Slumlord Millionaire: how landlords, politicians and developers are fueling the housing crisis

Yahoo

5 hours ago

The trouble began when the ceiling above the toilet collapsed. The Bravo family lost hot water and heat – sometimes the temperature would drop to 20F – and they had to boil water to bathe. Nathan, the youngest in the family, has asthma and needs a machine to help him breathe. A doctor blamed mould and cockroaches.
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'It was because of a leak,' says his sister Samantha Bravo-Huertero. 'When someone doesn't fix it, it does start filling with mould. It's disgusting to see. The landlord, her solution was to paint over it. You've covering it but it's still there. Like, you're not fixing it!'
It's a story that could be told in any of the world's poorest countries. But it is happening in the 21st century in 'the greatest city in the world', as Lin-Manuel Miranda put it in Hamilton. The Bravo family live in New York – Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to be precise – and are experiencing the dark side of the new gilded age.
Their 15-year struggle with an abusive landlord who targeted Latino families is among the stories told in Slumlord Millionaire, a documentary directed by Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez that explores the housing crisis in New York, focusing on the impacts of gentrification, predatory landlords and developer influence on the city's residents.
'We wanted to showcase how interconnected all these systems were and dig more into the roots of why this housing crisis exists and how it continues to persist,' Ching, 37, says via Zoom from Brooklyn. 'Looking at how real estate money feeds into the politics of our city. There are these same issues that impact not only tenants but also homeowners.'
New York is the US's biggest city but increasingly unaffordable for the average American. Some 69% of its residents rent. A third of New Yorkers spend more than 50% of their income on rent. The average Manhattan rent now stands at $5,000 a month. The median rent nationwide has surpassed $2,000 a month for the first time in history.
As rents increase, some landlords have become more aggressive in trying to get long-term tenants to move out of their homes. A major theme of Slumlord Millionaire is the unethical and often illegal methods used to push out existing, often rent-stabilised tenants to make way for higher-paying residents.
These tactics include neglect (ignoring repairs, turning off heat and gas, doing nothing to eliminate vermin infestations), creating uninhabitable living conditions (rats 'will come marching in, almost like troops', says one woman), and engaging in verbal and physical harassment.
The 86-minute film exposes the influence of wealthy real estate developers on local politics and legislation. This is exemplified by the onslaught against Moumita Ahmed, who ran for election to the city council in Queens with a pro-tenant agenda.
Ching explains: 'Her campaign was viciously attacked by a Super Pac [political action committee] that was started by these billionaire developers who put a million dollars into it.
'Everyone is familiar with big real estate money in politics, especially on a national or even state level. But for it to trickle down to these smaller local elections was eye-opening to us and shows how much hand the real estate industry has in all of our politics and, as a result, the legislation that gets written in our city.'
Meanwhile, the 421-a tax break, an incentive programme intended to encourage development, has disproportionately benefited luxury housing developers at a significant cost to the city, resulting in billions in lost potential revenue.
The rent guidelines board, appointed by the mayor, determines rent increases for nearly half of New York apartments, illustrating a direct link between political power and rent affordability. A mayor bankrolled by the pro-developer lobby could choose to stack the board with anti-tenant individuals.
Martinez, 37, who used to live in a rent-stabilised unit, says: 'I remember my rent going up a random amount and I had no idea that this was actually a thing that you could go see and also that it was so directly tied to the mayor.
'There's a lot of candidates in the race for mayor right now who are promising rent freezes and that is something they are able to achieve because they do appoint this board of people that determines the rent each year for stabilised units.'
Slumlord Millionaire also sheds light on the lesser-known but devastating issue of deed theft, in which scammers target homeowners, particularly in historically Black neighborhoods, and steal their properties through fraudulent means.
One example is Janina Davis, a former supermodel who is trying to reclaim her home after a deed theft scam. Ching adds: 'We did want to show how it's not just tenants versus landlords. It's these big money real-estate industry developers against your average resident here.
'Janina was a smaller landlord but she had been able to buy this beautiful brownstone in Brooklyn. She actually wanted to expand her building. She wasn't in any sort of financial issue or anything. A lot of times when people talk about deed theft they think people are not educated enough and it's their fault that they got scammed.
'But Janina is super well educated – graduated from Howard University with an economics major – and she was scammed out of this building by these developers who gained her trust and went into business with her and, through the course of years and all this paperwork, stole her home from her.'
The low prosecution rate for deed theft allows scammers to operate with little fear of significant consequences. The crime is often racially motivated. Martinez comments: 'The racial dynamic is very clear. The deed fraud case is overwhelmingly people of colour targeted. Historically Black and brown neighborhoods in Brooklyn are being targeted.
'We have a scene, it's a hearing to discuss deed fraud – there's some politicians there – and literally it's an entire room, basically, of African American people that were victimised by deed fraud. It's extremely clear. People are now calling this a new form of redlining, where they don't want certain people to own homes.'
Despite the overwhelming power dynamics, the directors point to the resilience and efforts of residents, activists and non-profit organisations fighting back. Examples include the Bravo family's advocacy for the Asthma-Free Housing Act and victory at the Human Rights Commission, community organising efforts in Chinatown against luxury towers, and Ahmed's campaign as a renter advocating for tenants' rights.
Ching reflects: 'This is an issue that is happening throughout not just New York City but in other cities in the country, especially in places that are predominantly people of colour. Remember that you are not alone. There are resources that exist. Definitely use the voice that you have. Any form of community engagement is very helpful.'
Slumlord Millionaire is now showing at DCTV in New York with more cities to follow. It will premiere on PBS on 28 July