#eviction notice for mobile home park tenants

[lawofficeofryansshipp]

A Florida Eviction Attorney's Guide to Mobile Home Evictions: Breaking Down Florida Statute 723.061

Florida Mobile Home Eviction Attorneys When it comes to mobile home park evictions in Florida, the rules are a bit different from standard residential evictions. Florida Statute 723.061 outlines specific reasons and procedures for mobile home park owners to follow when evicting a mobile home owner, tenant, or occupant. Law Office of Ryan S. Shipp, PLLC knows how important it is to guide park…

[omgthatdress]

I’m assuming Maryellen’s Vacation Playsuit is meant to go with her Airstream trailer, campfire cook set, and hiking accessories, even though it looks like it’s much more suited to playing at the beach instead of a rugged hike through the woods. Would really like to see a proper hiking ensemble for her, but the playsuit is fucking adorable so I’m just gonna love it.

And her airstream. OMFG WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT. LOOK AT HOW FUCKING ENORMOUS IT IS.

Trailers, campers, RVs, and mobile homes were popularized in the 1950s as outdoorsy home-away-from-homes for the middle class. You could tow one behind your car and have a way to travel and go camping that didn’t involve actually experiencing discomfort.

People figure out pretty quick that they made for decent living spaces, and they were actually advertised as being a mortgage-free way to own a home.

Anyone who grew up in America knows that “trailer” quickly became synonymous with “trash.” To show how the mobile home went from an object of middle-class luxury to one primarily associated with poverty, I’m going to trace the history of what was once the skankiest trailer park in Seffner: the Scarab Trailer Park.

The property was bought in 1951 back before Seffner suburbanized, and it was primarily orange groves and scrubland. It had several trailers permanently parked there, as well as a couple of small office buildings. It rented trailers for the week, so families living in Tampa who wanted to get away for the weekend could come out and enjoy nature.

By all accounts, it was a really nice place, and had it been preserved, the trailers there would have been excellent relics of mid-century design. Along with vacationing families, the single-week rentals made the trailers popular abodes for the migrant farm workers who came in to work the orange groves.

Soon, Seffner went from being out in the boonies to being the suburbs. Two strip shopping centers were built on either side of the park. Families didn’t want to vacation here any more. The week-long rentals meant that the park was now primarily being occupied by the very poor and transient. In the 1970s, the property was sold to a new owner who was very uninterested in keeping the park the nice place it once was. One of the other things about living in trailers is that they weren’t built to last like a proper home is. They started falling apart, and their tenants didn’t have the money to make repairs. By the 90s, the Scarab Trailer Park was fucking gross.

In 2004, the property was once again sold, and the new owner evicted the tenants on very short notice, leaving them effectively homeless.

The trailers were torn down, and today the property is a Tractor Supply Store. Landlords are scum of the fucking earth. Capitalism must be destroyed.

[onlyblogiwillneed]

The Community

Living in Mobile Manor MHP is like living in Auschwitz concentration camp for seniors with a day pass. Of course you're free to go anytime you please. It's the mentality of the ownership that creates the fear for the people who live in this community. You don't know what kind of notice you're going to get on your door. Or in your mailbox. Or sometimes you have to be really cautious and have to watch out for the manager. Otherwise it's not a really bad park to live in.

Angel Fournier (Manager)

I used to have a great deal of respect for Angel. I lost that in a really bad way. Two things I found out this man is. First is a liar. He told everybody that he was leaving Mobile Manor. He had purchased a mobile home to parks over. That he was planning to get back into the old job he had or something similar to it. Well at least one part was right. Apparently feeling sorry for Sid and staying on the job until he found a manager. Well apparently Sid never advertised he was looking for a new manager and played Angel.

Second is a thief. He took something off my neighbor's back porch. In my honest opinion even if it is something given. You don't take back. So I think within the statue of limitations. He is probably going to be facing trespassing, invasion of privacy, and theft. There is at least one felony and all that. My neighbor has now set up a camera to keep an eye on any other belongings on their porch.

Angel had an opportunity to start a new life and possibly a new job in a new home. Why he didn't take it is beyond me. A deep down inside I can wish him the best of luck if the rumors are true that he is planning to leave finally for good. But again I only take that with a grain of salt with one of the many lies or at least to say rumors that I hear.

