Across the country, private equity firms backed by shareholders with billions of dollars at their fingertips are buying up entire streets of single-family homes in neighborhoods that Black families have historically called home. These corporate landlords ensnare renters in predatory contracts with the promise of homeownership that never comes to fruition.
On this episode of Justice Above All, TMI Senior Fellow and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro walks listeners through the rise of the corporate landlord and their preying upon Black neighborhoods, starting with America’s history of state-sponsored segregation, exploring the impact of the Great Recession, and ending with the state of today’s housing market. This episode features Jennifer Holmes, LDF Senior Counsel, Katie Goldstein, Director of Housing and Healthcare Campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy, and Christina Livingston, Executive Director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Institute.
So they’re really zeroing in on the places where our communities have been forced to live because of segregation, because of redlining, because of economic depression, and looking in the future about how they can actually speed up the gentrification of those communities and further push our folks out where there is less infrastructure for them, where there's less stability for them — all for the sake of profit.
‘Segregated By Design’ examines the forgotten history of how federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy. Narrated by TMI Fellow emeritus Richard Rothstein, author of the best-seller The Color of Law, this short film explores how racist residential policies enacted and enforced by the federal government during the mid-20th century are still impacting Black neighborhoods today.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Detroit- and Flint-area residents to whom Vision promised a path to homeownership but are now trapped in contracts structured to fail. Vision primarily targeted Black consumers for its home purchase scheme, the lawsuit argues.
A REIT is an entity that would be taxed as a corporation were it not for its special REIT status. In the world of corporate landlords, REITs allow for shareholders to avoid many of the tax burdens they’d be responsible for if not for the entity.
Tenants are not taking this lying down. They're organizing and have been organizing for decades across the country in order to improve the conditions. What really needs to happen is policy needs to meet where the organizing is because we're building the power that we need.
Renters Rising is a national alliance of renters working to shift the balance of power between renters and corporate landlords to guarantee that renters are able to live with dignity.
Explore previous Justice Above All Episodes that explore how renters were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conducted over three years, this report looks at economic and racial discrimination in housing, investigating the local rental market, assessing attitudes, and identifying policies and practices that impede the ability of voucher holders to secure safe and affordable housing.
