This is what happened.
When Carlos and
Ebony January said the landlord did
a shoddy job of repairing a leak
in their Dallas rental house.
>> He didn't get the electricity
off before he even drilled a hole
into that light we just lucky to
be a live.
>> That is what people living
under corporate landlords have
been dealing with,
delays in repairs, shoddy repairs,
an inability to even get a live
person on the phone to get help.
And this is becoming more and
more of a common issue as private
equity firms gobble up.
What's the left of the residential
real estate market and
turn homes that ordinary Americans
would typically buy into rental
properties.
They want
to monopolize the rental market and
the way that they're doing that is
buying up these homes, the one and
only way left for
ordinary Americans to build wealth.
And they're just transitioning them
into rental properties that they
don't really take care of.
So, a 2017 study published by
the Federal Reserve of Atlanta,
found that corporate landlords,
especially large
institutional investors,
we're far likelier than other
owners to evict their tenants.
And that's absolutely true,
in fact, if you take a look at what
went down in 2020,
during the coronavirus pandemic.
As the federal government had
implemented moratoriums on
evictions, these private equity
firms were still evicting people.
They were just completely,
brazenly, transparently avoiding,
neglecting, ignoring that law,
didn't care, did not care, and have
there been any consequences for?
Of course not.
So they're more likely to evict,
they're far more harsh in terms of
their rental agreements.
Aside from traumatic actions
evicting people from their homes,
these corporate landlords also
maximize profits by cutting back on
amenities like parking, for
instance.
They make their tenants pay their
rent through
third party processors,
which add additional fees.
So, not only are you paying your
rent, you're also paying 5 to
$10 in fees every month, just so
this third party can process your
payment, there's that.
They also draft insanely
restrictive leases and charge all
sorts of penalties if their tenants
slip up even a little bit.
So in 2014,
researchers from the Right to
the City Alliance surveyed tenants
of one major corporate landlord in
Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.
Nearly half had
experienced plumbing problems,
one-fifth said that their unit had
mold, 18% reported a leaking roof.
The corporate owner remained
distant from these troubles and
from tenants who might want to
complain face to face, because its
main office was an average 35 miles
away from its L.A. properties.
If you want to drive 35 miles and
L.A. traffic, you're spending your
whole day in traffic pretty much.
So, getting an actual person to
talk to about whatever
is going on with your property,
whether it's a plumbing issue or
something else, is nearly
impossible in this type of setting.
Now, I want to go to this next
video because it helps you
understand, I mean, it's anecdotal.
But it helps you understand just
how brutal it is to live under
these corporate landlords.
>> It is Bitsy Spider.
>> The same landlord is being
sued by the parents of
Brielle Nicholson, saying her
persistent asthma was caused by
toxic mold in their Florida
rental home, which was not fixed.
>> Every morning and
every night when the ABCs she has
to take a breathing treatment, no
two year old should have do that.
>> You have the ultimate out of
state fire remove absentee
landlord.
[MUSIC]
>> The company Starwood Waypoint,
rents tens of thousands of single
family homes across the country.
In some neighborhoods,
as WSB found in Atlanta,
Waypoint has a huge presence,
the company claims and internal
surveys showing 99.8% satisfaction.
>> We are here to provide quality
housing for our residents, and
we take that responsibility
very serious.
>> Yeah, we've heard a lot of
complaints, that you're very slow
to fix things.
>> I do not agree with that at all.
>> But Waypoint gets a grade of D+
from the Better Business Bureau,
citing a pattern of complaints for
repair and service issues.
And our ABC stations across the
country heard butch the same thing.
>> Correct. >> People don't show
up, you sit here all day.
>> We've had a pretty
terrible experience,
we just want to get it over with.
>> I moved in,
it was just like this right here.
>> And tenants also
told our stations that company is
quick to threaten eviction if they
are even a few days late with rent.
With tenants forced to go to court
and then required to pay additional
fees and the company's legal costs
if they want to avoid eviction.
>> Who the hell can look at this
and defend this system?
The US military based on
new reporting by Ken Clippinstein
in the intercept,
please read his article on this.
Trains soldiers to think of
socialism as a terrorist ideology,
how is that what you just saw
[LAUGH] in that video?
Not something that terrorizes
people who are just looking for
a clean, safe place to live.
Imagine having a child who's
suffering from respiratory issues,
thanks to the mold in
the apartment or
the house that you're renting, and
the landlord just totally ignores.
The corporate landlord, the private
equity firm that bought up those
properties refuses to do a damn
thing about it, because, hey, it's
going to cut into the profits, it's
going to cut into their profits.
Capitalism is great everybody, and
what's so frustrating about this,
is as we're learning about private
equity firms, buying up limited
inventory of houses.
As we're learning about how awful
these corporate landlords are,
are we hearing anything in
Congress about it?
Anything?
All you hear on CNBC,
all you hear among members of
the Federal Reserve is
is this inflation transitory?
We think it's transitory,
there's inflation, it's transitory.
Stop printing money, stop keeping
interest rates artificially low,
and stop allowing private equity
firms to just buy up as many
residential homes as they want.
I mean, here's no discussion
about that.
All of the issues that we hear
about our economy puts the owners
on the worker, there's a labor
shortage, there's a labor shortage.
People don't want to go back to
work, my god,
it's because they're getting so
much in unemployment benefits.
That's all you hear about.
But there's no discussion about how
private equity firms
doing what they're doing to
the housing market has led to
inflation in the housing market.
Is there any discussion about
policy to mitigate that?
No, of course not.
Because that would require
regulating the housing market and
placing limits on what private
equity firms can do,
they're not going to do that.
Are there any consequences for
the slumlord activity these private
equity firms engaged in?
No discussion about that.
I mean, it's just,
this is supposed to be the greatest
country in the world, really?
I mean, even if you've done
everything right, [LAUGH] right,
you work your ass off, you work
three jobs to pay your rent.
To see Americans get treated like
that, to see children suffer from
respiratory issues like that,
thanks to mold.
How are you going to argue this is
the greatest country
in the world while the federal
government remains complicit in
this activity and this behavior?
Come on, man,
maybe that'll persuade Joe Biden to
wake up a little bit, come on, man.