Sudhir K. "Sid" Shah AKA Lil' Hitler

One of my neighbors have dubbed him that with nickname over his mustache which I thought was funny. There is no opinion that I can state right now that doesn't have a four letter expletive to it. Sid is one of them worse white collar thief and liars of all. Most of the things he believes he is doing is legal which most of it isn't. Needless to say majority of it isn't legal at all. He has absolutely no soul and heartbeat at all. He does not care about you. All he cares about is money $$$$$$$$. He is either trying to do one of two things to you. Evict you to steal your home out from under you or make you sign some kind of contract with some ridiculous demands like vinyl side your home or put down some ridiculous deposit.

Ladies and gentlemen. I've said this before and I will say it again. Sid is a piece of shit landlord. And I have made quite a few things clear before that is law and he cannot break.

1. He cannot force you to vinyl side your home. Vinyl siding installation requires a permit and can go anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000. Not everyone has the money to do so. He either forces you as a new tenant to sign an agreement to polish an old turd or if you are a current resident. He will just evict you if you don't.

2. Sid cannot evict you for not having flowers in your flower bed. He cannot evict you if you have one single weed growing in your flower bed. Once again this is illegal.

3. If you are renting this property from Sid. That means you are leasing it. A majority of Sid's legal rights gets cut down. One thing you must be aware of is Sid's illegal inspections. He walks around your whole entire property which is illegal. The scope of that inspection can only be done from the street and only what he can see. And when he does such an inspection he does have to notify all residents. Sid and Angel by law cannot legally come on to your property to do such a walk-through inspection. This is called invasion of privacy and trespassing. They both can be arrested on this.

4. I don't make this any clear enough. If you are planning to buy into Mobile Manor MHP. Before you plan to make a purchase. Talk to the people of the park before you do. Some people just jump in and buy. I do not highly recommend that. First thing I would want you to ask is how is the management of the park and this includes the owner. You will be shocked by some of the answers you will hear.

And once you initially plan to make that purchase and go through the background check. I would highly advise you have a lawyer present when talking to Sid. You need to make sure your legal rights are not being infringed upon. Sid ignores state and local laws we have.

One final thing that I have to say about the buying into Mobile Manor thing. When you are given the title to the mobile home. You have to take that title to the tax office to have swapped over to the new owner. Please pay awful attention to the name on that title. Before Sid steals someone's home. He forces them to sign that title. If Sudhir Shah is not the name you see on that title. Then I would not give one lick of money to that Indian bastard. What Sid is doing is breaking two different felonious tax laws. I will say no further.

Conclusion

Do I recommend anyone to buy into Mobile Manor MHP?

My answer is ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT!!! Sometimes you cannot go on reviews you see on Google. The owner Sudhir Shah with his fucking ugly face made a four-star review about his own park. Most of them are dumbasses that are trying to score points on Google for something. One of those reviews said we had a nice lake. And we don't have a lake. There are maybe one or two honest reviews. You'll see them.

To really break down this last comment. The homes in Mobile Manor are really old. There is not one new mobile home sitting on any of these lots. If you got a nice looking home that has been remodeled. Look at the year on your title and you'll see. The pipes are old. Most of these electric lines are old. You will see the maintenance shed and recreation hall falling apart due to termite damage. You will see the kind of money Sid puts into this park. But yet this asshole wants to jack up your rent every year. He is driving out a lot of people and making this an expensive park to live in. And what it really boils down to is the owner and the manager are crooks and liars. And not for once I can ever say do not believe the manager is a man of God. Again with the lying part. He is far a believer of God if he continues keep collecting a paycheck from the devil himself. The only way I feel angel can redeem himself is leaving and letting the owner hang himself in front of everybody.

So I repeat the question one final time. Would I recommend anyone to Mobile Manor MHP? No. And it is based on three factors. Old remodeled homes. Park is not updated. And the management which includes the owner.

[prorevenge]

Bad landlord scams his tenants, goes to jail.

Many years ago, when I worked for a rent-to-own company in a small town, there was a little apartment complex which we made frequent deliveries to, and just as frequently had to repo from. It had been a motel when it was built, and the owner turned it into apartments by just making doorways in the walls between rooms, putting a kitchen and living room in one and a bedroom in the other. The place was very run-down and apparently pretty inexpensive, and based on a few things customers said, it seemed that the majority of the tenants moved in there for short times. I figured it was because they were waiting for prefab houses to be financed and delivered, since the vast majority of housing in that town was mobile homes. Turns out I was wrong, but more on that later.

Between deliveries and pickups, we were visiting this place multiple times per month, but the landlord wouldn't let us park the truck in the parking lot to do it. It was a motel parking lot, so there was way more space than the tenants needed, and plenty of room for our truck, but the minute we pulled into the lot, the landlord would come running out of the office and yell at us to get the truck off his property. We were still allowed to deliver and such, we just had to carry the couches and old-style rear-projection big-screen TVs across the gravel lot from a truck parked on the street. It was more than a little annoying.

