Last month marked a milestone for Cottonwood Police Department’s Crime Free Multi-Housing program: Rio Verde Apartments and Sagewood Apartments became the second and third complexes to become fully certified crime-free communities.
The CFMH program has been in effect since 2006, when City Manager Doug Bartosh — then CPD chief — implemented it. According to Sgt. Monica Kuhlt, the program’s coordinator, officers saw immediate positive results.
“In July 2006 Mountain View Villa joined the program and we saw the calls for service there dropped by 78 percent and arrests on the property dropped an average of 92 percent,” Kuhlt said. “Mountain View Villa has maintained their certification since then and has continued to provide a safe place to live for their tenants.”
As time passed, however, program oversight at the department shifted and the program suffered. Officers began noticing an increase in calls from apartment complexes unfamiliar with the program. Additionally, the department saw an uptick in calls from repeat offenders.
“It never went away, but we recognized the need to prioritize it again,” Kuhlt said.
According to Kuhlt, the benefits of participating in CFMH are fewer vacant units, less property damage, lower maintenance and operating costs, better appeal to current and future residents, less tenant turnover and increased property value for owners.
“It is such a valuable program that it is recognized worldwide,” Kuhlt stated. “Some of the goals of the CFMH program are to empower community leaders by training in management skills [instead of] police work, provide support avenues, reduce crime in rental properties, reduce fear of crime, improve communication and build trust.
“If management and law enforcement come together and form a partnership we can achieve these goals and reduce crime within these complexes, thus making them safer places for the citizens of Cottonwood to live.”
Becoming certified in the program is a three-step process:
- A free eight-hour class put on by CPD, which all employees of a given complex are required to attend.
- An inspection of the complex to guarantee that it is in line with the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design concept.
- The CFMH Social, where residents learn about the program.
In July, Kuhlt hosted participants from nine multi-housing properties within Cottonwood for an eight-hour class.
“I’m pretty excited about the amount of interest the rejuvenation of the CFMH program has generated,” Kuhlt said. “I’ve put on a class in 2014, 2015 and now 2016. We’ve had the best turnout so far this past July. CPD’s goal is to get every multi-housing complex in Cottonwood on board and participating in addition to single family rentals. CFMH also focuses on hotels/motels, condominiums, manufactured housing and self-storages.”
Kuhlt said she intends put on at least one more class before the end of the year in order to move the certification process forward and attract new properties.
“We’ve already seen positive effects from the program,” Kuhlt said. “The backbone of the program is the Crime Free Lease Addendum that clearly defines unacceptable and illegal behavior and criminal activity that will terminate [a tenant’s] lease. Essentially, it is a ‘one strike’ rule so that tenants are not given chance after chance and create an environment that is not conducive to peaceful living.
“The Crime Free Lease Addendum has been recognized by the state legislature and codified in Arizona Revised Statutes §33-1368. People sometimes wonder how management is allowed to immediately evict someone. Simple: Criminals are not a protected class.”
Management from some of the participating complexes has already evicted tenants based on their behavior, according to Kuhlt.
“Once someone is evicted from a complex, they cannot rent from any other property that participates in the CFMH program in Cottonwood. Those who have been evicted will have to find a place who doesn’t participate in the program. If they can’t find anywhere to rent in Cottonwood, they will have to search for housing elsewhere. With that in mind, I’d love to see every agency in the Verde Valley participating in the program.”
