Meet the Nominees for the 2016 Good Neighbor Award

This year, three outstanding people have been nominated for the MassLandlords 2016 Good Neighbor Award: Lt. Annemarie Pickett, of the Worcester Fire Department; Representative Chris Walsh, of 6^th Middlesex; and Jim Brooks, of the Worcester Executive Office of Economic Development.

2016's Good Neighbor Award winner will be announced soon!

Education is an extremely important part of what we do at MassLandlords, evidently a value we share with the Worcester Fire Department. Over the past year, Lt. Annemarie Pickett has helped to educate landlords on fire safety in a current and efficient way. Lt. Pickett’s work as Public Education Officer has been spectacular. Anyone who had the pleasure of watching Lt. Pickett’s presentation at the October 22 Landlord Summit sponsored by the City of Worcester was pleasantly surprised by her high-tech presentation and informative videos. She clearly communicated the need for fire safety equipment and presented an array of interesting technologies that landlords may wish to evaluate in protecting their tenants.

MassLandlords is focused on not only educating landlords, but also working with state representatives to improve housing and tenancy laws. Representative Chris Walsh has been an integral player in conceiving of the way to serve more Massachusetts residents with Housing Court expansion while also reducing court costs with mandatory rent escrow. Representative Walsh has put in a lot of time and effort over the past year to broker a compromise bill between Annette Duke of the Mass Law Reform Institute and Skip Schloming of the Small Property Owners Association. Mandatory rent escrow and housing court expansion are difficult subjects for those of us involved in the Commonwealth’s housing policy. The issue has been deeply polarizing. It is remarkable that Representative Walsh has been able to engage both Duke and Schloming, two titans from opposite ends of the spectrum, in substantive discussions. The text they have produced together may turn out to be widely accepted as the solution to rent escrow.

Although being a landlord doesn’t require a degree, it still requires proper education to be successful. Thanks to Jim Brooks’ efforts, many more landlords are now knowledgeable, informed, and better able to provide quality rental housing in the City of Worcester. Jim has been a longtime supporter of the Worcester Property Owners Association, now under MassLandlords, and was particularly helpful to area landlords by planning and holding the October 22 Landlord Summit. The free summit drew an unprecedented 460 attendees. The biggest MassLandlords meeting in Worcester, by comparison, has only had 120 in attendance. Many area landlords became better connected with city resources, programs and each other.

We at MassLandlords would like to express our deepest thanks to these three outstanding individuals. Without your hard work and help, we would not be where we are today. The winner of the 2016 Good Neighbor Award will be announced soon.