Then the day came that I was visiting some customers, a young couple, to have them sign an extension because they couldn't make their payment, and I saw an eviction notice on their door. I knocked, they answered, and then they, too, saw the notice. They explained that they needed the extension because they were behind on rent, but the eviction was unexpected because they were only two days late. The notice gave them one week to move out. They signed the extension and I left, a little suspicious because that didn't seem right to me.

A few days later, I got a call from the couple saying they needed to return the stuff they'd rented because they were being evicted and had to move to a motel. I told them to wait there, I'd be over in an hour.

My wife had worked in the rental office of our previous apartment complex, so I knew some tenant laws. When I'd checked after getting the extension signed, I found that evictions couldn't be served with only a week notice, they had to give 30 days for the tenants to pay or move out. If they moved out, the landlord could take any unpaid rent out of their security deposit. This was a small town with lots of mobile homes, so I'm guessing the law was to prevent people being evicted from rented land on which they had a mobile home they owned, but it applied to apartments, too.

Normally, I'd have considered this none of my business, but everyone in our store hated that landlord and wanted to get back at him, so I printed out the applicable rental law pages from the town's website and drove over to the apartment complex. There, I knocked on the door of every one of our customers living there, which was about half of the 20 or so apartments, and gave them a copy of the law. While doing this, I learned that the landlord had been evicting people like that for being even a day late, then keeping their deposits, citing the very law I was giving to my customers, just not the part about 30 days leeway. He charged rent in advance (you paid for the next month at the end of each month), so people were losing their deposits over being one day late. On top of that, the landlord wouldn't accept late payments, even if they were before his scheduled eviction time, because he made more money by evicting people and moving someone new in, since he kept all their deposits.

I told the couple that had started all this that if I were them, I wouldn't move out, and I'd contact a lawyer or at least the city housing department and file a complaint. They were worried because the landlord had said he'd have the sheriff's department evict them if they didn't move out in time (there were no local police--small town), but I said that even if the landlord called them, I doubted they'd actually evict them if they cited the law. That was about all I could do, and I hoped it'd be enough.

It was. The couple came in a few weeks later to pay for their rental furniture and to thank me for all my help, telling me the landlord had just been arrested. They'd filed a complaint, and when the landlord called the sheriff to evict them, it had kicked off an investigation. I never learned what exactly the charges were, or what happened to the landlord, but the complex ended up under new ownership, and the new manager had no problem with us parking on their property for deliveries. Also, the number of our repos and deliveries there suddenly dropped, because people were no longer being evicted constantly.

Between that experience and other stories I've read online, I never cease to be baffled and annoyed that people don't know their rights as tenants. Check your laws, don't take a landlord's word for anything, and stand up for yourself!

(source) story by (/u/DeadlyGerbil)

[nonempyreal]

Haven lives in a "mobile" home in what is essentially a trailer park; mobile home, in this case, referring to pre-fabricated houses that are delivered and installed on a property without pouring a foundation, and could potentially be relocated. She lives there at a reduced rate because of a deal she made with the landlord that she'd work part time as a handyman/groundskeeper. However, she lives with constant anxiety that the landlord will someday find tenants willing to pay full price and she'll come home to an eviction notice.

[kayla1993-world]

Rural Vancouver Island community of tiny homes facing evictions calls for bylaw changes (cbc.ca)

For the past two years, Bryce Knudtson has had his small mobile home parked on a quiet, forest-covered plateau in rural Metchosin, B.C. — a four-hectare property where he and nearly a dozen other tenants living in small residences, an RV and a converted bus, have managed to avoid the region's housing crisis.

But an eviction date looms, and the tenants, who Knudtson says include a teacher, health-care worker and a tradesperson, could soon be forced from their homes in the municipality southwest of Victoria.

In January, the Capital Regional District (CRD) served their landlord an eviction notice, stating the extra home violated a District of Metchosin zoning bylaw that restricts the property to one dwelling and one secondary suite.

The district has since granted two extensions to allow the tenants to find new places but will not be granting any more after Aug. 31. Knudtson says he and the other residents, who cannot find an affordable space in the region to place their homes, are out of options.

"We're at the point now where there is really nowhere for us to go," he explained, adding he is frustrated the district has refused to take any emergency measures to help them stay there.

Knudtsons's landlord Saige Lancaster said she purchased the property four years ago with the intent of opening it up to tiny houses like Knudtson's, which are built with wood, insulation and siding like a full-size house under what seemed to be a legal grey area in the local bylaws.

