A rocky hand-off between owners leaves senior apartment residents in a lurch.

It was announced almost a year ago that the Housing Authority of the County of Monterey (HACM) would be taking over Pacific Meadows, a 200-unit, low-income senior apartment complex in Carmel Valley, from previous building owner HumanGood, one of the largest nonprofit senior housing providers in the country. After months of delay, the transfer was supposed to be complete on Feb. 20 – or so residents thought.

HumanGood workers packed up computers and other items and left without a word to HACM sometime that week. According to residents, there was no one at the front desk to provide assistance and no one to collect trash from buildings for days. For a time trash began piling up. A maintenance worker who lives on property, previously an employee of HumanGood, began taking out the trash even though he wasn’t getting paid.

“I couldn’t believe it. Management just walked away,” says Mark Wilbur, a volunteer who has been delivering meals to Pacific Meadows for Meals on Wheels of the Monterey Peninsula for a couple of years. “I thought residents were overreacting, but they weren’t.”

By Feb. 25, word reached HACM officials, who hired the maintenance worker and began the process of taking over, but residents say they still felt in the dark. Some contacted Monterey County Supervisor Kate Daniels asking for help.

On March 12, Daniels and HACM Executive Director/CEO Zulieka Boykin met with residents to explain what was happening and answer questions.

“We went in to ensure the best transition possible,” Daniels says. “The Housing Authority always owned the land, but it didn’t own the building and didn’t manage the property.

“I have optimism now that we have an opportunity to make things better,” Daniels adds.

Although HACM is separate from the County, supervisors appoint HACM’s board and have some input. “I as a supervisor have more access to work with the Housing Authority than with HumanGood,” Daniels says.

(The buildings were previously owned by the American Baptist Homes of the West but the land was owned by HACM. ABHOW merged with two other church senior housing groups in 2016, becoming HumanGood. Residents say problems began once HumanGood management took over and cuts were made to services and maintenance.)

Originally, HACM was supposed to take over last May, but issues at the federal level with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation delayed the transfer, Boykin says.

Currently HACM officials are transferring Pacific Meadows’ data, which could take a couple more weeks. A website allowing residents to pay online is being set up but for now, everything is being done on paper. An onsite manager and second offsite manager will also be hired, along with another maintenance worker.