WinnCompanies announced it is launching a Housing Stability Program designed to cut eviction rates in half across the company’s owned and managed national apartment portfolio during the next five years, starting with a 25 percent reduction in 2021.
The initiative will support 160,000 individuals living in 600 residential communities owned or managed by the company’s property management arm, WinnResidential, in 16 states and Washington, DC, the company said in a press release. WinnResidential operates 61,000 apartments in Arizona, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.
“The payment of rent is critical to the ongoing viability and quality of our housing stock, but we believe this plan can be the blueprint for a national policy model to reduce evictions and homelessness going forward. This comprehensive policy is intended to outlast the current crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and recession,” said WinnCompanies CEO Gilbert Winn. “It’s time to improve the way our industry thinks about these issues. Our goal is to make eviction truly the last resort in cases of financial hardship by making education, two-way communication, early intervention and hands-on assistance our first lines of defense.”