But after multiple emails and phone calls to the CRD and Metchosin, she says she's received a bylaw notice stating if the tenants have not left by their eviction date, she will accrue fines of $100 per day, per bylaw infraction.

Metchosin Mayor John Ranns says the district was incorporated in 1984 to provide a strictly rural alternative to the rapidly urbanizing region and the 20 or so properties that allow for more than one dwelling are those that were grandfathered in after incorporation.

"We are one of two fundaamentally rural communities … and it just does not make any sense to compromise that," said Ranns when asked about the potential to rezone the property.

Ranns said that to rezone the property before the October municipal election would be too great a change and would significantly impact the character of the community.

It would also be costly given the energy, waste and building regulations the district would must enforce, along with the demand for more urban infrastructure, which would cost taxpayers.

Lancaster said she trucks water in for her tenants, and they all use composting toilets, all of which has been working just fine. She said she's asked Metchosin to enact an emergency bylaw similar to one passed last year by the Islands Trust, allowing unlawful rental units on Salt Spring Island to stay "until there are … appropriate housing options that are affordable" for the residents.

Ranns says this kind of measure would be something for the next council to consider after the election, which he is not running in after eight terms as mayor.

In May 2018, the CRD and the provincial and federal governments announced up to $120 million to build about 2,000 rental units in the region, including 1,400 affordable units.

Victoria councillor and CRD director Jeremy Loveday said the program, which ends this year, "perhaps did not meet the needs of some of the more rural and remote communities," adding the CRD is starting a new housing program in 2023, with a focus on the unique housing needs of rural areas, so that residents do not have to leave their community.

Loveday said he respects the rural regions and the need to protect farmland, but "I would also hope that, if people are losing their homes, there is a concerted effort by the local government to … make sure that people are not left without a place to go."

Lancaster says she questions the definition of rural if the District of Metchosin is concerned about urbanization. "We haven't [cut down] any trees. We're having a very small impact on the environment here," she said. "Instead of building condos, this [tiny home community] could be the solution to the housing crisis while keeping Metchosin a farm community."

Knudtson said he'd like to see an emergency bylaw enacted to allow for a temporary housing exception while a permanent solution is put in place.

He said if he cannot stay on the property, he will have to quit his job, sell his tiny home and leave southern Vancouver Island.

[orbemnews]

Eviction moratorium leading to tense landlord-tenant relationship in the Metro East ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — The pandemic has been tough on many renters. It’s also been tough on many landlords. An Illinois man who spoke to News 4 said his tenants are taking advantage of the state’s eviction moratorium and also making threats against him in the process. Wayne Staten of Gillespie provided cell phone video of two tense encounters between himself, and his tenant Cole Waugh. Staten says both videos show the threats he’s endured while trying to collect unpaid rent from Waugh. “The man has threatened me more than once,” Staten told News 4. He added Waugh and his girlfriend Judy Wilkins haven’t paid rent in the 17 months they have occupied the mobile home. “With everything with COVID going on, lost a lot of work,” Waugh explained. I have my own business and everything and it’s gone down to nothing.” According to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, Waugh’s business has been the focus of a lawsuit. In 2018 the Illinois AG filed suit against Waugh alleging his business took down payments ranging between $4,000 and $20,000 from consumers but failed to complete the work. The AG got a judgement against Waugh in 2019. Waugh also said he performed work on the property in lieu of rent. “He’s not telling [Staten] the fact he owes me $3,800 from the git-go, that goes to rent and that would give me a whole year of living there.” Staten, though, says Waugh hasn’t performed any work on the property and, “I offered him work on the property to cut down trees to cut down on rent. He refuses to do anything.” Waugh’s girlfriend Judy Wilkins sent an email to News 4 about Staten. It reads in part, “90 percent of what Wayne Staten says is made up for a no good reason other than he’s a foolish and insecure psychotic stalking freak!” and “I’m not about to pay some psychopath to make my life a living hell. We have been living without basic essentials due to his retaliatory/misconduct for approximately 6 months.” “We went to court four, or five times,” Peggy Allan said. “In all, gave them 7 eviction notices.” Allan is Waugh and Wilkin’s previous landlord. Allan rented Wilkins the house directly next door to her home in Benld, Illinois. She said Waugh was never on the lease, but he moved into the property with Wilkins. At one point Allan says the police were called to the property and Waugh nailed the doors shut. “Eventually he hid in the basement, that’s where they found him,” she said. Allan says the couple owed thousands in back rent, and also did thousands in damage as they moved out of the home. Allan said he took faucets and pipes from the home. “While I totally understand renters need to be protected against unscrupulous landlords, but the pendulum has swung at least in this case way too far to the other side. We landlords are victims,” Allan said. Wilkins and Waugh agreed to meet in a city park in Gillespie, Illinois to discuss the issue on Friday, May 7. Neither showed up at the agreed upon meeting time. Staten provided a police report showing his mobile home was searched by police in November 2020. According to the report, officers found “drug paraphernalia” inside the home. Staten says the police investigation was enough for him to obtain an emergency eviction order against Waugh, but it did not apply to Wilkins. Staten says Waugh still lives in the home. A week ago Waugh told News 4 he and Wilkins plan to leave the home. Wilkins also told News 4 she blames Staten for issues related to the furnace and broken AC units. She also accused Staten of breaking off keys in the lock to prevent her from going inside the home. Staten is asking the governor’s office to intervene in cases like his. “I have a mortgage, I have taxes,” Staten said. “I have insurance and I have a deadbeat living in my place free and that’s nonsense. The governor should do something.” The governor’s office confirms the eviction moratorium remains in place. News 4 has asked how long the moratorium will be in place, but has not received an answer. Copyright 2021 KMOV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '2164750607119309'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link Orbem News #civillaw #colewaugh #commerce #East #economics #eviction #Finance #landlordtenant #Law #leading #local #Metro #metroeast #Moratorium #news4investigates #relationship #tense #waynestaten

