anything like it. At one point he broke into the main office in a psychotic rage. He would start fires in his barbecue on the balcony, and the smoke would go up into our windows, repeatedly. It made me sick, and I had pets that were very sensitive, and it was hot so we had to have the windows open. I tried everything, I contacted him directly many times, contacted the company, nothing. They said that their hands were tied because of something, I think it was some labor thing, I can’t remember the details though. It was horrible.

The company knew what he was doing and did nothing. Also, I had a very aggressive, frequently inebriated, next-door neighbor, he and his wife and child were living in a studio apartment, because he was friends with the property manager. At one point he broke my door down while he was drunk, literally smashed it in, I had to call the police. There was just no concern for resident’s safety from the agency, at all.

foto21com

UPDATE 2024. My manager left, after years of dedicated service to my building and two others. She was tired of being ignored and opposed by upper mgmt at the head office (all pulling multi six figure salaries). She complained to me multiple times about legal staff who will evict no one. I heard it costs minimum 5k with the city, but this building group has tons of slush funds at the top of the organization. They make extra money off commercial tenants including cel repeater towers. Then you can't get them to fix a bathtub faucet. Manager told me before leaving that the legal team requires 3 THREE, ASSAULTS in ONE year, not 3 verbal threats in one year, or 3 assaults in 3 years, but 3 assaults in ONE year. As a year goes by, the previous assault goes away.

So they bring in people with psychological problems on full subsidy, house them in high drug areas, offer no front door control or surveillance, and then don't discipline them. My building is rife with squatters and people off lease. A bunch of us are organizing a class action suit against these negligent slumlords. If their lawyers can work overtime to protect criminals, tenants can work overtime to protect their LEASE RIGHTS. PLUS OTHER TACTICS ARE IN THE WORKS.

An atrocity of a housing org. They mix regular tenants with unvetted, unscreened psychotics and ex-felons in buildings w no on-site managers available. This has resulted in absolute impunity for tenants breaking noise laws at will, intimidating neighbors, even destroying their own units, and MGMT does NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF IT. It's pretty clear that C Roots collects some kind of premium from the govt to house psychological cases, but privacy laws mean you'll never know who is being housed next to you. The older buildings have the absolute minimum of construction standards not to mention constantly defeated access security. The YWCA houses people like this with a 24-7 front desk. Not these buildings. That would cost MONEY.

The guy who runs the whole organization pays himself and the top managers giant salaries, throws wine and cheese fundraisers, congratulates himself on what he's doing for the community, while he has a constantly rotating crew of underpaid building managers who come and go like the wind and DO NOTHING TO MITIGATE PROBLEMS IN THE BUILDINGS!

The office has been CLOSED to tenant appts for over a year. It was barely open beforehand. That tells you what the tenants think of the organization and that the number one goal of MGMT is to avoid tenant contact. Their rents have become a joke, so overpriced for pure garbage in many cases. The new buildings might be better. I wouldn't know since I can't get to see one because the internal managers save all the best units for their friends.

And yes, they will jack your rents if you transfer units, and by that, I mean DOUBLE the rent. However, they seem to be able to pay someone to come online here, and write all these bs responses about how concerned when it's nothing but LIP SERVICE. THEY NEVER FIX ANYTHING, except they MAY give you light bulbs. I replaced a small item, the manager said they would reimburse me, but the head office got in the way and never ponied up the money. A year later, they sent me an invoice for basically the same amount of money in a scrambled form, like $50 more, claiming I owed them money for some unknown reason. When I protested, they insisted, then I explained what they had done, and they just pretended it never happened. So their accounting dept is a joke also (open fraud actually, authorities MUST look into this place). This is a place where the clueless keep their jobs for years, and responsible employees get pushed out. The city is responsible for many of the idiotic rules the buildings have to adhere to, but it doesn't excuse how little this organization, which is flush with money, does for its tenants. Number one on the list is ALLOW A LATERAL MOVE AT THE SAME RENT TO GET AWAY FROM PSYCHOTIC neighbors! OH wait, those comfortable quiet NEW units are reserved for FRIENDS OF THE HEAD OFFICE!

Valentina G.

DO NOT move to any property managed by this people if you don't want to be stolen and later ignored. It has been almost THREE months since I moved out of Station House. I was incorrectly charged $256.94 and I still don't have any answer about the status of my money after 3 months.
This money ($256.94) came from an extra month of rent I was also incorrectly charged with. I got most of it back, except for the $256.94 that Ms. Letitia London says was taken due to "utilities" I owed. I requested the bill of such "utilities" for the time I resided at Station House, because I had never had to pay utilities during my 2 years as a resident (I paid electricity independently, and the rest of the utilities were included in my rent).

It is stunning to learn that, Community Roots Housing, as an organization committed "create affordable, quality places to live in Seattle", couldn't care less about their residents except for their money. I am also aware that taking my money from a erroneous rent payment without a debt validation letter for the $256.94 is completely illegal. You might as well pay an extra $200 a month in another property to save yourself from the headache of dealing with Community Roots Housing managers. The most unprofessional people I have encountered in my life.

Maya H.

It’s taken six months to get my security deposit back. When they finally got the check to me it bounced! I’ve been fighting for a month to get them to fix this, and either they mailed a $375 check without tracking our insurance and it’s taken over two weeks to arrive, or they’re actively lying about it being mailed at all.
The current site manager barely answers my emails or returns phone calls on this, and I’m worried I’m going to have to take the company to court for an amount that should be minuscule to them.