Booth Properties guilty of mismanagement

Who knew that paying your rent on time and being a responsible tenant and neighbor would lead to you getting an eviction notice? For the longest I thought it was always the other way around.

Booth Properties is evicting residents in several of its properties that provide housing to FAMU students, because the company feels FAMU is risky business.

As a FAMU student, we have endured many criticisms lately but this is really one of the worst.

After reading articles on this issue in the Tallahassee Democrat and The Famuan, it is obvious that there is nothing but contradictions from Booth.

The marketing director Erica Wasylishyn starts by saying, “Booth companies has made a business decision to exit the FAMU student market…any business-minded person would understand Booth’s decision to exit.”

If this is the case, why did Booth accept new and renewed housing leases if they were going to “jump ship?”

The entire situation sounds suspicious to me. There has to be more to it.

When the ties between Booth and FAMU were severed in my sophomore year, everyone in University Gardens and the Cottages at Magnolia was aware of it. We felt the bite of that divorce. Even the shuttles stopped going between the locations, but that is a whole other issue.

Later Wasylishyn said “When FAMU was doing good, we were doing great,” Wasylishyn added. “Now half of the current residents had balances and we were constantly going through the eviction process.”

What does that have to do with FAMU? Absolutely nothing.

That is an issue of poor management. I wonder why Asset Campus Housing is stepping in.

For those who do not know, Asset Campus Housing, according to its Web site of the same name, http://assetcampushousing.com, “specializes in the management and development of student housing facilities.”

If the problems at FAMU were so bad then any “business-minded person” would have moved from the area months ago, right? Or maybe I am wrong.

Booth said that they are offering relocation for its residents to move to other facilities, but why would you want them there? Aren’t they late on their rent? Won’t they continue to get eviction notices?

There has to be more to the story.

Judging by these contradictory statements Booth was not on its ‘A-game’. They are morally and ethically wrong in this instance.

Some residents received “30-day notices” on Sept. 12. They have to leave their residence by by Oct. 1. But I guess that is the fair and just thing to do.

As a result, several students are practically homeless and frantically running around in order to find a place to stay. Thank you Booth for a great start to the semester. Good luck!

Nyerere Davidson is a senior public relations student from Milwaukee. He can be reached at nyjournal@hotmail.com.