[californiaprelawland]

What About Rent Control For Mobile Homes?

By Sydney George, Occidental College Class of 2023

February 23, 2021

As of February 2021, Fresno County supervisors have agreed to consider a rent control program for mobile home residents after Supervisor Brian Pacheco raised the issue at a recent board meeting. [1] This policy would put restrictions on price gouging in mobile home parks throughout the county.

These discussions are largely due to the controversies surrounding the rent hikes in Shady Lakes Mobile Home Park. By May, the residents of this mobile park will reportedly be facing a 72% rent increase over a period of two years. [1]

Mariah Thompson, an attorney with the non-profit advocacy group California Rural Legal Assistance, is currently representing the residents in a lawsuit against the owners of Shady Lakes for allegedly harassing tenants and instating unfair rent increases. [2] More specifically, residents have alleged that the owners unfairly threatened to evict tenants due to Christmas lights, did not provide documents in Spanish, locked residents out of the laundry area, and raised the rent even after court judgments that favored the tenants. [2]

In 1988, the Fresno City Council created the City of Fresno Mobilehome Park Rent Review and Stabilization Ordinance. This ordinance allows residents in mobile home parks to establish a Residents' Committee which can review and negotiate proposed rent increases with mobile home park owners. [3] According to Thompson, this ordinance has not been used in years, and many tenants are unaware of their rights or have limited resources to take action if their rights have been violated. [1]

California has its own laws regarding rent control. In 2019, the California legislature passed the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, also known as Assembly Bill 1482. This law restricts annual rent increases to 5%, in addition to any local cost-of-living adjustments at rates of 5% or below. [4] It also establishes tenant protections against unfair evictions.

This policy does not, however, apply to mobile home parks and only applies to buildings constructed before 2005. Cities and counties in California that have rent control laws for mobile homes include Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, San Jose, Santa Cruz, East Palo Alto, Alameda County, Fremont, Vallejo, and Napa. [5]

Because moving from a mobile home is especially difficult and the tenants are often elderly and on fixed incomes, California has created strict restrictions regarding the eviction of mobile homes tenants. Under California law, a ninety-day notice is required before increasing the rent of a tenant in a mobile home. [5] There are currently seven possible reasons for eviction, including missed payments, substantial disruption to other residents, and failure to comply with reasonable park rules after a period of seven days to correct the violation. [5]

The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act was passed in California in 1995. [6] Although it has been challenged many times, the law still presently prohibits vacancy control throughout California, so landlords are able to increase the rent price after tenants vacate the dwelling, usually to the market price. [6]

In February of 2020, Assembly member Sharon Quirk-Silva of California unveiled a bill that would have instated rent control policies for mobile homes across all of California. Like AB 1482, the bill would have capped yearly rent increases at 5%, plus cost-of-living adjustments up to 5%. [7] It would have also prevented landlords from increasing rent more than two times per year. The bill passed through the California State Assembly but failed to garner the necessary support in the California State Senate.

