Latest news with #tenantrights
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Atlanta tenants say they're being wrongly labeled as squatters amid unsafe living conditions
Tenants at the Bolden Townhomes in southwest Atlanta say they are being told to leave their apartments within days, despite having paid rent. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] They fear becoming homeless and claim the property owner is attempting to classify them as squatters under Georgia's new squatting law. Residents say they've been living without power and facing unsafe living conditions, including mold and severe water damage, with little to no response from the property owner, Bolden Capital Group, which is headquartered in downtown Atlanta. 'I haven't had any power since I moved in,' said one tenant, Montavious Vaughn, while showing Channel 2's Eryn Rogers dark, powerless units and empty meter boxes. Others pointed to dangerous living conditions, including collapsing ceilings, standing water, and widespread mold. One tenant also showed Rogers his bandage, where he said he was shot in the leg by a stray bullet two days ago. Multiple tenants reported not receiving formal leases upon moving in, despite paying rent. One woman shared that her lease lacked her name, and several other tenants told Rogers their leases had the same wrong name on them. Other tenants said they were promised a lease the day after moving in, but never received it. 'We moved in here, she said she was going to give me my lease the next day,' Vaughn said. 'I waited like three weeks, and she had not been in the office.' He said she never showed up again. Several other tenants also said they paid their money to the leasing manager, who disappeared. TRENDING STORIES: GA mayor, wife charged with crimes against children Driver, 9-year-old hospitalized after suspected DUI driver smashes into car during chase Area of GA river remains closed as divers search for missing boater On Friday, some tenants returned home to find their belongings outside. 'We never got an actual eviction notice,' Hailey Spruill-Osley said. 'We just got this: a letter anybody could type.' The letter said it was a 'warning'. Spruill-Osley said it was put on her door Friday and that she was given no notice before her belongings were put outside. Tenants have shown rent receipts and payment records to support their claims, insisting they are legal occupants. Many say they're living in the complex on vouchers. 'You can't call nobody a squatter when we've got proof of payments,' Vaughn said. However, Georgia's recently passed Squatter Reform Law requires tenants to show a valid lease. The property owner has to file a squatters' affidavit. It's unclear if the owner, Edward Bolden of Bolden Capital Group, filed it. The act was recently passed, allowing law enforcement to cite suspected squatters criminally for trespassing. 'If they have no documentation, they'll be out in three days,' said State Rep. Devan Seabaugh, who sponsored the bill. Under the new law, if the suspected squatter presents a lease, the case goes before a magistrate judge within seven days. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Tenants without a lease may be forced to vacate by Tuesday. Those who do have leases could still be required to appear in court to prove their right to remain in their homes. Rogers reached out to Bolden. When asked about the power issues, Bolden denied the allegations, said he would send documents, and then hung up. Follow-up messages were read but not answered. Georgia Power confirmed it's working with Bolden Townhomes and released the following statement: 'Georgia Power continues to work with Bowden Townhomes to address various connection and account issues for their residents. Given possible legal, safety and account privacy issues, we are not at liberty to discuss. For further details, please contact Bowden Townhomes directly.' Tenants say they feel the law is being weaponized against them. With nowhere else to go, many are now scrambling to find housing before Tuesday's deadline. 'I am homeless,' Spruill-Osley said. 'I have nowhere to go.' Under the new law, A fake lease also adds an extra felony charge. Channel 2 Action News also learned that Bolden Capital Group is involved in several lawsuits.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Private equity is turning mobile homes into health hazards. What can governments do?
