Millions in Real Estate, Thousands in Unpaid Utilities, and the People Caught in the Middle

 

Why Isn't This a Bigger Story?

I keep coming back to the same question: Why isn't this a bigger story? On August 20, 2026, residents at Fairways Apartments and Mountain View Villa in Longview received notices from the City warning that their water service could be shut off on August 25 because of delinquent utility accounts. Fairways had $24,154.26 listed as due, while Mountain View Villa had $9,870.58 listed as due. That's $34,024.84 between two apartment complexes.

The part that really caught my attention is printed right on the notices: “As the TENANT you are NOT responsible to make this payment.” These aren't tenants who failed to pay their water bills. These are tenants who could potentially lose an essential utility because the people responsible for paying the utility accounts haven't done so.

This isn't the first time, either. Back in March, Fairways and six other Longview apartment properties associated with the same ownership network were facing water shutoffs because of delinquent utility accounts. The seven properties represented approximately 393 apartments. The accounts were reportedly brought current and the immediate shutoff threat was lifted. Another round of notices followed in April. Now we're here again in August. At some point, this stops looking like an isolated billing problem and starts looking like a pattern.

Let's Talk About the Money

Fairways Apartments has approximately 195 units. Based on current advertised rents and the published unit mix, Fairways has an estimated gross rental potential of approximately $250,000 a month, or roughly $3 million a year, assuming every unit is occupied at those advertised rates. Mountain View Villa has approximately 130 to 136 units, depending on the source and how the property is currently being counted. Current listings show rents ranging from approximately $1,100 for one-bedroom units to $1,650 for three-bedroom units. Using a reasonable current average rent estimate, Mountain View could have gross rental potential of roughly $2.2 million a year.

Put the two properties together and we're looking at an estimated $5.2 million a year in potential gross rental revenue. That is not the same thing as profit. I'm not claiming that $5.2 million is sitting in somebody's checking account waiting for the City of Longview to send a bill. There are mortgages, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, payroll, vacancies, repairs, management costs and all the other expenses involved in operating hundreds of apartments.

That's not the point. The point is scale. We're talking about hundreds of rental units and millions of dollars in potential annual rental revenue, yet residents are receiving notices threatening to shut off their water because more than $34,000 in utility charges remains unpaid. That raises a pretty reasonable question: How does this keep happening?

Follow the Properties

Fairways itself has a documented sales history. In 2016, the 196-unit Fairways Apartments sold for approximately $14.8 million. The transaction was reported by The Registry, which identified the property as Fairways Apartments in Longview and listed entities including BV Fairways LLC and JM Fairways LLC in connection with the transaction.

The historic Monticello Hotel in downtown Longview is another piece of this story. The nearly century-old building sold in September 2020 for a little over $8.2 million. Reporting identified Seattle-based real-estate owner John MacLean as the buyer. The Monticello was subsequently converted into 68 apartments, adding those units to MacLean's Longview portfolio. Previous reporting described MacLean's Longview holdings as roughly 600 apartment units, including Fairways, Mint Place Apartments, Fir at 17th and Mountain View, before the Monticello conversion.

Outside Cowlitz County, the MacLean-associated ownership network also includes properties such as Sky View Park Villa in SeaTac. That 180-unit apartment complex sold for just under $11.5 million in 2007. Raymond MacLean is listed as a governor of Sky View Park Villa LLC in Washington corporate records. Washington corporate records also connect Raymond MacLean to entities including Mountain View Villa LLC, Westwood Park Villa LLC, Northpark Villa LLC, JM Skyview Park Villa LLC and JM Greenlake Park Place LLC.

I'm not going to pretend every one of those LLCs equals a personally owned property without verifying the underlying deeds. That would be sloppy. The point is that we're talking about a substantial real-estate operation, not somebody renting out a duplex and trying to keep the lights on.

So Why Are Tenants the Ones at Risk?

This is where the homelessness conversation needs to change. We spend a tremendous amount of time talking about homelessness after somebody has already lost their housing. We talk about shelters, encampments, affordable housing, mental health, addiction, police response and outreach. We talk about what to do after someone ends up without a home. We don't talk nearly enough about what happens before they get there.

Housing instability doesn't necessarily begin with somebody sleeping on a sidewalk. It can begin with a rent increase, a missed paycheck, an eviction notice, a utility shutoff or a family being forced to find somewhere else to live. If an apartment building actually loses an essential utility, what happens to the people living there? The tenant doesn't get to tell the City, “The landlord didn't pay, so that's the landlord's problem.” The City can shut off the water. The tenant is still the person standing there without water.

