Why We Exist
Connected Thread is different. From our name, to our logo, to how we operate, we are not a traditional property management company.
Caring for other people is the thread that connects all the stakeholders in affordable housing together. We will care so that everyone is connected and successful.
Our focus is on making real differences in affordable housing. Our personal experiences in affordable housing led us to the realization that even just one caring connection has the power to positively impact lives and make real differences.
What Makes Us So Special
Property management companies often have large portfolios spread out over a small to modest staff. This can cause a lack of focus and an inability to manage policies, procedures, and staff effectively. Many of these management companies spend a significant amount of time and resources growing their own business and revenue instead of maintaining high standards for the portfolios in which they are already committed to.
We are property management made simple. Our flat organizational structure and full commitment to our contracts ensure that all needs are met. Our focus will be on policies and procedures because they provide consistency and clarity, help guide positive actions, endorse well being, ensure tasks are being carried out and done correctly, save money, and they protect people. We will be consistent in re-examining policies and procedures to keep them working well for all of us. We endlessly communicate these policies to residents and employees and provide the support necessary to fulfill expectations.
There is a missed opportunity to do right by residents, employees, owners, and other stakeholders by building real relationships and cultivating productive communities. Doing it the right way, everyone wins. More support means less employee and resident turnover, fewer problems, and an increase in revenue. Being familiar and consistent to residents, employees, and neighbors is a real, proven answer to challenges within affordable housing. We will be the ones to connect these aspects of familiarity and consistency to your buildings.
Lonna’s Story
“Most people don’t know what the inside of affordable housing buildings can really look like.”
Most people have no idea that much of the city’s affordable housing is not living up to its potential. Most people don’t know how to achieve that potential. I do. For the last 10 years, I ran the St. Francis Apartments in downtown Portland. When I took over the St. Francis, it was a mess. Drug dealers came and went as they pleased and endlessly knocked from door to door. There were prostitutes being trafficked in the building. There were verbal and physical assaults happening multiple times every day. There were homeless squatters living in empty apartments and in the stairwells. There was vandalism and property was regularly destroyed. Some residents passed away in their apartments and weren’t discovered for weeks. The building was infested with bed bugs and everyone had succumbed to thinking that this was a normal way of life.
I was scared to go to work. I was scared to patrol the building. I was scared to walk the stairwells or enter the elevator. I was scared for the residents and my staff that worked there.
From what I could piece together, policies and procedures that would keep most of the problems from happening hadn’t been enforced in quite some time. No one had cared enough to stick it out with these folks and get things addressed. Well, I cared. I decided that I cared enough to do all the scary things it took to make all of us at the St. Francis safer. I decided that I cared enough to turn this building into a healthy place to live and work.
I created policies and procedures where there were none and worked with my staff to follow and enforce all operations along with me. We made all guests sign in and show ID. We kept people out of the building that were not visiting residents. I started a years-long war on bedbugs and worked with residents and exterminators to regularly go room by room to eradicate them. I made it clear to drug dealers and sex traffickers that they were not welcome in the building. This exposed me to uncomfortable situations and conversations but, if I didn’t do it, who would? I have had my life threatened more times than I can remember. My assistant manager was punched in the face. I have done welfare checks on residents I hadn’t seen for a few days and found bodies of people that I really cared about. I was more likely to spend the afternoon crying in my office than taking a lunch. For a year, I had to change my clothes before I went home so I did not take bed bugs to my family.
It was all worth it. I got to know hundreds of really interesting and loving people. I identified resident needs through casual conversations, through their tears and frustrations, and through silent observations because I took the time to get to know everyone’s day to day behaviors. My office is filled with paintings and gifts my residents have made me. Some of these we did together when I would tote my art supplies to work and set up art stations in the community room. My office walls are filled with pictures of our staff and residents together at potlucks, movie nights, and holidays.
When I left the St. Francis in August of 2017, it was a happy and thriving place. I left with the plan to continue to share a caring culture in affordable housing. I want to continue to see more resident pride and peaceful rapport between residents and staff. I want to continue to see a plummeted number of evictions and a higher retention of employees and residents. I want to continue to make real connections in communities and outperform myself operationally and financially.
There are some really complicated issues we face, as a society. We need to deal with the mental illness crisis in our community. We need to solve homelessness and restore some humanity to this catastrophe. As our city becomes more vibrant and more people move here, we need to have affordable housing available for everyone who needs it.
These are big picture issues and I am really not a big picture person. I am not really interested in politics or business. I am comfortable when spending time with the people residing in affordable housing and hearing how things are affecting them on their level. After primarily being a mom and wife for 15 years, I went back to school and got my degree in human development with the idea that I could find a place to positively impact people. That led me to affordable housing and the St. Francis. I set out just wanting to give the 140 people in that building a safe place to be proud of.
I have learned many things over the last 10 years. I learned what holes need to be plugged up and plugged into within the traditional affordable housing management model. I learned best practices, ones that best serve everyone. I learned how to build community. I learned my place in this world where I can make a difference. I have had similar experiences, as in my early years at the St. Francis, when helping out at other affordable housing buildings in Portland. I want to help transform our city one building at a time.
Our Team
Owner
Lonna Martin
For nearly a decade, I have dedicated myself to making affordable housing amazing. I created my own best practices and strategies to bring much needed stability, safety, and productivity to my building. I believe in the strength of community, the resiliency of people, and the power of caring.