On the national level, mobile home residents are being especially hard-hit by evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although President Biden extended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's moratorium on evictions, many landlords have used legal loopholes in the order to remove tenants who have failed to pay their rent. [8] When evicted, mobile home residents often have to forfeit their home equity because of the steep costs of moving their home from one lot to another. [8]

Private equity firms have increasingly invested in the mobile home, or "manufactured home," sector since the 2008 recession. [8] Because they are difficult and expensive to move, mobile homes are seen as stable investments. The property inherits abandoned homes from evicted tenants and can quickly rent them out again, leading to a high return on investment.

Investment in manufactured home property further works in the favor of the property landlords because land value increases over time, while home value decreases. [8] Vacancy rates in mobile homes have also been decreasing in recent years. [9] Because of this, landlords can charge increasingly high rates as the demand for mobile homes surpasses the supply. [8]

Meanwhile, owners of mobile homes are more likely than single-family homeowners to work in the five employment sectors that have experienced the most job loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [10] This is another way that this group has been especially vulnerable to evictions during the pandemic.

Rent control is a controversial housing topic from various social and economic standpoints. This will certainly be a discussion to follow closely as talks begin in Fresno County and likely continue in California and beyond.

______________________________________________________________

[1] Vaughan, M. (2021, February 16). Fresno County will consider rent control for mobile home parks. The Fresno Bee. https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article249197445.html.

[2] Amaro, Y. (2021, February 13). Farmworkers sue Fresno County mobile home park over living conditions, rent hikes. The Fresno Bee. https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article239809768.html.

[3] Municode Library. (2021, January 19). Municode Library. https://library.municode.com/ca/fresno/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=MUCOFR_CH12IMFEHIREOTMITO_ART20MOPAREREST_S12-2001TI.

[4] Bungalow. (2020, August 26). California’s rent control law, explained. Bungalow. https://bungalow.com/articles/californias-rent-control-law-explained.

[5] Tobener, J. (2020, June 3). Mobile Home Parks and Tenant Rights. Tobener Ravenscroft LLP. https://www.tobenerlaw.com/mobile-home-parks-tenant-rights/.

[6] Chiland, E., & Chandler, J. (2020, April 29). The California law renters want repealed, explained. Curbed LA. https://la.curbed.com/2018/1/12/16883276/rent-control-california-costa-hawkins-explained.

[7] Collins, J. (2020, February 22). New bill would cap mobile home rent hikes statewide. Orange County Register. https://www.ocregister.com/2020/02/21/new-bill-would-cap-mobile-home-rent-hikes-statewide/.

[8] Miranda, L. (2021, February 16). Mobile home dwellers hit even harder when facing eviction. NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/mobile-home-dwellers-hit-even-harder-when-facing-eviction-n1257497.

[9] Isaacson, G. (2019, October 10). Vacancy Falls, Rents Rise for Manufactured Homes. MultiHousing News. https://www.multihousingnews.com/post/vacancy-falls-rents-rise-for-manufactured-homes/.

[10] Choi, J. H., & Goodman, L. (2020, August 21). 22 Million Renters and Owners of Manufactured Homes Are Mostly Left Out of Pandemic Assistance. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/22-million-renters-and-owners-manufactured-homes-are-mostly-left-out-pandemic-assistance.

Photo Credit: Markt3

[lawofficeofryansshipp]

Eviction Attorneys In Florida | 561.699.0399

Eviction Lawyers Eviction Attorneys In Florida: Protecting Landlords’ Rights In Evictions And Unlawful Detainer Actions At Law Office of Ryan S. Shipp, PLLC, our team of eviction attorneys focuses on assisting Florida landlords with the eviction process, making it as straightforward as possible. Whether you’re facing issues with a tenant who isn’t paying rent or you’re a property owner that needs…

[ericvick]

many in US struggle to pay rent. Their stories.

The National Multifamily Housing Council found a 12 percentage point decrease in the share of apartment households that paid their rent through April 5.

Last weekend, Apartment List surveyed 4,129 people and asked whether they were able to pay their mortgage or rent on April 1. The result: 1 in 4 renters/homeowners did not pay it in full, and of the those people who were unable to make their payment, 45 percent of renters and 44 percent of homeowners reached an agreement with their landlords or lenders to defer or reduce their payments.

Most state and local governments are putting evictions on pause as states prepare to pay unemployment and the federal government prepares to send stimulus checks. So for most, April’s knock won’t come with a notice to get out.

A roof over the head is one of the most basic needs in life. Without money for rent, how can the other bills get paid? And while many will get a reprieve in April, eventually the rent comes due, whether or not the restaurant, plant, or construction site reopens when the COVID-19 threat lessens.

Here are some of the stories of Americans trying to make the rent, this month and beyond:

At 21 years old, Jade Brooks pulls in her family’s only full-time salary, working at a hospital switchboard.

