By Katie Northcott, News Director
Residents at Bedford Manor have formed an apartment complex union in protest of the living conditions at their residence. Bedford Manor is a low income apartment complex in Shelbyville.
Union members are calling for Will Cooper, Jr., CEO and Chairman of WNC, Inc., to meet with residents about their concerns. WNC, Inc. is a real estate and investment company. Cooper has a reputation as a pioneer in the affordable housing market.
According to a Facebook post made by the Bedford County Listening Project on Tuesday, Dec. 9, tenants are sending a letter to Cooper asking for “repairs and effective and transparent pest control services.”
Peterson Media Group has reached out to WNC, Inc. for comment. No comment has been made at the time of this article.
The full text of the open letter is published below:
Sign here to publicly support Tennessee Renters Standing Up for Dignity and Safe Housing!
On December 9, dozens of renter families at Bedford Manor in Shelbyville, Tennessee formed the first apartment complex tenant union in Bedford County history. After years of dealing with substandard housing including widespread water leaks, collapsing floors, broken railings, and uncontrolled pests, and excuses from a revolving door of management companies and on-site and off-site property managers, they have reached out to their billionaire landlord, Will Cooper, Jr. in Orange County California, and asked him to meet with them to address their top immediate concerns: structural repairs to a number of apartments, and consistent pest control treatment in all of Bedford Manor’s 10 buildings.
Will Cooper, Jr, it turns out, is one of the nation’s biggest landlords, leading WNC, Inc (the company his father founded and named using his initials). WNC’s business model works because of federal subsidies – Cooper got a $10 million Fannie Mae-backed mortgage to buy Bedford Manor back during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021; he has a contract with HUD that guarantees him Section 8 payments for all of the complex’s 108 units; and he also receives LIHTC tax credits which he “syndicates” to investors in lieu of paying their federal taxes. Decisions made by WNC executives 2,000 miles away are directly responsible for the conditions that Shelbyville families live in every day.
Because Cooper’s business model is based on government subsidies, he is required to abide by the HUD rules in the contract he signed- which require him to provide pest extermination services, and also require him to recognize and meet with tenant organizations in his properties (see 24 CFR 245), and prohibit him from retaliating against them when they organize.
Sign this public letter supporting the Bedford Manor Tenant Union and their righteous demands for repairs and pest control. We will be in touch to let you know whether Will Cooper and WNC respond and agree to fulfill their responsibilities in their contract with HUD, and any follow-up calls to action that may be necessary.
Click here to sign the letter.
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