In May, the Philadelphia Fair Housing Commission ruled that Alden Park’s property management retaliated against the tenants’ association leader, Kadi Ashby.

The ruling came about a year after Ashby formed the tenants’ association at the Germantown property, and since then, she says, not much has changed. The Local spoke with four former Alden employees, including the former property manager, who detailed what they said were the practices of the owners and managers, L3C Capital Partners and RAM Partners LLC.

Three of the former employees asked to remain anonymous. All three worked at Alden within the last year.

The Local contacted Ram Properties LLC for comment, but did not receive a response.

Former employee 1 described ownership and management’s handling of tenant complaints, requests, payments, and evictions as particularly unfeeling. In one case, the person said Alden filed to evict a tenant who was in the hospital dying of cancer.

Former employee 1 told the Local, “Every single person that didn’t pay rent by the sixth day got filed on. It didn’t matter if you were out of the country or something happened with your bank account. It doesn’t matter. You’re gonna get filed on, and you have to pay the court fee. Say you got a brand new debit card and you forgot [to update it] on the portal. Well, you’re still gonna get put through eviction diversion, and now you have to go to court and do all this extra stuff when it was a mistake.”

Eviction Lab, a research center based at Princeton University, lists Alden Park on its “Eviction Hotspots” for Philadelphia.

Alden’s former property manager, Theo Berry, echoed former employee 1’s statement. Berry described Alden as lacking the human element and described the ownership and management as “robotic.”

Berry and former employees 2 and 3 described a process in which management required approval from ownership to proceed with major and minor repairs, often waiting weeks or months for a response.

“It is so micromanaged by the ownership, you really can’t do anything, even if you wanted to,” Berry told the Local. “I’ve never been with a company where you have to do that. I’ve worked in third-party management too, so I understand having a management company that works for the owners, and I never had that problem ever. They needed approval from the owners for every little thing you did on site, and so that was a big issue for us.”

When the Local first spoke with Alden residents in June 2025, tenants described frequently long wait times or no response from management on maintenance requests. Tenants also described concerns with the leasing process, finding their apartment did not match the square footage described in their lease.

Former employee 2 described maintenance and safety concerns with the building’s larger systems, sharing a photo of exposed electrical systems and meters covered with cardboard and tape.

As of Tuesday, July 28, the property has several open violations from Licenses and Inspections (L&I), including violations for rodent infestation and repairs to fire alarms.

Berry said that ownership had a construction crew on site for serious repairs, but unless L&I or lawyers were involved, little was done.

“There would be instances where [L&I] would come out for an inspection, and they would see something else that’s a violation, and they would say, ‘I’m not writing this down. Just get this fixed for me,” Berry said. “There would be multiple violations if they did a thorough inspection.”

When asked if it is normal for L&I inspectors to inform landlords or management of upcoming inspections, a spokesperson for L&I said the department “takes its responsibility to enforce the city’s property building, maintenance, and safety codes seriously. Allegations that inspectors provide advance notice of inspections or rely solely on photographs in lieu of appropriate site inspections do not reflect L&I’s policies or standard operating procedures.”

Adding, “L&I does not comment on anonymous or unverified allegations regarding specific employees or properties. However, if credible information is provided regarding potential misconduct or code violations, the department will review the information and take appropriate action consistent with its policies and legal obligations.”

The lack of a response without L&I or legal involvement, Ashby says, lines up with her experience as a tenant.

When Ashby moved into her unit, she found black mold in several areas of the apartment. Submitting a maintenance request, Ashby said she waited months without any remediation from management. Eventually, she hired a lawyer.

Now, as the head of the tenants’ association, her fellow tenants report similar issues to her, with tenants filing complaints with L&I after long waits for repairs.

Ashby said there also were tenant complaints about locked emergency exit doors.

“I have reported a padlocked exit door. They came out very quickly, inspected it, and then closed my request, saying they didn’t find the violation,” Ashby said.

Following the closed inspection, Ashby said the arrow on the exit sign had been flipped to point away from the padlocked door. She said the day prior to the inspection, she walked by the door and the arrow pointed directly at it.

Berry said that when he informed his bosses of larger maintenance concerns on the property, they would often ignore the issue. He spoke of one tenant who had been without hot water for several months, with ownership and management not making the necessary repair.

Issues on-site

Employee 3 told the Local of a toxic work environment at Alden, with employees not given proper training for their positions. Employee 1 echoed these concerns. They claimed they were not given proper training under Berry and were often left to handle issues on the property on their own.

While identifying issues with management and ownership, the employees say the problem also stemmed from Berry himself.

In response, Berry said the issues stemmed from higher up and said it is accurate that his employees were not properly trained.

“I didn’t receive corporate training until six months into my job,” Berry said. “For me [training employees], it’s kind of tough to do when you’re managing a 765-unit property, and we have expectations from clients on achieving budget results, which you know sometimes are unattainable. I tried my best to get people from other properties to come out and train different positions and get the corporate trainers involved.”

Employees say they felt ignored by RAM Partners LLC’s upper management when raising concerns about the property and about Berry.

Ultimately, Berry said he decided to leave the company prior to management discussing the complaints with him. While testifying in the Fair Housing Commission’s retaliation hearing back in April, Berry said he was already in the process of leaving his position.