As of March 31, all residents of Nashville senior apartment complexes Willow Manor and Hawthorne Hills, as well as Forest Hills family apartments in Gnaw Bone, will no longer be able to pay their rent through check or money order. They’ll need to use a web-based program instead.
Residents of Willow Manor received notice of the policy changes around the first week of February, said Priscilla Burgmeier, a resident for about four years.
The new payment system, RENTCafe, was described in the flyer residents received as a more convenient method than paper-based forms of payment.
Burgmeier isn’t sure about that. Considering the challenges that some residents of the senior apartments have, she thinks it’ll be less convenient.
She thinks it should be optional to go paperless, not mandatory.
“Some residents don’t have a car. Some are homebound. Some are on Medicaid. Some don’t have a smartphone or a computer. … It’s going to be a very big hardship,” Burgmeier said.
Willow Manor, Hawthorne Hills and Forest Hills are all subsidized housing, as opposed to “market rate” housing. To live there, residents must have incomes at a certain percentage of the federal poverty level. Willow Manor and Hawthorne Hills are for residents 55 and older; Forest Hills has no age requirements.
Willow Manor does not have an organized group of residents who meet regularly, like a building association, Burgmeier said.
“It’s been a shock to us that we’ve had to confront this problem,” she said.
The switch to RENTCafe is happening across all properties that RealAmerica owns, which include about 2,000 apartments statewide, said Melanie Reusze, chief operating officer for the company.
“The primary reasons we are moving to transition our residents to paying rent through RENTCafe is to protect them from fraud and theft, and also to save them time and effort,” Reusze said in an emailed response to questions last week. “By paying through the online system, there is no way their check or money order can get stolen or lost, or entered incorrectly due to human error. Additionally, with the online payment system, there is always a record of payments that the resident can review themselves whenever they want 24/7.”
She said she believes paying this way will be more convenient to residents because they won’t have to use the mail or come down to the leasing office, and they won’t have to worry about being charged late fees from a late mailed payment.
Computers are available to residents in the buildings’ community area, she said.
RealAmerica does not currently accept cash payments, and will not accept cash after the change to RENTCafe either, she said.
“We have not had very many issues with Willow Manor residents paying their rent via check or money order,” Reusze said. “However, anytime we deal with checks or money orders, there is always a bigger risk of fraud or theft, and this transition to online payments is purely a step to protect all of us as much as we can.”
If residents need help getting their payment accounts set up, Reusze said that the property manager will be available to help them.
When asked about the company allowing alternate methods of payment besides RENTCafe, Reusze said, “of course, if there are extenuating circumstances, a resident can complete a reasonable accommodation request.”
“We don’t want this transition to be uncomfortable for anyone,” she said. “We think it is a good thing and is a move to protect everyone, so we want to help our residents as much as possible with it.”
