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You'll find the Association Newsletter posted around the 1st day of every month.

Hi Neighbors,

 

“I want you to be concerned about your next door Neighbor.  Do you know your next door Neighbor?” — Mother Theresa

 

32 BEAUTIFICATION AWARDS PRESENTED

This year, Mr. Mike’s Neighborhood presented 32 Beautification Awards to our wonderful Neighbors who took the time to not only make their property beautiful, but to be an example of the beauty that can exist within our Community.  Next year I’d like to see this number double.  Our next Certificate of Appreciation will be awarded to Halloween decorations, and then the final one of the year, Christmas decorations.

 

SHIRLEY, OUR #1 FOOD PANTRY DONATOR PASSES AWAY

Shirley and Margaret live in Southfield.  They were passing by our pantries and were so impressed with what we were doing for our Community that they became our biggest supporters.  Twice a month we’d receive an SUV full of food that fed many of our Neighbors with meats, fresh vegetables and cans.  She was a real blessing.  But now that she’s passed, our pantries will eventually become bare since we don’t receive much support from our Community.  I know we have plenty of Neighbors who access the food banks that can help.  Please do.  We are also running low on children’s books and toys.

 

WEEKEND NEIGHBOR’S GIVING DAYS WITH HOT DOGS

What a successful program this has been.  The amount of donations we get to re-purpose back into our Community has been impressive.  From beautiful clothing to dishes to toys and household items, the weekends became an opportunity for our Neighbors to get rid of all those items you’ve been holding onto for years.  And if you’re new to this program, clothing needs to be washed, folded and placed in a bag and left on my front patio.  All additional items need to be cleaned.  Since it’s easy for my home to become a warehouse, any items not taken at the end of Sunday will be donated to St. Vincent.  To show our appreciation we gave away hotdogs and chips on Saturday.  It was another great success.

 

ARE THEY HERE TO HELP US OR TO HURT US?

First of all, after serving my Neighbors for 4 years, I hope you know that I would never lie to you or embellish facts just to prove a point.  We really don’t need to do that.  So if I say something, you can believe it’s true.

 

When you compare the quality of life that Sun Communities and Park Management provides our Community with Mr. Mike’s Neighborhood, I’m thinking it’s any easy comparison.  Mr. Mike’s Neighborhood provides the following:

 

- Our only mission is to serve our Neighbors any way we can.  Park Management’s mission is to serve Sun Communities only and punish our Community with fines and threats of eviction.

 

- We inspire our Neighbors by making them feel like they’re an important and valuable part of our Community.

 

- We are consistent in what we say and do.  We Smile and Wave at everyone that passes by, and recognizes every Neighbor and child during our daily walks.

 

- We offer food to make sure no Neighbor ever goes hungry.

 

- We take care of our Seniors and Handicapped.

 

- We provide books for your children to read, and just as important, parents reading to their children.

 

- We provide free clothes and household items every weekend to help you save money.

 

- We loans tools and equipment to help our Neighbors with their repairs and grass cutting.

 

- We sculpt 60-80 lawns per month at only $20 to pay our expenses instead of asking you for donations.

 

- We provide a Resident Advocacy Program so we can assist you with issues you’re have with Sun Communities and Park Management.

 

- We provide Certificates to show how much we Appreciate what you do here.

 

- We provide a Porch Pirate Pickup Program to retrieve your delivered packages when you’re not home so they don’t get stolen.

 

There’s no sense in asking you which of these Park Management does, because they’re not in the helping business.  Here’s the hurt they put on us:

 

- Every decision they make has to follow two rules:  - can we get sued because of it and will it make our job harder instead of easier.  So let’s take a look:

 

- They keep raising our rent almost double over our cost of living increases.  For example, my Social Security cost of living increase was 2.6%, yet the rent increase was almost 5%.  And since I have to believe that half of our Community is on Social Security, that becomes a real hardship.

 

- It used to be that maintenance issues were handled with a simple Communication Form.  But now you need to go to your Sun Communities portal which most of us don’t know how to do.  This was done to make it easier on Park Management, not our Neighbors.

 

- They charge a fee if you pay by Money Order.  They do this to force you on Auto Pay.  So they make you have to leave your home, go pay for a money order, then they charge you for using it.

 

- For forced grass cuts, they used to put a note on your door as a reminder.  But that was too much work for Park Management.  So now they give you one notice at the beginning of the year, and cut your grass for a $55 penalty if you don’t have it cut by Thursday.

 

- They lowered the eviction notices from 30 days to 7 days so you’ll have to pay a court cost.  I emailed Jason on why this was done, but 87% of all communications I send him are not responded to.

 

- Park Management gave permission to the towing company that if they’re in the park and they see a car parked on the street, whether it’s yours or your guest, they can tow it away without any notice.  This will cost you between $300 and $400 to get it back.

 

- We’ve had Neighbors with unbelievably high water bills that don’t correlate with their previous bills.  They will make you pay it or evict you.

 

There’s a reason Park Management won’t do anything that makes your life better - Expectations!  If they do something positive, then you’ll expect that from them in the future.  That’s too much responsibility for them to actually care about anyone.

 

FINAL THOUGHT:

As you can see from all the hurt they provide, Mr. Mike’s Neighborhood works overtime to not only help those Neighbors who are being threatened with eviction if they don’t obey Marcia and Jason, and to find ways to protect us from them in the future.

 

We are currently looking for a lawyer to represent Mr. Mike’s Neighborhood and the entire Community.  We are sending out inquiry letters to attorneys, but if you have one that is experienced in Landlord/Tenant Rights, please send me their information.  Also, if you have an issue with Sun or Park Management please let me know so I can include it in the complaint.  You don't need to be afraid of them.

 

Though it becomes very stressful on me to handle my Neighbors complaints and concerns, I feel thankful that at least you have one Neighbor in the park you can go to when you need help.  I hope that’s a comfort to you.