Cathy B Glenn
Jan 2026
I'm sitting in the lobby of Diamond Terrace this Wednesday morning and, if you didn't know better, you'd swear the building was empty. The quiet is not easy, though; it's the kind of silence that happens after violence. Yesterday, a manager and a staff member got into an argument. It's not the first time - it's been ongoing since new management in 2025 began. Michaels Management has ignored complaints and continues to enable management's practices. The on-going culture of fear I've experienced and documented is the result. I'm a college professor and an active ethnographic researcher (Cathy B Glenn on LinkedIn). I've documented my experiences and observations in the Diamond Terrace culture since I moved in March 2025. I'm staying in affordable housing for two years while I write up 7+ years of findings from my fieldwork. I am deeply grateful for this resource. However, what I've found at Diamond Terrace is a culture nearly identical to those I lived in and documented in rural Southern Oregon. At Diamond Terrace, management's practices create (1) a closed culture, which disables many residents' ability to access vital information about their housing from anyone other than management. It isolates many residents, making them easy targets for administrative sabotage and intimidation from management. (2) Information from management is often inaccurate (sometimes intentionally), which can confuse elderly residents making it easy to gaslight them. (3) Transparency of process is actively discouraged by management, which makes it impossible for many residents to see in front of them and exercise their agency to make informed decisions. Finally, (4) violence - discursive, psychological, and economic - are a normal part of the culture for many, making already vulnerable residents deathly afraid of speaking up to improve their conditions. Since I've lived here, I've observed rapid declines in some residents' health - not a result of poor caregiving, but appears to be a direct result of the toxic culture of fear cultivated by Michaels Management. The culture of fear is efficient for management because it keeps many residents in their apartments - quiet, docile, and obedient - and makes management's job easier. Many residents have moved or been forced out as a result. I'm visiting a former neighbor today whose family moved her out of Diamond Terrace. I'm grateful that this morning I'm not breathing the persistent secondhand smoke that often permeates the first floor hallways and lobby at Diamond Terrace. It seeps out of rooms that management mostly uses - I've seen, firsthand, management's smoking in the building. Even a visiting manager smelled it when visiting, and that was after community management tried to cover the smell in anticipation of her visit. My formal complaints about health and habitability issues have led to months of retaliation (still on-going) against me from management.. I've documented it all and am sharing with regulatory agencies to prompt an improvement in resident conditions and to protect myself from management's attacks for exercising my rights - protected by California and federal laws as well as Interstate Realty Management (Michael's Management) Company's own lease. Diamond Terrace is a beautiful property, even with all the deferred maintenance. There are lovely people who live in this affordable housing complex, many of whom are vulnerable, dependent, and trusting of authority. Most have no choice but to stay in their apartments and submit to keep their housing or risk being forcefully displaced. Most don't know they have a protected right to speak up and organize. It doesn't have to be this way. This is a culture that can be repaired. I've reached out to the owners of the property - Diamond Terrace Investors, LP - in an effort to share what I've learned, offer feedback, and work toward making Diamond Terrace what it can be: a safe home for everyone.