The August notices make that distinction especially important because they explicitly tell the tenants they aren't responsible for the debt. That means the people who could suffer the immediate consequences aren't necessarily the people who created the problem.

This Is How Housing Instability Becomes a Community Problem

I'm not claiming that every person who receives a utility shutoff notice becomes homeless. That would be irresponsible. I am saying that housing instability can contribute to displacement, and displacement can contribute to homelessness.

If a person loses their apartment because it can no longer reasonably function as a residence, they have to find somewhere else to live. If they have savings, family, friends or another available apartment, perhaps they manage it. What happens to the person who doesn't?

That's the question we should be asking. We can't keep talking about homelessness as though people simply materialize on the street one morning. There are often events that happen before that point. Sometimes there is a whole chain of them. That's why I think we need to start looking upstream instead of waiting until someone is already standing on a sidewalk with everything they own in a garbage bag.

Then There's the Political Side of This

Then there's another part of this conversation that we seem to conveniently forget every election cycle. People keep voting the very politicians into office who fight like hell to weaken tenant protections, make it harder for renters to hold landlords accountable, and make life easier for property owners and developers.

Somehow, the people living paycheck to paycheck are always expected to understand that landlords have expenses, mortgages, taxes, insurance and maintenance. We're told to have empathy for the business owner and understand that running apartments is complicated. Yet when tenants are the ones facing the consequences, suddenly we're supposed to accept that as the cost of doing business.

At the same time, we keep electing politicians who are more than willing to listen when wealthy property owners complain about regulations, tenant protections or anything else that might cut into their bottom line. Then we act surprised when renters have fewer protections and housing becomes increasingly unstable. You cannot spend years weakening tenant protections and then act shocked when vulnerable tenants have nowhere to turn when something goes wrong.

If we're serious about homelessness, perhaps we should stop treating tenants as disposable collateral damage in somebody else's business model. Maybe we should start asking who our elected officials are protecting, whose interests they are listening to, and why the people who actually live in these buildings so often seem to have the least power when things go wrong.

A tenant shouldn't have to wonder whether they're going to have running water because their landlord didn't pay the bill. That's not asking for special treatment. That's asking for the basic protections that come with having a home.

When Does a Private Business Problem Become a Public Problem?

At what point does a private business problem become a public problem? I'm not accusing anyone of breaking the law. I'm not claiming I know why these utility bills weren't paid. Maybe there were accounting problems. Maybe there were billing disputes. Maybe there were payment arrangements. Maybe there is another explanation entirely.

I don't know. That's precisely why somebody should investigate it.

What I do know is that Fairways received another shutoff notice. Mountain View Villa received another shutoff notice. The combined amount listed on those notices is more than $34,000. The notices tell tenants they aren't responsible for the debt. The same ownership network has been connected to multiple Longview apartment properties that faced utility shutoff threats earlier this year.

Fairways is a nearly 200-unit apartment complex that sold for $14.8 million in 2016. John MacLean purchased the historic Monticello Hotel for more than $8.2 million. The broader MacLean-associated real-estate network extends beyond Cowlitz County.

Those are facts worth looking at.

The Question We Should Be Asking

The question isn't whether somebody is rich enough to pay a water bill. The question isn't whether owning apartment buildings is somehow wrong. The question is much simpler: Why are hundreds of tenants repeatedly being put in the position of potentially losing essential services because of utility debts they are explicitly told they aren't responsible for?

If we're serious about homelessness, we need to start looking upstream. We need to ask what happens before people lose their homes. We need to ask whether landlords and property owners have adequate accountability when their financial problems threaten the housing stability of hundreds of residents. We also need to look at the policies that determine how much protection renters actually have when something like this happens.

We need to stop treating homelessness as something that begins when someone is already sleeping outside. Sometimes the story begins much earlier. Sometimes it begins with a notice taped to an apartment door telling a tenant that they aren't responsible for the bill, but they might still lose their water because it wasn't paid.

That's not just a utility problem. That's a housing problem.

If we continue electing people who prioritize protecting the interests of wealthy property owners while weakening the protections available to the people actually living in those properties, we shouldn't be surprised when more people find themselves one crisis away from losing their homes. You cannot claim you want to solve homelessness while ignoring the things that make housing unstable in the first place.

Maybe it's time we started asking a much harder question: Who are our elected officials actually protecting?