Tag Archives: Housing

Blog: Invitation Homes Invites You to Enjoy Rent Hikes, Fee Gouging, Disrepair, and Evictions

Last month’s settlement agreement with Invitation Homes confirms what their tenants have been telling us: our country’s largest landlord of single family homes has a consistent track record of ripping off its tenants. The United States faces an unprecedented housing affordability and homelessness crisis, but corporate landlords like Invitation Homes who dominate our housing supply in too many regions are thriving and profiting richly at their tenants’ expense. Tenants of corporate landlords are organizing around the country, calling out their landlords for steep rent increases, junk fees, skimping on repairs, and aggressive eviction practices. 

In The News: Senators take aim at big private equity landlords as rents soar (NBC News)

As landlords, private equity firms raise rents, impose new fees, skimp on property maintenance and pursue tenants more aggressively in court, the Americans for Financial Reform research noted. “The cumulative effect is a massive transfer of wealth from mainly low- and middle-income renters, who can’t afford the onerous barriers to homeownership, to some of the wealthiest men in America,” it said.

Blog: The RealPage Lawsuit

On Friday, the U. S. Department of Justice took on Wall Street landlords and increasingly unaffordable rents by filing an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, accusing the private-equity-owned firm of facilitating price fixing among the country’s largest corporate landlords. Joined by eight state attorneys general, the lawsuit details how RealPage’s rent-setting software uses private information to raise rents – and, by extension, landlord profits – well beyond what is fair to the general public. 

Blog: Biden Tackles Problem of Corporate Landlord Profiteering Directly

Today, President Biden acknowledged what too many Americans already know: the rent is simply too damn high and the public cannot continue to subsidize corporate landlords’ unlimited appetite for rent hikes through our tax code. By proposing to repeal tax breaks, like the depreciation write-off for corporate landlords who stick their tenants with rent increases above 5 percent, Biden is taking a vital step toward direct action to curb the corporate profiteering that contributes to the housing crisis.

News Release: Report Exposes How Real Estate Industry Maintains Housing Crisis

An intricate network of housing industry groups, often backed by corporate landlords, are actively blocking solutions that would alleviate the worst aspects of the current housing crisis and improve affordability, according to a new report. The report, from Capital Strategies for the Common Good, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, Bargaining for the Common Good, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, sheds light on the money behind the political influence that has distorted the politics of housing in favor of wealthy interests. 

Report: Who is Behind the Curtain? Breaking Down Trade Associations that Fight Tenants and Hurt Housing Affordability

AFREF, in partnership with Capital Strategies for the Common Good, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, and Bargaining for the Common Good, have produced a report highlighting how, in recent decades, housing has become increasingly commodified and financialized, while tenants in communities across the country are being crushed under unsustainable rent burdens and a shortage of affordable housing.

Letters to the Regulators: Letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Outlining the Need for Public, Transparent, and National Data Collection on the Property and Casualty Insurance Market

AFR joined the Consumer Federation of America and 18 other civil rights, housing, and climate advocacy groups in writing this letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners regarding the need for a public, transparent, and national data collection on the property and casualty insurance market.