'We're Making It'

Early in 1970, when 350 new housing ; units on Pontiac Trail at Anrf Arbor's northern boundary were officially converted to an occupantowned cooperative, Sen. Philip A. Hart came and called the development "the kind of tfcing that should reassure those who wonder if the system can respond to needs. "Maybe the establishment can luck out," Hart declared. 'Maybe it has. I But more than just luck was involved in changing Pontiac Heights Cooperative from a place known to local pólice as one of Ann Arbor's main trouble spots into Arrowwood Hills Coopeiiitive, which is praised by occupants and pólice alike. The key change is thst the cooperative [ has become what its naine implies: a place üovemed by its aptroximately 1, 500 occupants. It was no always that vay _j The units were originally owned by a private nonprofit' group, aot made up of residents, who financec, construction with a low-interest federaj loan. For the first half of the four ycars since the ■ development became an oicupant-owned cooperative, the directorsl employed a private management fini, Consumer Systems, to supervise business operaI tions. Now, the Arrowwood Hills property I j manager, Lenoni Addington, I i anee supervisor Roxanne Ashford,: and , their seven-men.ber staffs - five fulltime maintenance persons, one bookkeeper, one typist - all work directly for ; cooperative's elected, unpaid, fivemember board of directors. The board's president, Donald Davenport, who is data compiler at General Motors' Milford proving ground, declares: "In 2 housing cooperative, the first five years, or so can be pretty rough. By then, you've either made it pr it goes to pieces. We' re making it." "J (OVR PLEASE)