FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A meeting to discuss alleged housing problems at Spring Run Apartments in Fairhope is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 6:30 p.m. at Macedonia Baptist Church in Daphne.

The meeting will include a presentation by attorneys for some of the tenants, said Willie Williams, president of the Baldwin County Martin Luther King Celebration Committee and an organizer of the meeting.

“(The attorneys) will (explain) the situation out there,” Williams said. “We want former and current tenants to attend this meeting so they can understand their rights.”

Williams claimed the apartment’s management company abandoned the property last month, leaving no resident manager on-site and tenants without a way to make payments or communicate with management.

Tenants at the property receive subsidized rent based on their income, and the company that owns the apartments receives tax credits for providing that affordable housing, Williams said.

Chuck Stefan, a vice president with The Mitchell Co. in Mobile, said Joaquin Luaces of Coral Gables, Fla., who had managed Spring Run Apartments for TMC, resigned Dec. 19. Stefan said the resident manager of the apartments had also left recently but that a replacement had been hired, and that TMC staff has been on-site during the transition. He denied that TMC has abandoned the property.

“In fact, we have workmen out there today repairing some apartments at the property,” Stefan said Monday. “As quickly as we are getting them repaired, they are being rented.”

Last April, the BCMLKCC and the Point Clear/Fairhope Action Committee filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development claiming discriminatory practices by owners and managers of Spring Run Apartments.

The complaint alleged problems began when Luaces, through his company Miami Mar Inc., took over management of the property in November 2007. The allegations include miscalculation of rents, changing rent terms after signing, forcing out disabled tenants and misinforming tenants about landlord-tenant laws and HUD rent subsidy rules.

Luaces said Monday that his company had never been involved with management of the subsidized housing in Fairhope. However, he did say that he was regional manager of Affordable Housing for TMC but not that he had resigned last month.

“The last (resident) manager changed jobs on Dec. 23,” Luaces said. “The management has not walked off the property.”

Stefan said Luaces’s job title was incorrect, and that he had only managed two properties for them, including one in Gulf Shores. Luaces resigned from both jobs last month, Stefan said.

Williams said the federal complaint filed last year was withdrawn when it was determined that improper forms had been used. The complaint was refiled when the tenants retained Mobile attorneys Mary Stone and Herman Thomas.

“There were two different groups of complaints,” Stefan said. “The first group was thrown out. We won the other hands-down. It cost us $12,000 to defend.”

The tenants’ attorneys did not return several phone calls for comment.

Stefan said the alleged problems at the apartments began with a joint program of the Internal Revenue Service and HUD in which a review of Social Security numbers showed discrepancies in the amount of income reported to the IRS and to HUD by people seeking subsidized rent at affordable housing properties.

“I don’t think they had any idea of the under reporting that was going on,” Stefan said. “It resulted in about two-thirds of the people in Spring Run owing back rent.”

Stefan said Spring Run Apartments is owned by a limited liability company whose main investor is Column Financial Inc. with TMC holding a small interest.

Information reported on the Web site of the Alabama Housing Finance Authority shows the name of that company as Spring Run Associates Ltd.

Last May, Williams wrote the City Council asking it to rescind its support of AHFA low-income housing credits for Spring Run Apartments.

“We find that the company using tax credits to abuse our citizens is unjust,” Williams wrote.