Meeting with the owner, Mark Hamilton
Updated: Jun 19, 2021
On May 11th, a group of about 40 tenants crowded into the swimming pool area under the hot sun (with no shade!) for a meeting with representatives from Hamilton-Zanze, including the owner and founder, Mark Hamilton, as well as a lawyer and a PR person for the firm. Heidi Lueb, the Tigard City Council President, was also in the audience to represent the Mayor, at the invitation of the residents. HZ wanted to video record the meeting and require all tenants to sign in. We were opposed, but we ultimately agreed to both parties audio-recording the meeting. HZ claimed that the purpose of this was so they could distribute the recording to all the tenants who couldn't be at the meeting but at the time of publishing this post, they have yet to do so. The notice they disseminated after the meeting didn't refer to the recording either.
Some of us met up ahead of time to hold a banner that we walked with to the meeting at the swimming pool area. Many of the residents held signs that said: Save Senior Housing, This is My Home, and Keep Woodspring Affordable.
Mark started the meeting by informing us that his parents were also senior citizens and that aging in place was something important to them and that they had already talked about and planned for, so he understood the importance of the situation and stated that he was committed to working on a solution that would not displace the residents.
One of our negotiating committee members stated that this was a humanitarian situation, and the folks from HZ agreed, yet they were unprepared to offer any potential solutions or commitments at the meeting. They stated that a lifetime lease (which would grandfather in the residents to affordable rates) was not allowed by their lender, and also stated that the city and county had declined to buy the building when they had a chance but that they would be willing sellers if the county wanted to make an offer with the Metro bond funds.
Originally they said it would be several months until they would have answers for us, but eventually they committed to coming back in June to update us on their progress. Our next meeting is scheduled for June 22.