WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs, hosted renters from across the
country for a listening session. The renters
shared their stories about living in homes owned by private equity firms
and other institutional investors.
“More and more deep-pocketed
investors are buying up the homes that serve as the foundation for families’
lives. They see these buildings as nothing more than annual return on
equity. These out-of-town – maybe even out-of-country – investors are raising
rents 50 percent, issuing eviction notices, and leaving toxic mold and
pest infestations to grow worse, all in the name of their own bottom lines,” said Senator Brown at this morning’s listening
session. “…Investors see their homes as nothing more than an opportunity
to squeeze out a little more profit, no matter what the cost. Our speakers
today represent the experiences of millions of residents who can’t be here
today. Their stories are often overlooked by the investors who take their rent.
We need to hear their stories.”
In addition to
today’s listening session, Chairman Brown will hold a Committee hearing on
Thursday, February 10
th, titled “How Institutional Landlords are
Changing the Housing Market.” The hearing will be live streamed at
banking.senate.gov.
Excerpts from each renter’s
statement are included below. Production-quality video is linked.
“My
family and I deserve to live in a home that is safe and clean. We deserve a
property manager who is committed to keeping properties in good repair and not
just squeezing the last dime out of tenants while providing substandard
hazardous living conditions because that is a biohazard,” said
Ms. Hernandez. “We need
real protections for tenants in Las Vegas, in the state of Nevada, and all
across the country.”
“They
are targeting the lower socioeconomic class to grab money,” Ms. Jones said. “When my rent went up by hundreds of
dollars last year, I asked a representative from Havenbrook, ‘Why is it going
up so much? I have faithfully paid my rent. I have done everything you’ve asked
me to do and more. And you're still going to every year to charge me hundreds
of more dollars.’ She said, ‘We have to please the investors.’”
“They've
cut back on all amenities and strip value out of our communities. They are
brutal, absentee landlords whose new management promotes bullying, fear
mongering and harassment. If you get behind on your lot rent they can evict and
quickly seize your home. They ordered us to remove yard toys like basketball
hoops and wading pools, even when schools were closed because of the pandemic.
There are many new fees like for our pets!” said Ms. Newman. “What is hardest to live with is
that I thought my home would preserve my memories and secure my future but that
was taken away when the profit driven, uncaring Havenpark Capital came in. They
are bleeding us dry because with few consumer protections we now live with fear
and uncertainty.”
“The
majority of us living here are from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and
almost all of us are immigrants. The owners think that because we are
immigrants, we are not important. For them, they want the money to arrive every
month without doing anything for us. We have the need to live in an apartment
but not live like this,” said Mr.
Cuellar, as translated from Spanish by his interpreter, Jorge
Benitez-Perez. “The
ceilings in the hallways are falling in. The wood floor is buckling. We don’t
have heat. There are cockroaches and mice. The air conditioning units don't
work. There is a lot of mold. The refrigerator doesn’t work. They don't want to
fix anything, including the stove, refrigerator, heater, or fix the floors. It
is harming our entire family. And it is not just our family that is being
harmed, but all of the families in the complex.”
“Veritas
is sophisticated and expert at exploiting legal loopholes. To raise rents on
long term rent control tenants, they pass on the cost of cosmetic projects,
resulting in double digit increases because of largely aesthetic and
exaggerated construction cost. When tenants are priced out, they gut the vacant
units, tear down walls with haphazard regard for lead and asbestos protocols.
Water and utility shut offs, downed elevators, and inconsistent noticing reduce
tenants quality of life,” said Ms. Nunez. “I
never wanted to make a stink about tough conditions. I wanted to work through
things and survive. But when Veritas tried to raise my rent and my neighbors’
rent by 10 percent because of construction costs that I believe to be
fraudulent, that was it for me.”
“The
current owners, Cooper Street Capital, did return the complex to habitability,
but maintenance is shoddy and management is hostile, insulting, mendacious, and
always voracious. Management contrived false and outrageous ledger balances
against tenants then illegally threatened to enter and attach any property that
might cure this so-called debt. Management threatened evictions. They
threatened to take kids’ toys from the front porch and then fine the parents.
They begin charging $20 a month for each parking space, then hired a tow
company to tow anyone with an expired parking sticker. They never give any
receipts. They never put anything in writing,” said
Mr. Frischmuth.
“[Greenbrook
Partners] announced the purchase of our building on March 21st,
2021. One day later, on March 22nd, I received a notice to vacate in the midst
of the ongoing COVID pandemic. You may ask, why would any landlord do this to a
stable, long-term tenant? Private equity landlords are a different breed. Their
goal is maximizing profit, not the stability that comes with a long term
tenant. I am a suboptimal tenant to them because they think they should be able
to extract much more rent in order to maximize profit on their speculative
investment,” said Ms.
Nguyen. “Greenbrook’s
investment strategy is to take advantage of housing markets that are in
‘COVID-related distress’ and quickly buy up multifamily assets from smaller
landlords in a targeted area, effectively cornering the market.”
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