Profile
NAME: Ophelia Harrison, FHC, CPO
COMPANY: AMCS
POSITION: Manager, Haven Oaks Apartments
Ophelia Harrison likes to say she is the “temporary” manager at Haven Oaks Apartments—even though she has been there for 11 years come February.
“I’ve been with AMCS for 18 years. I came from conventional,” she said. “Jamie [Kerr, AMCS president] asked me to go over to Haven Oaks until he found someone to manage the property. Our joke is me always asking him when he is going to find someone.”
The lack of a timely replacement has worked in Harrison’s favor, who says she enjoys working in the affordable world better.
“Affordable is the total opposite of conventional. I like the challenge,” Harrison said. “Affordable is nonstop. There is always something to do. I’m a paperwork girl.”
Harrison’s experiences before joining AMCS have been invaluable at Haven Oaks, a multifamily community in Summerville, S.C. She previously worked as a grant writer and event planner for a nonprofit organization. She has a computer science background and is a former teacher, both of which she uses through community programs such as a homework club and a class that helps residents with job applications. Additionally, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in computer technology.
“My career path got me ready for Haven Oaks. Everything I’ve learned prepared me for Haven Oaks,” she said. “I think I will retire here. It’s become my life. It’s like my second child. I’m proud of what Haven Oaks has come from and what it is today.”
Harrison said the apartment community was known as the worst property when she took over its management due to crime and violence. She has worked to change that reputation and said Kerr has been supportive by trusting Harrison’s decisions.
“Jamie really backed me. I’ve brought friends here to do programs. I changed everything about Haven Oaks,” Harrison said. “He always supported me. All he said was, ‘Don’t get out of hand.’ As long as it was for the community, he let me try new things.”
Harrison said it’s the children at the community who motivate her.
“When I first got here, you didn’t see kids outside. They were too scared,” she said. “I wanted the kids to be kids outside. If the children are happy, the parents will do what they have to do to improve their situation.”
Harrison said she understands her residents. She, too, was a single mother who lived in subsidized housing. In fact, it is because of her daughter that Harrison found her way to Haven Oaks. The pair moved from Spartanburg, where her child was attending a school for blind and deaf students, to Charleston so that her daughter could receive the medical attention she needed at MUSC Health University Medical Center.
“Doctors told me she wouldn’t live past 5,” Harrison said of her daughter, Caneiceeah. “She just turned 34, and she’s doing great.”
It was Harrison’s grandparents who helped shape her into the person she is today.
“My grandfather raised us to believe we could survive without anyone, and to do honest work,” she said. “My grandmother taught me to care for the people around me. She always said, as long as you treat people right, you will be treated right. She also said that you aren’t in this world by yourself, so you need to act like it.”
Jennifer Jones is the senior director of communications and public relations for NAHMA.