ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. --  Commit a crime, get evicted. It is a strict housing initiative to make apartment complexes safer in Orange County.

The crime free multi-housing program is an initiative that the Orange County Sheriff's Office has worked with apartment property managers with for years now as part of a national program.  It's a program both law enforcement and landlords feel benefits everyone. 


What You Need To Know

  • Orange County Sheriff's Office working with apartments to implement crime free multi-housing program

  • Under national program, if you commit a crime, you get evicted

  • Program meant to keep apartment complexes safer

  • More Public Safety News

Anyone coming into Sun Bay Apartments in Winter Park is greeted with a sign and a warning, cautioning visitors and residents this complex is crime-free. 

“Those residents, it matters to them to feel safe and to know that they’re protected here,” said Chrissy Ostendorf, Property Manager at Sun Bay Apartments. 

“It’s basically a neighborhood watch for the apartment complex,” said Corporal Michael Rowland, Coordinator of the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program with the Orange County Sheriff's Office. 

Ostendorf works with the OCSO regularly on safety improvements, everything from installing 180-degree peep holes to window locks. 

“We actually check the locks, we check the length of the deadbolts on the locks, we make sure they’re not loose and they go at least one-inch into the deadbolt,” Rowland said. 

They've improved outdoor lighting and trimmed overgrown shrubs and trees to make it easier to see, harder to hide. 

“It was definitely a big investment for the owners but it was worth it. It was for the residents’ safety and that’s what’s important at the end of the day,” Ostendorf said. 

Now, renters have to sign a lease addendum agreeing they won’t commit a crime here.

“It’s pretty well a one-strike rule if you violate the program, you could get evicted,” Rowland said. 

“I get a report that will tell me anyone that lives here, if they got arrested and they’ll send it to me," Ostendorf said. "So if I didn’t know or I wasn’t here, I’ll still find out and that’s good, too."

Strict - yes. But safer, too. 

“I even see the sheriff’s lately, they just drive through, just drive through the property. And that makes a difference because those troublemakers notice it," Ostendorf said. "They notice, oh why are the cops always here, you know, and they don’t want to come here because they don’t want to get in trouble and that’s exactly what we want. We don’t want anyone coming here to cause any problems for the residents."

And that cuts down on crime in areas that are often busy for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

“Crime occurs everywhere. But a lot of them here in Orlando, we know occur around and in apartment complexes, so that’s why this program is very important to us because we want to reduce crime and make it a safer environment for everybody,” Rowland said. 

More than two-dozen apartment complexes across the county are now a part of the program. And after two years of work, Sun Bay is now one of them. 

“It’s worth it. It’s just worth it," Ostendorf said. 

The crime-free multi housing project started in 2013 in Orange County. The program was first created in the '90's in Arizona but has since expanded nationally. 

For more information, including how you can start a program at your apartment complex, visit the OCSO website here https://www.ocso.com/Crime-Information/Crime-Prevention/Crime-Free-Multi-Housing