2009- Graduated Magna Cum Laude in Human Development, Washington State University
2016- ACE Nominee
Chief Strategy Officer & Marketing Director
Kris Martin
Over the last 20 years, Kris has helped many organizations strategically plan and execute that plan to achieve success. Kris is passionate and driven to create culture within organizations that, not only create success, but community and passion for the job at hand. Kris has managed, owned, or consulted with dozens of organizations across many industries, not only in advising, but learning the best strategies and tactics to build successful organizations.
From 2007 to 2017, Kris was a partner in a Portland, Oregon advertising agency.
Director of IT
Richard Standow
Rich is a detail oriented and highly motivated IT professional with 15 years of high-quality technical support experience in small to medium enterprise for internal and external clients. Rich provides exceptional support and troubleshooting for a full range of hardware and software.
Director of Services
Aaron Cline
Aaron’s mission is to open new doors in resident and employees’ lives through creative and responsible design, development, and operation of service-enhanced affordable housing.
Aaron is committed to the individual success of each of our residents and employees by providing a range of on-site services at Connected Thread’s affordable housing buildings. He seeks out and implements services for youth, financial education and job readiness for adults, case management, advocacy, and health education. Residents and employees benefit from dozens of strategic, long-term collaborations with local partners who provide services such as health care, child care, job training and counseling, and other supportive services. Aaron creates a comprehensive safety network for residents and employees as well as new opportunities for personal growth and improved livelihoods. His work encourages participation and leadership in our communities, enhances achievement and self-esteem, and helps people to become confident and educated contributors to their community.
Legal
Mark L. Busch, P.C.
Mark Busch has made his career providing top quality legal representation for landlord-owners as they navigate the complicated waters of landlord-tenant law. Mark personally handles each case in order to ensure the personal benefit of his years of extensive experience in the field while always working to keep costs to a minimum.
Mark Busch completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Idaho. He completed his jurisprudence studies at the Willamette College of Law in Salem, Oregon. Mark was admitted to the Oregon Bar in 1991. He also successfully passed the California bar exam and was admitted there in 2013.
Mark has continued to refine his skills in landlord-tenant relations and has established himself as one of the premier and most effective landlord-tenant attorneys in Oregon. Mark opened his own practice in 2000 after spending eight years honing his craft in a Portland-based law firm. Since then, he has made it his mission to focus exclusively on the complicated field of landlord-tenant relations and specifically turned his attention to protecting landlord rights.
Whether in mediation, arbitration hearings, or actual trials, Mark has expertly represented countless landlords from start to finish with their cases. From the filing of initial eviction notices to an actual trial, appeal, or committee hearing before the Oregon Legislature, Mr. Busch will ensure that rights as a landlord and property owner are upheld.
Mr. Busch continues to be a regular speaker and contributor at landlord-tenant seminars throughout the state, further polishing his reputation as the expert in his field. In this expert capacity, he has presented for the Oregon State Bar, the Oregon Lodging Association, the Oregon Legal Institute, the Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon, and the National Business Institute, among others.
Human Resources
Ryan Fleming
I have over 25 years experience in the field of human resources and management in the private sector, state government, and non profit world. Today, I specialize in human resources and management consulting work through my company, Portland HR Solutions, Inc., located in downtown Portland, Oregon.
My clients range from medium-sized local companies and nonprofits to larger, multi-national organizations. Whether working with senior leadership to design and implement new solutions, integrating with internal HR departments to perform hands on update and development work, or serving as an outsourced HR solution for non-profits, I absolutely love this profession.
My expertise has been built by learning and performing each HR discipline during my career while moving up through management into executive leadership. That in-the-trenches experience has built expertise, skills, and perspective that my clients find uniquely valuable.
Working with clients to create workforce solutions that improve the way people engage with each other is my core mission. I want clients to maximize employee engagement, improve their bottom line, and continue to use the solutions we have created long into the future.
Bookkeeping
Julie Flint
Julie is energetic and passionate about aiding small business owners with their financial needs. Julie recognizes the need for affordable financial solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. She brings 20 plus years of experience in the bookkeeping profession to the services provided to her clientele.
Compliance
Elizabeth Moreland Consulting, Inc.
Since 1995, Elizabeth Moreland Consulting, Inc. has helped thousands and thousands of hard working property managers, compliance specialists, developers, State Monitoring Agency staff, investors, and asset managers master the complex regulations of the tax credit and other affordable housing programs. Through a full array of public and private workshops, Housing Credit Online Training Center courses available 24/7, a vast array of products and consulting services, and the National Compliance Professional Membership Group, Elizabeth Moreland Consulting, Inc. has become known as the place to go to when needing to learn the rules, facing a tough compliance or management issue, or hoping to network with other industry professionals from across the country!
Accounting
Carl S. Kostol, C.P.A.
Ivey Jacobson & Company, LLC
Carl is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company’s accounting department. His positive attitude and dedication to client service has made him a valuable asset for his clients.
Carl has perfected his corporate accounting skills for the past three decades and has an in-depth knowledge of operational accounting and cash flow management. He also manages related software applications and brings quality and consistency to accounting operations.
Screening
Pacific Screening, Inc.
Pacific Screening, a leader in applicant investigative reporting, was founded in 1992 with the goal of providing quality applicant screening to property owners and employers. This service is best achieved with three qualities: prompt and courteous service, reliable reporting, and accurate information. Our dedicated staff has the experience and resources to help you find the ideal applicant.
Pacific Screening offers tools to speed up your applicant screening process. Online credit reports and public record checks are available for most of the United States.
