ALUM NI
It’s Not Housing. It’s Home. Daryl Carter, B.S. ’77, brings “lifestyle within reach” to affordable housing communities nationwide THERE’S AN OLD ADAGE about the best restaurants being the ones with the line out the door. Daryl Carter’s twist: the best places to live are those with full visitor parking lots and waiting lists. He’s proud to say his properties fit the bill. “The view has been that people have to live in affordable housing, but we have shifted the paradigm. People want to live in our communities,” says Carter, B.S. ’77, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Irvine, California-based Avanath Capital Management LLC. Avanath manages rental properties in 13 states and the District of Columbia — a total of about 14,000 units, the vast majority of which fall under Section 8 affordable housing guidelines, meaning the residents earn less than 50 percent of the area’s median income. Carter, who has testified on Capitol Hill multiple times about the affordable housing crisis in America, points out that it’s a color- blind problem. While there’s a persistent stigma about affordable housing being in Black and Brown neighborhoods, housing issues are just as prevalent in rural, white communities. He says one way to destigmatize affordable housing is to follow the European model of having communities that are a blend of subsidized and non-subsidized units — which he has done with several Avanath properties. “Those are our best communities because no one has a label,” he says. 40
SPRING 2022 TAUBMAN COLLEGE
Avanath turns the traditional notion of “affordable housing” on its head by focusing on tenant retention, community building, and “lifestyle within reach.” That means Avanath spends its renovation dollars on things that make the biggest impact on residents — like washers and dryers that save parents from having to worry about child care while they go to laundromats, or pools that provide fitness, recreation, and a sense of luxury — instead of removing popcorn ceilings or installing granite countertops. “Developers often think in terms of, ‘how much will someone pay for that,’” Carter says. He’d rather ask, “Would you prefer a granite countertop or a Formica countertop and lower rent?” As a native of Detroit, Carter witnessed the effects of disinvestment in cities. That’s always in the back of his head today. “If capital goes into an area, if people are investing in homes and businesses, then you’re going to have a community on the rise,” Carter says. So Avanath also emphasizes community. They’ve partnered with local nonprofits to provide after-school programming while parents are at work. They’ve also partnered with Amazon to provide Amazon Lockers so that residents can have secure deliveries of items, including groceries. Additional programs include vaccine clinics and access to banking. “By investing holistically in programs and services that support our residents, our residents stay with us longer, which makes our communities and our bottom line more stable,” Carter says. “The biggest element that makes a property safer is low turnover because people know each other and each other’s kids and they look out for each other.” Most Avanath properties operate at 100-percent capacity and have waiting lists. The annual tenant turnover rate