Collins Crossing: residents not mistreated

The management company for a controversial housing complex in Carrboro is refuting claims that it is mistreating residents.

Since November, residents and local activists have protested Collins Crossing Condominiums, citing rising rent and unfair management practices.

A Tuesday Daily Tar Heel story titled “‘Robbed’ of their residence” said former Collins Crossing resident Sula Eubanks said she was evicted after her family couldn’t afford the complex’s rising rent.

But Brenda Wishart, spokeswoman for Aspen Square Management, the management company for Collins Crossing, said Eubanks’ rent has only risen $25 since her company took control of the complex last summer.

“The fact of the matter is that she didn’t pay her rent,” Wishart said. “We filed for eviction not because it increased, but because she didn’t pay it.”

Eubanks said Tuesday that her failure to pay rent was a miscommunication. She said she often placed her rent check in a drop box at the complex, only to have on-site management tell her they never got it.

In the article, Eubanks said Collins Crossing management hadn’t made repairs on her apartment’s leaky window and buckling floors.

But Wishart said the maintenance department had filled all of Eubanks’ outstanding work orders.

Subject of scrutiny

Earlier this month, someone doctored and distributed a flyer about Collins Crossing with several racist comments.

The flier advertised a “whites-only pool” and said “day laborers and service workers need not apply” for residence at the complex.

Wishart said she reported the incident to police, and the case is pending.

“People were incensed about what they read, as were we,” she said. “We didn’t put them out, but because they were doctored professionally people thought we had.”

In an open letter, Alcurt Carrboro LLC, which owns the majority of the complex’s units, said, “There is no factual basis for the misinformation (the perpetrators) are irresponsibly distributing.”

Wishart said her company has been subject to intense scrutiny since the Collins Crossing homeowners’ association approved a $3,548 special assessment on all units last month.

Part of the special assessment will be used to pay for stair repairs mandated by the town of Carrboro after a 10-year-old boy fell through a stairwell in November.

Since the incident, repairs on the 24 condemned stairwells have been completed.

“The assessment needed to be passed to take care of years and years of deferred maintenance,” Wishart said, adding that the fee will pay for other repairs as well.

The fee drew criticism from town officials, who worry it will be passed on to renters — further threatening the supply of affordable housing in Carrboro.

Wishart said her company is committed to keeping rent in Collins Crossing fair, but its main goal is to keep the complex safe.

“Having affordable housing is important,” Wishart said. “But having safe, habitable housing is just as important. We can’t have children falling through stairs.”

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.