Brooks’s mother just lost her job at a health insurance company ­­— a casualty of the plummeting economy. She’s found part-time work at the hospital, but between them, they make only $400 weekly after taxes and insurance, Brooks said. Their rent is $1,810.

During sleepless nights, Brooks worries most about her 8-year-old cousin, who lives with them.

“I don’t want her to grow up in a homeless shelter, having to sleep in a bunk bed with other people, asking why we have to stand in a long line to get a room to sleep in, why we have to stand in a long line to get food, why she can’t invite her friends over,’’ Brooks said. “It’s hard to explain that to an 8-year-old.’’

— Michael Casey, Boston

Itza Sanchez knows she can’t make her $400 rent for April. She’s praying to the Virgin of Guadalupe that she doesn’t get kicked out of her Richmond, Va., mobile-home park.

Sanchez made her money searching for and recycling scrap metal and selling tamales in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. Fear of getting sick has stopped both income streams.

A single mother of two who emigrated from Honduras to the United States 14 years ago, Sanchez’s 7-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son have been eating lunches delivered to the neighborhood by schools and depending on churches for other meals.

“I’m basically penniless,’’ Sanchez, 39, said in Spanish.

She hasn’t heard from the landlord about what will happen if the rent isn’t paid. So she keeps praying.

“May she help us. May the Virgin put her love over us and help us.’’

— Regina Garcia Cano, Washington

Andrea Larson made $70,000 a year curating wine lists and suggesting pairings to customers at 5th & Taylor. But the popular Nashville restaurant closed its dining area, and working as a sommelier isn’t something Larson can do from home.

The first unemployment check was $275 for a week. Larson said she was humiliated but applied for food stamps.

“I’m screwed financially,’’ Larson said. “If I do pay my rent, it’s going to eat into my food money.’’

Larson, 42, moved from a high-rise downtown apartment to a house in east Nashville four months ago. Rent was cheaper. She planned to pay off debt and start saving. Instead, she called credit card companies and said she couldn’t pay the minimum.

Larson’s restaurant offered a few shifts answering phones for takeout, but she figures it’s not worth the risk of getting COVID-19.

“I do wine, and nobody wants to hear about wine right now,’’ she said. ‘‘They just want to chug it.’’

— Travis Loller, Nashville

Roushaunda Williams was able to scrimp and use credit card cash advances to pay the $1,850 rent for April for her two-bedroom Uptown Chicago apartment.

But the rent comes due again in 30 days. Can she afford a smaller apartment in her building if one’s available? Should she move in with friends if they’ll let her?

“April 1 isn’t even here yet, and I’m already working on what I’m going to do for May 1,’’ Williams, 52, said.

Before being laid off, she made drinks and chatted with people from around the world for 20 years as a bartender at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in the heart of Chicago’s downtown Loop.

Her income depended on tips — in the best times, she’d make $70,000 to $100,000 annually. Now, she’s on unemployment for the first time and searching for work.

— Kathleen Foody, Chicago

Tnia Morgan shares her Baltimore County, Md., town house with her 18-year-old pregnant daughter and 18-year-old nephew. And they all spend a lot more time together since Morgan was laid off March 6 from her job serving food at a hotel banquet hall.

Morgan’s landlord told her to take her time with the rent, but it isn’t the only bill piling up. She ticks them off: car payment, car insurance, cellphone, Internet, water, gas, and electricity. And she always has to buy food, so tough choices are ahead, especially until unemployment benefits kick in.

Morgan, 39, has checked on getting food stamps and looked for work at stores and warehouses with no luck.

She appreciates her landlord’s kindness this month, but she knows he needs her rent money to pay his bills.

“If I don’t pay the rent, it falls on him,’’ Morgan said. “We can’t be evicted right now, but eventually they’re going to want their money.’’

— Michael Kunzelman, Silver Spring, Md.

Bartender Luke Blaine was laid off when the downtown Phoenix restaurant Fez closed, but he’s not too worried about rent — yet.

He shares his small adobe-style home and backyard garden of tomatoes, beets, squash, radish, lettuce, and eggplants with his boyfriend, Kyle Schomer. Schomer still has his job in technology and works from home.

Blaine, 30, figures unemployment will kick in. His car is paid for, and he owes little beyond a small credit card balance.

Blaine credits his thrifty nature to his family. And that’s whom he worries about most these days. His mother and sister are nurses in Illinois, not far from hard-hit Chicago.

“It definitely is nerve-racking having your family on the front line,’’ Blaine said.

— Anita Snow, Phoenix

Ruqayyah Bailey’s life had balance — so important with her autism — before coronavirus.