Four years ago, Valeria Steele's West Virginia mobile home park was purchased by Homes of America, a subsidiary of well-known 'vulture fund' Alden Global Capital. The private equity giant has become infamous for buying distressed newspapers, cutting staff, offloading assets and loading them with debt. 'They don't make any attempt to sell them,' Steele says. 'They don't make any attempt to repair them. And that's the norm among a lot of their properties.' Sure enough, after Homes of America's purchase, lot rents jumped and tenants reported major problems like collapsing floors. The park has rapidly been emptying, maintenance has stalled, and rent checks have been lost. According to a new report, tenants in manufactured housing parks like Steele's are also facing serious health hazards. Tenants have reported poor quality drinking water, frequent water shut offs, plumbing failures, and debris from vacant homes that were never emptied out. The new research, published by Human Impact Partners and advocacy group Manufactured Housing Action (MHAction), is based on 20 interviews with Homes of America, tenants across five states and information from public records. The private equity company owns about 144 manufactured housing communities across the United States, according to estimates by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Manufactured Housing Action. Homes of America did not respond to a request for comment. Researcher Will Dominie tells Next City that partnerships between tenant organizers and government are vital to reigning in abuses of power by private equity firms in housing. 'These companies are so powerful. They have so much money. They have so many lobbyists. They have so many lawyers,' Dominie says. 'It's going to take the combined power of residents organizing [and government].' Paul Terranova, an organizer with MHAction who collaborated on the report, tells Next City that tenants organizing against Homes of America have made 'very important but still partial' victories over the company. Tenants near Flint, Michigan, have seen Homes of America plead guilty to criminal charges carrying a $25,000 fine and agree to sell their park. In Elkins, West Virginia, Steele and her fellow tenants are awaiting a settlement from their class action lawsuit against the company. While tenants in manufactured housing face unique challenges, the report's policy recommendations apply to the housing crisis at large. These recommendations include strengthening housing standards and tenant protections, supporting community ownership and limiting corporate speculation. When Elena Smith signed her lease for a trailer in Lake Suzanne Mobile Home Park in Shiloh, Illinois, management told her the property had new owners and that changes would be made. Over the course of two years, she experienced conditions that lead her to two 'mental breakdowns,' she says. In a trailer with poor insulation, the air conditioning would go out in the height of summer or the heat in the dead of winter. When maintenance finally came to fix it, they found that the duct had been torn open by an animal burrowing inside. Management would shut off water in the park with no notice and give vague replies when asked when it would return. When the water did work, she still drank bottled water because the shower irritated her eczema. 'I used to think I had dandruff. I don't have dandruff,' Smith says. 'Because I moved somewhere else and my scalp is fine. It doesn't flake anymore.' In the report, researchers documented water quality violations at five Homes of America parks that included heavy metals, nitrates and fecal contaminants that could be linked to skin and gastrointestinal issues. Interview participants in four states reported sporadic water cut offs. All 20 residents interviewed bought bottled water for daily needs, spending up to $200 per month. Smith says she and her sister paid out-of-pocket for ant traps, gallons of water for cooking and flushing the toilet, a window AC unit and motel stays when the conditions got too hard to manage. Finally, Smith's sister took out a loan so they could afford to move. While she lived at Lake Suzanne, Smith says she saw trailers disappear as city inspectors condemned them. The report cites inspection records listing 20 units 'unfit for habitation.' 'I left a very dangerous situation and so to live like that … it was almost like 'why did I leave if I'm going to live like this?'' Smith says. The stress of her living situation drove Smith to contemplate suicide because it felt inescapable. 'It's degrading to live that way,' Smith says. 'It's degrading to not be able to flush your toilet every time you use it and to let your mess sit in the toilet because you have to ration out the water to flush your toilet—to only be able to flush it once a day or not at all.' Smith tells Next City that tenants in her old mobile home park still live the way she used to and don't speak up because they're afraid to lose their homes. While she no longer lives at Lake Suzanne, Smith stays connected to Terranova to help with the tenants' fight and use her experience to bring attention to the situation. Terranova and Dominie say manufactured housing doesn't have the same regulations as traditional rentals and tends to get less attention. These parks are often in rural places with few protections and house populations that are vulnerable to exploitation, such as low-income, elderly, disabled and immigrant tenants. But there are a few states that have more robust legislation for how to regulate manufactured housing. Researchers frequently cited Colorado regulations—a state with no Homes of America parks—as policies that could be adopted in other jurisdictions or on a national level. Colorado has a right to counsel for mobile home residents, protection from retaliation, tasks its state health department with testing and enforcing water quality standards at mobile home parks, and registers parks in a database. A registry of mobile home parks may seem inconsequential, but researchers note that 'enforcement depends on accurate ownership data, which can be difficult with corporations that often hide behind multiple shell LLC companies.' After her park changed hands, Steele had to dig into public records and connect the dots between different Alden Global Capital affiliates to find out who owned it. Steele has also seen the importance of tenant protections from retaliation. After taking part in a class action lawsuit and informing her neighbors about unlawful eviction, Steele was sued by Homes of America and countersued for retaliation. Colorado also has a way researchers say governments can limit corporate speculation on manufactured housing communities. Manufactured homes can be attractive investments to speculators who want to close them and repurpose the land for other uses—and local governments can prevent this. Boulder, Colorado, uses preservation zoning to make it harder to reclassify and convert park land to different uses. As more and more of the trailers around her become vacant, Steele thinks Homes of America plans to empty out her park and redevelop the land. If the area becomes popular for different kinds of housing or vacation rentals, 'they'd be on the forefront,' she says. The report's policy recommendations only highlight protections that exist in states where Homes of America does not operate and which can serve as posts for regulating manufactured housing. 'The most predatory companies tend to choose to operate in the states that have the least protections,' Terranova says. This story was produced by Next City, a nonprofit newsroom covering solutions for equitable cities, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Court order protects Ypsilanti renters living in condemned apartment complex
