Using those lists to flag terrorists keeps the landlord’s employees from having to decide which applicants might be terrorists, Clark says. “It’s a pass-or-fail system, so the interpretation is out of the hands of the manager,” he says. “That’s the control that makes sure we treat everybody equally. The burden is not on [the manager’s] back.”
Tarragon Management uses a similar screening process. “I think that one can’t panic, one can’t overreact, one can’t stereotype a certain individual, and that’s a very big danger,” says President Eileen Swenson.
Harris, who left the National Multi Housing Council to become vice president of business services for Registry Safe-Rent, a company that does applicant background checks, says more institutional investors are insisting on terror-related checks of potential tenants–and in some cases, current residents–before they agree to sign onto a deal with a realty firm. Their action stems from a 2001 executive order from President Bush that says the government can block a property transaction with a terrorist whose name appears on a government list.
In turn, realty owners are checking potential investors against those same lists.
Harris says the trend has filtered down to the level of criminal background checks as well; with the spike in requests for checks against the lists of known terrorists have come more orders for criminal screenings of tenants from companies that never did them before.
“There’s a heightened awareness of security now, both on the part of the
resident and the owner,” says Harris. “Owners better understand–after 9/11–that their residents need to feel secure.”
Toomey says both kinds of security–from terrorism and from personal and property crimes like rape and robbery–are two sides of the same risk management plan.
While a car parked in the same spot for too long might once have seemed a matter only for the local police, for example, United Dominion managers now report it to federal authorities well.
“Crime is everywhere, and unfortunately we are now forced to be a little bit more alert and aware about what is all around us,” agrees Mid-America’s Clark.
Still, Clark notes, “The terrorist is a different type of person. They will tend to plan a particular act against property or a person,” unlike the burglar or rapist whose targets are often random and whose actions are more opportunistic.
“So we have certain tools in place to help management guard against crime. The industry is catching up and trying to create these tools to guard against terrorism,” Clark notes.
“It’s a community issue, not an individual thing,” says Nadel. “It goes back to crime prevention through environment design: in large part, having people in neighborhoods keeping an eye on what’s going on. That’s first.”
Even vendors of building security equipment don’t argue with that prevailing low-tech approach to terror prevention.
“I don’t know how much you can do,” concedes Jack Brandt, CEO of Technology Support Inc. in Houston. “It’s not really practical having someone like you have at an airport, searching people’s bags as they come in and out of the complex.”
Robert Rothenberg, president and chief operating operator of Tarragon Corp., agrees. “The fear that people have is not within the apartments themselves,” he says, “so security devices are not going to help. The alarm system is not where the 9/11 fears are.”
Besides, notes David Harville of Criterion Strategies, a training and consulting firm dealing with emergency management and counter-terrorism issues, “Security is only as good as the people who are operating it and standing behind it. You can put locks on doors all day long, but if someone is going to prop that door open, then that negates it. The foundation of security falls on people. They need to be educated on why the security exists, how it is deployed, and how do I make sure it’s effective.”
To that end, AvalonBay Communities and others are working with the American Red Cross to publish handouts for tenants that teach them about how to identify threatening situations and what to do in case of a terror-related emergency or other disaster. Novak says the content carries more weight with tenants when it comes from the American Red Cross than if it’s from the landlord alone, so she puts both names on every piece.
Toomey says the apartment industry will get better at predicting and preventing terrorism as it gets used to that fact that the threats are “not a passing moment. It’s a fact of the way we’ll all have to do business.”
Still, he’s optimistic. “Over time, things fix themselves if you turn on the daylight,” he says, “and that’s where we’re at. We’re just turning on the daylight to this stuff and trying our best.”
–Sharon O’Malley is a freelancer based in College Park, Md. She can be reached at somalley@nova.umuc.edu.
