Olu Butterfly Woods: Rescuing a West Baltimore Co-op … on the next Doni Glover Show

A West Baltimore housing cooperative is under siege by abusive mismanagement and needs your help to secure legal representation.

The “leadership” at Reservoir Hill Mutual Homes (RHMH) is suddenly evicting long-time residents, filing false allegations, fiscally operating without an audit or any transparency and defaulting with creditors, doing improper repairs, contemptuous communication from the staff, and other malicious legal proceedings.

I myself, Olu Butterfly have been wildly harassed since I dared to formally complain about the Property Manager threatening my family in June of 2021. I am a mother of four and a long-active community member helping others and now my family is on the frontlines of a fight for social justice and housing. You can read about me here: https://baltimoretimes-online.com/uncategorized/2022/10/25/olu-butterfly-uses-her-gifts-to-make-baltimore-communities-more-sustainable/

While RHMH is illegally evicting people into a harsh rental environment, we have not been able to access any community tenant resources, such as pro bono legal services or organizing assistance to defend ourselves because we are a cooperative and not an apartment. The leadership at RHMH has also decided, without cause, that they are not accepting any rental assistance from third parties. There are many elders and single parents here and through the abusive policies and voter suppression, many members feel unempowered.

But what is a deficit can also be a blessing: every resident is a co-owner of the housing cooperative made up of 150+ units. This means that the “leadership” is made of people who are supposed to be our elected representatives and our collective employees. We have a legal remedy to rescue the property and halt the displacement and mismanagement. With all these violations we can’t just complain though, we need a lawyer to help us enforce our rights, and we need to act fast. The funds raised will go directly to a legal escrow account.

We can’t solve everything everywhere immediately but by donating you are making a strong stand for justice and contributing an example for others to follow. We see a resilient and beautiful future for the co-op where life-giving activities and empowered members who care about the community re-emerge. The co-op was founded in 1976 and is an amazing model of what is possible and needs to be replicated across the city, not destroyed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and consider donating to our cause.