Tenants at Arbor One apartment complex in Ypsilanti are finally getting some relief after living in condemned units for months. It comes in the form of a court order forcing the landlords to get units back into livable condition while also keeping them from collecting any more rent from those living in them. The landlords are also barred from renting any condemned units out to new tenants before they receive a new certificate of occupancy. The order doesn't require tenants to leave, but it gives them good reason to do so. Tenants can request to be relocated to a new complex at the expense of Arbor One, and they can also terminate their rental agreements entirely. If they choose the latter, Arbor One must pay them any security deposit or rent payments made since Sept. 17, 2024, when the complex lost its certificate of compliance. "I feel like finally, we have the city and the county behind us. We need stuff to get done, and we need people to get relocated to safe and fair housing," said Arbor One Tenant Union member Roy Finny. The goal of this preliminary injunction is to require Arbor One to make the apartments safe and up to code before any new tenants can move in. It also bars the apartment complex from asking for any rent from anyone who wants to stay and wait out the repairs, but one tenant says she's still being asked. "Despite the court order, I got a text message yesterday asking me to pay for my rent, and that I have a past due in my ledger. So they are not complying, they refuse to comply. I don't know what to say," said one tenant who wished not to be identified for fear of retaliation. Others on the property said the office is dragging its feet when tenants try to end their rental agreement. The order gives tenants this right and also requires Arbor One to return any security deposits or rent paid since they lost their certificate of compliance in September. "It provides them their rent back starting when these certificate of compliances were revoked back in September," said Andrew Hellenga, Ypsilanti City Manager. "It also provides movement assistance, so if they determine they would like to leave, then the owner of Arbor One must pay for those expenses." CBS News Detroit has reached out to Arbor One for comment. Any tenants who feel Arbor One is not complying with the court order are asked to take their claims to Legal Services of South Central Michigan for help.
BBC News
5 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Social housing complaints soar and housing watchdog warns of 'simmering anger'
Complaints about substandard living conditions in social housing in England are more than five times higher than five years ago, according to the housing watchdog. Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway told the BBC an "imbalance of power" in the tenant-landlord relationship was leading to "simmering anger" among those living in social warned without change England risked the "managed decline" of social housing. Asbestos, electrical and fire safety issues, pest control and leaks, damp and mould are among the complaints, the watchdog receives . In its latest report, the Housing Ombudsman, which deals with disputes between residents and social housing landlords in England, said that the general condition of social housing - combined with the length of time it takes for repairs to be done - is leading to a breakdown in trust. "You've got ageing homes and social housing, you've got rising costs around materials, for example, and you've got skills shortages," said Mr Blakeway, who spoke to the BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "You put all that together and you end up with a perfect storm and that's what's presenting in our case work. That is not sustainable."He said tenants have "little say in the services they receive, however poor they are" and that this is leading to "growing frustration". While he acknowledged that social landlords are putting in "record amounts" for repairs and maintenance - £9bn between 2023 and 2024 - there had been historic underfunding in social housing. He also said that while landlords have faced "funding uncertainties", they needed to address their communication with tenants that sometimes "lacks dignity and respect". According to the ombudsman's report, there were 6,380 complaints investigated in the year to March 2025 - up from 1,111 in the year to March also found that an estimated 1.5 million children in England live in a non-decent home in 2023, and 19% of those live in social is calling for a "transformative overhaul" of the current system, including an independent review of funding practices and the establishment of a "national tenant body" to "strengthen tenant voice and landlord accountability". That would be separate to the ombudsman, which has the power to order a landlord to apologise, carry out works or pay financial compensation."The human cost of poor living conditions is evident, with long-term impacts on community cohesion, educational attainment, public health, and economic productivity," said Mr Blakeway."Without change we effectively risk the managed decline of one of the largest provisions of social housing in Europe, especially in areas of lowest affordability."It also risks the simmering anger at poor housing conditions becoming social disquiet." Housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa told the BBC that he was "shocked but not surprised" by the ombudsman's pointed out that for complaints to reach the ombudsman, tenants will have to formally raised the issue with the landlord. Mr Tweneboa said social housing residents he has spoken to say they feel they are not listened to and that the culture within housing organisations "just isn't right". "They feel they are just a rental figure at the end of each month.""In some cases, residents are left to suffer for years," Mr Tweneboa says, adding that he knows of instances in which families with children have to "defecate in bin bags, urinate in bottles because they've been without a toilet for months". In a statement, a Ministry of Housing spokesperson said: "Everyone deserves to live in a safe, secure home and despite the situation we have inherited, we are taking decisive action to make this a reality.""We will clamp down on damp, mould and other hazards in social homes by bringing in Awaab's Law for the social rented sector from October, while we will also introduce a competence and conduct standard for the social rented sector to ensure staff have the right skills, knowledge and experience to do their jobs effectively."
