Keep Your Residents Safe During Halloween: 5 Suggestions

By Madison White on October 25, 2016

For many people, Halloween is the best time of the year. For some, however, Halloween can be very stressful and even dangerous. When you’re a property manager of college student properties during the time of Halloween, you want to make sure that it is a time that all types of people can enjoy. Especially when it comes to college students, some risky behaviors can become the norm.

But how can you deter these actions and keep your residents both safe and happy during the Halloween season? Luckily, there are a few ways to combat the troubles Halloween can bring to town. Many of them are as simple as relaying certain information to your residents ahead of time. Some of them can even involve having a bit of Halloween fun yourself!

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Below are five suggestions to help keep your residents safe this Halloween.

1. Be aware when you’re dressed scary

Before Halloween, it may be advisable to send email or newsletter reminders to your residents about Halloween safety. Halloween can be great fun, but sometimes bad things will happen even to people with good intentions. Make sure that your residents are very aware of their surroundings if they’re dressed scary.

With recent social media trends, some people are reacting rather violently to people wearing masks or certain scary attire. Because you don’t want your residents to be hurt, advise them against doing this or to do so with caution. If dressing scary, try to limit the late night public exposure.

2. Caution tape

Depending on the type of residential area you own, there may be landscaped areas around. During Halloween, many people are walking around at night and trying to get to as many places as possible. To prevent your landscaping from being destroyed or your residents from venturing into possibly dangerous areas, you might want to put up caution tape around these areas.

This may sound extreme, but it can really help keep the damages low and still fits in with the theme of Halloween!

3. Wear reflective or glowing attire

Something else to consider telling your residents about is wearing glowing or reflective gear when out walking at night on Halloween. Even though many drivers and other people will be cautious already, it is best to be safe and know that you’re being seen. You can advise your residents beforehand to wear this kind of gear.

Something more fun might be passing out glowsticks on Halloween night yourself around the neighborhood or recruiting some residents to hand them out to the trick-or-treaters who stop by their place.

4. Set trick-or-treating hours and rules

If you want to be able to monitor your residency during Halloween, it may be smart to set certain Halloween rules and hours for your residents to abide by. Especially if you’re looking to keep the children around safe, try and set your trick-or-treating hours earlier in the night.

Make sure that residents abide by certain rules so that if they do not want to participate in trick-or-treating, they can follow certain protocol. Usually the porch lights rule works best. This also helps older residents know around when it’ll be safe to drive or do other things on Halloween.

5. Throw your own Halloween party

For students and people without kids, Halloween can be an awkward time. Often, there aren’t a whole lot of options when it comes to Halloween. This can lead to misconduct and poor decisions by young people bored on Halloween.

It may be fun for you to host a Halloween themed party in the lobby or meeting area for your older residents. It doesn’t have to be a grand undertaking, but just a place where the older crowd can hang out while kids are trick-or-treating or after the kids have gone to bed.

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Just having a few snacks around and a few games to play can keep the party going without much hassle or stress for everyone involved. You could even have a costume contest or other contests with prizes to draw in some people that otherwise might not be doing things.

Send out newsletters and flyers about the event well beforehand to advertise it. Talk it up to the people you see out and about the residency and try to get people involved. Ask their opinions on what would make a great Halloween party to ensure party success.

Whether you like tricks or treats, keeping Halloween fun and as good natured and mindful as possible is a great way to make sure no one gets hurt. Most of the time, this is as simple as reminding people to be aware of their surroundings and assisting them in doing so.

Redirecting their Halloween in a safe and even constructive way is also advisable. Especially with inflated media coverage of spooky happenings, always be cautious of what you and the people around you are doing.

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