Greater Holyoke Rental Housing Association Dissolves
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On May 28 Charles Monfett, Treasurer of the Greater Holyoke Rental Housing Association (GHRHA), wrote to MassLandlords to communicate that their association had disbanded. They have donated their remaining assets to MassLandlords.
Early plan of Holyoke, its canal system and roads, drafted by the Hadley Falls Company in 1853 and designed by Philander Anderson and assistant Samuel Chase. Holyoke is not unusual in the sense that is a planned Massachusetts city like Lowell, Lawrence and Waltham reinventing itself again and again. Holyoke is now a major center for computing with zero-emissions hydropower electricity. Public Domain Wikipedia.
GHRHA joins a list of landlord organizations that have entrusted MassLandlords to carry the work forward. We list landlord associations from 1998 to 2014 on our Chapters and History page, many of which still operate.
GHRHA are unusual in that, when they stopped operating, they formally and cleanly decided it. We thank GHRHA for attention to detail in all matters of their operations and close-out.
Other organizations that no longer operate have often petered out, leaving behind loose ends and tens of thousands of dollars of unclaimed property. The Massachusetts Rental Housing Association and the Waltham Rental Housing Association are two such zombie organizations, neither operating nor possessing any last officer with unexpired term (and therefore legal authority) to shut down. (Any MRHA or WRHA officer as of the time of their last report should contact us; we may be able to effectuate a dissolution and transfer.)
Under the MassLandlords model of pooling resources to have paid staff, we have been able to do more with less. This has been badly needed as civic participation and volunteerism have been in decline the last several decades. Plus, with unrelenting policy pressure on small housing operators, many of us have looked to larger corporate owners and sold out. When it comes to naturally affordable rental housing, Massachusetts seems to get what it deserves, which is to say, decreasing supply relative to demand. The closing of small landlord organizations reflects this larger trend.
We wish to thank Charles and the many other landlords who contributed for decades to make the Greater Holyoke Rental Housing Association a force for good in the community. We promise to do our best to serve the many operators who continue the hard work of providing rental housing in greater Holyoke.
