The sense of community in multi-family housing

Abstract

In the Residential Property Management Program at Ball State University students are taught in all of the courses to call properties apartment “communities” and no longer identify them as apartment “complexes”. The word community gives the property a feel more like a home. The term community also shows off the multiple amenities residential properties now have for their residents. In this research study the researcher examined the use of the term “sense of community” in relation to the apartment industry. The researcher also demonstrated the use of the Sense of Community Index II developed by McMillan and Chavis (2008) with apartment communities. The following subscales were examined: membership, reinforcement of needs, influence, and shared emotional connection. The sample used for this research was taken from two apartment communities in North Carolina. The instrument used for this research was a survey called the “Sense of Community Index II (SCI-2)” developed by McMillan and Chavis (2008). This survey has been used for other research studies and proven reliable. Overall, the pool of residents (n=21) from the Marquis at Northcross as well as the Marquis at Silverton felt more than 50% had a sense of community where they were living. It is difficult to compare the findings from this research to the other research done in relation to the sense of community because it has never been done in an apartment community setting.