Residents falling off the edge of the sanity cliff

I manage a Seniors 62+ community, but these issues have come up throughout my career.

How do others handle their more imaginative residents?

Just a few if my current resident’s complaints are; the neighbor upstairs is running a brothel, the man upstairs is entertaining prostitutes, someone is coming into my apartment when I leave and smoking cigarettes. In two of these situations the resident has actually called the police repeatedly. In all instances I know that they accused have done nothing to warrant these accusations. I have contacted next of kin and they don’t seem interested in helping. I am considering issuing 21/30’s for disrupting the peaceful enjoyment of their neighbors with the accusations and reports to the police. However if I can’t get the accuser to believe nothing is going on, then how am I to make them understand what the 21/30 means and how they can avoid being evicted. The last thing I want to do is evict someone with mental illness, but I have an obligation to my other residents too.

If you have been in this industry for any length of time you have probably run into similar situations. How did you handle it?

Hi Stephani. It's difficult when we are faced with these kinds of challenges! I remember having a senior who heard voices coming from the smoke alarms! We changed her smoke alarms and the voices stopped.

I have always tried to get the family/cargiver involved, not just with a phone call but in writing. If the family/caregiver knows that eviction proceedings could be the next step, they are more willing to get involved.

And, Yes, you do have an obligation to all of your residents. It's business, not personal. Harassment of any kind, should not be tolerated.

I have managed apartments for 25 years now and nothing has proved more challenging than dealing with seniors who are aging and showing mental signs along the way.

I will never forget the time that one of my seniors was doing pretty much what you described. This gentleman became paranoid and believed that someone was trying to kill him. He described in full detail events that apparently transpired involving people coming in his house and threatening him and poising his food. At the time, I didn't know what to do. But it all came to an abrupt close when this man came to my office and said that he broke his window and asked if we could fix it while he went to the hospital to treat his apparent food poisoning. So, we go over to take care of the broken window while he was gone and discovered that it was broken because he shot his gun at apparent people that he imagined where entering his apt (from a downstairs unit on a busy corner street, luckily no one was injured!). I gathered the bullet casings and called the police. I won't even describe the huge drama that ensued when the entire police force showed up, even though the man was supposedly in the hospital at the moment, which he was. The hospital determined that he was not capable of living independently and had him sent to a nursing home(minus his gun). And he spent the rest of his life finally being cared by people and was now safe from himself.

So, what I learned through all of this was how to identify this problem as early as possible. And if after contacting relatives (my tenant had none but now I make sure to get that info from ALL residents), I would contact the Alliance on Aging or the Dept of Social Services or any programs in the county to assist the elderly and recommend assistance for my resident. If the tenant refuses the assistance or if nothing is done to make the situation better, then I am forced to give the tenant a notice to vacate as due diligence in protecting my other residents from disturbance or harm.

I have a form I use that allows me to contact someone on behalf of the Resident to discuss issues related to the Resident, whether that is late rent, lease violations, or anything pertaining to the Resident that may be affecting his/her ability to maintain living within the community. I have contacted Residents' relatives, caseworkers, or social workers (whoever was listed on the form) on their behalf many times to resolve problems. I have been called the "Old Lady/People Whisperer" on many occasions because I have a lot of patience and a great sense of humor. However, I always let Residents know that they cannot accuse their neighbors (or the Maintenance or Office Team - we sometimes seem to be the next best target of their ire)indiscriminantly without fact. In my experience, when the police department is repeatedly called on a groundless basis, the police will contact Adult Protective Services to intervene and investigate whether or not the Resident should be living alone. This kind of softens the blow of my telling a Resident if they keep making false accusations they will lose their housing. I have to say though, I have not had to actually evict anyone - even horders - because before it got to that point, I have worked with many other family members, community resources and leaders who have successfully resolved these heartbreaking situations on our behalf. (And I still get a giggle the first time "Miss Lilly" called me to say someone had taken her underwear and didn't I think it MUST be one of the Maintenance guys? "Ummmm, no, Miss Lilly, I really don't think any of them did. Let's go check the Laundry Room. When did you last do your laundry?" Sure enough, she had forgotten she had left a load of laundry in the washer (2 weeks ago! and someone else had taken the wash out and left it on a folding table.)

Thanks everyone for your feedback! My company had a conference call yesterday to discuss this topic. While we already have a next of kin addendum and get emergency contact info on lease and renewal apps we are going to push for as many points of contact as possible. If the family fails to respond to our concerns we will start sending 21/30's in situations that violate the lease agreement. I have 2 residents right now who are in the early stages and are just very forgetful. In those cases we will be contacting senior resources in our area. We now have a written policy.

It seems we do such a great job of taking care of our residents and going above and beyond, that some families just want to leave everything up to us. Now to find the balance there

One thing I heard on our call that disturbs me is that some managers are having a problem with their supervisors. It seems when one of their unstable residents call Corp. the manager is left feeling like their sup. has taken the residents side. I am very fortunate to have a boss that sees the signs of dementia for what they are and is able to remain professional with the complaining residents, yet supports me.