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘It feels like there's no communication': a social tenant's struggle for safe housing
Kerianne Wilson and her son have been taking it in turns to sleep on the sofa in their crammed living room since 2022, when a leak caused major damage to their two-bedroom home in west London. For years, they have battled with mouldy ceilings, walls and floorboards, sodden wallpaper, collapsed ceilings and buckets on the floor. Her 20-year-old son has been unable to sleep in his damp bedroom, with all of his belongings piled up in boxes around the flat. 'I'm really tired now. This has been going on for so long,' said Wilson. 'What else can I do? We're living in this. I'm paying the rent, I work full-time and everything is paid by me, so why am I paying to live in such conditions? 'I'm worried for the safety of my son and for me with the mould – the floorboards are soaking wet, that is a hazard in itself, and they just seem to dismiss it.' She is awaiting the results of blood tests to see if she and her son have been affected by the mould in the home, and said her son is 'constantly coughing'. Wilson is one of thousands of social housing tenants across the country who have struggled with substandard living conditions. She has filed multiple complaints, and taken her issues to the Housing Ombudsman Service, which has reported a 474% increase in complaints about poor living conditions since 2019-20. Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman for England, has warned the level of anger over poor-quality housing has reached such a point that it risks resulting in broader social tension. Wilson first moved into the two-bedroom flat in Notting Hill two decades ago when her son was four months old, and they immediately encountered problems with a rodent infestation, antisocial behaviour and frequent leaks. In her time there, the property has been managed by three different housing associations, and is now owned by Peabody, one of London's largest housing associations, with evermore than 100,000 homes. Peabody said it had sent contractors to carry out repairs on Wilson's flat on Wednesday. 'We're sorry Kerianne has had problems in her home and for how long the repairs have taken,' it said. 'Some of the issues were caused by a leak from a neighbouring flat, which we've now fixed. We're currently finishing the repairs and we'll be making sure she's happy with everything.' Wilson said she was still concerned about water residue in the bathroom and hallway, and was frustrated at how long it had taken to get repairs. 'It just feels like there's no communication. They don't answer the phone. So you can't even speak to anybody. The only way you can get things done is by putting in a complaint, and then it takes weeks for them to respond – they never meet their own deadlines,' she said. When the flat was damaged by a major leak in 2022, the pair were temporarily moved to a hotel for three weeks. Wilson said the flat had still not been fixed when they returned, the leak was still there, and workers simply 'painted over the problem'. She says the leak has been intermittent ever since, and she has had to fight to get repairs done to mouldy flooring and ceilings. She has struggled to get the time off work to be at home to allow access for the work to be carried out, and on one occasion the contractors never turned up. The family live in the shadow of Grenfell Tower, where there is growing anger over the hundreds of families living in poor-quality social housing so close to where people lost their lives after the voices of residents were dismissed. Wilson's son, who lost a number of friends in the blaze, has been particularly affected. 'He's had a lot of disruption in his schooling and in his life,' Wilson said. 'It's not easy for young people to buy somewhere or to move out, so in a sense he feels stuck in here. 'He's rummaging through all this stuff daily, having to find his uniform, having to find this and that, not having anywhere to hang things properly. He's living out of boxes, basically. No one wants that. It's not a way to live.' Joe Powell, the MP for Kensington and Bayswater, where the family live, has recently launched a safe and healthy homes campaign to pressure housing associations and local councils to sign up to specific commitments, including faster repairs and better communications. 'The system has to change so it delivers better for residents,' he told a packed-out residents' meeting next to Grenfell Tower last month. 'Residents who raised concerns about their conditions [in Grenfell] were described as a nuisance or worse. And sadly, seven and a half years later, that attitude is still too common. We know this area is one of the wealthiest parts of the country, and yet we have far too many homes which have damp and mould.' Wilson said she hoped the campaign would create more accountability but was sceptical about whether it would lead to immediate action. 'OK, they might apologise, admit in some sense that they've mishandled things, but then how do you get them to change their ways?' she said. A spokesperson for Peabody said: 'We're spending around £1m a day looking after and improving residents' homes and have introduced dedicated local repairs teams to improve the service we provide. While we're making progress, we know there's more to do – and we're committed to making things better.'
