Happy New Year, you're screwed!

On January 1st, 2021, in the middle of a global pandemic, we got a letter from our landlord putting us on 'housing death row' -- our affordable housing had expired and our rents would be going up to market rate after a 3-year grace period. We were blind-sided. This was the first we heard that this could even happen. We had moved into these apartments believing they would be our forever homes. On fixed incomes and with no plans or ability to move again, we all assumed we'd be able to age in place, affordably, in our beloved senior community. This letter made our stomachs turn and we've been sick with worry ever since.

Since then some of our neighbors have reluctantly moved away, fearful about what the future holds. Though the letter didn't address it, we realized when new people moved here that the owners of Woodspring had also elected to end the senior status of the community. Though we love our kids and grandkids, we chose Woodspring because it was for seniors and we

wanted a quiet and safe community where we could make friends and share resources. We are devastated by the owner's decision to take this away from us, and angry that we weren't warned this could happen because if we'd known that the affordability or the senior status could or would end, many of us would have chosen to make our forever home somewhere else.

Here is the text of the letter, it is also attached as a file below.

MISSION ROCK

Woodspring Apartments

Friday, Jan 1, 2021

Dear Residents,

Happy New Year! I know we are all glad to be putting 2020 behind us.

I wanted to address some upcoming changes as I know there’s been a lot of apprehension and uncertainty

surrounding the future of our complex. As many of you know, our affordable status expired on 12/31/2020. What that means is that we are now beginning a gradual transition to standard market rents. At this time this will affect incoming residents only. As a current resident, you will have three more years of affordable housing status. This means that you will continue to pay affordable rent rates for three years from this date. After the three years the rent will raise to market rent. Right now, we don’t know what the market rent will be, but we will have all of that information shortly. We understand this is a big change and you may have a lot of questions. Feel free to contact the office and we will provide you with as many answers as we can.

Another big change coming is that we will be transitioning to a smoke free complex in 2021! This will also be a gradual process and you can expect to see more information going forward. ‘This does not mean that if you are a smoker you will be asked to move out, it just means that you will no longer be able to smoke on property. Some of you already go off property to smoke and we appreciate that. Stay tuned for more information about this process.

Lastly, we want to thank ALL of you for your patience in the last year. It was a challenging year for all of us. We very much look forward to “business as usual” in the near future! Until then, we are here for you via phone or email.

Stay safe!

Happy New Year

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