She was going to college and was a part-time cafe cashier. She couldn’t wait for the Special Olympics in March, to run and compete in the long jump and shot put.

But the virus closed the cafe, canceled the meet, and ended the community college’s personal instruction.

Bailey, 30, of St. Louis County, was dipping into savings for food and other necessities, so she’s moved back in with her mother. She hopes it’s temporary and she can get back to her apartment, with its $400 monthly rent.

“I had to suspend my Internet and my cable,’’ Bailey said of her apartment. “It’s tough because I’m so used to being there in my own little space.’’

— Jim Salter, St. Louis

Jason W. Still was let go from his job as a cook, and he’s found one small benefit: He hasn’t spent as much money since he’s inside most days.

Still and his wife — who works in packaging for a marijuana dispenser in Spokane, Wash., — should be able to make April’s rent as they wait to see what he’ll get in unemployment and from the federal government.

Still, 30, worked at a high-end restaurant and just finished the last classes for his bachelor’s degree. Now he’s applying for graduate school to study environmental economics and public policy.

In unemployment, he has a lot of time on his hands. “I’ve seen corners of my house that I didn’t know existed.’’

— Anita Snow, Phoenix

It’s a lousy choice, but an easy one for personal trainer and apparel designer Sakai Harrison — food in the refrigerator over April rent for his Brooklyn apartment.

Harrison, 27, moved from Atlanta to see whether he could succeed in the toughest place in the world. And he was on his way, with 20 clients training one on one.

Then his gym shut down with the rest of the city. And the $1,595 rent is due.

“The way I see it, the whole world is on pause,’’ Harrison said. “I’d rather allocate my money towards my actual survival, which would be food.’’

An acquaintance is letting Harrison use a basement as a makeshift gym. It has dumbbells, a bench, and a punching bag left by a previous tenant. Harrison wears disposable gloves and keeps his distance. A few clients keep coming, but not as many as before.

“My clients are like my family, for the most part, especially in New York, because I’m here alone,’’ he said.

— Aaron Morrison, New York

Tinisha Dixon was homeless before she moved into her current apartment and is now struggling to make the rent.

She said she was about to start a new job at the State Road and Tollway Authority. But the job was put on hold, thanks to the virus.

The rent bill of $1,115 is due whether she’s working or not. It covers the apartment near downtown Atlanta she shares with her partner and their five kids. Dixon, 26, said she’s trying to braid hair, and her partner has sought work as a security guard.

Dixon’s landlord had gone to court to evict the family before the coronavirus. Now she worries not making April’s payment will strengthen that case.

“Are we going to be out on the street when this is over?’’ she said. ‘‘Because this is what we’ve been fighting for this whole time, not being back out on the street.’’

— Sudhin Thanawala, Atlanta

With help from friends and a nonprofit, Jas Wheeler can pay April’s rent. But Wheeler and their partner just bought a house down the road in Vergennes, Vt., and the first mortgage payment is due in May.

“I am just really just trying to pray,’’ said Wheeler, who hopes to see unemployment checks soon but worries the system is overwhelmed with so many people out of work.

Wheeler was laid off from a bakery. The 30-year-old thought about a grocery store job, but they don’t want to risk exposure to the coronavirus. So for now, they’ll wait to see whether the bakery reopens.

“I would rather just get an unemployment check and ride it out … I’m really thinking at the end of all this whenever that is, I’ll be happy to get any job that I can get.’’

— Michael Casey, Boston

Neal Miller is refusing to pay April’s rent, to make a point.

Miller’s last stable job was as an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Chicago. He recently was working temporary jobs, until that dried up, thanks to the virus.

Miller, 38, shares a house on the west side of Chicago with four others and pays $400 of the $1,500 monthly rent.

Miller and his roommates decided to join leaders of Chicago activist groups calling for a rent strike amid the virus outbreak.

“We wrote a letter, sort of stated our situation,’’ Miller said. “We’re still waiting to hear back. We’re not sure if that’s a good sign or if that lack of response means we’ll be hearing from a lawyer.’’

– Kathleen Foody, Chicago

Subscribe to the Globe’s free real estate newsletter — our weekly digest on buying, selling, and design — at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @globehomes.

[monopolizednotes]

Monopolized End Notes, p.251-295

Here are the end notes for pages 251-295 of Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power by David Dayen.

10. Monopolies Are Why A Woman Found Her Own Home Listed for Rent on Zillow

251 roughly 9.3 million American families Jann Swanson, “Buyers Returning to Housing Market Ready, Willing, and Able?,” Mortgage News Daily, April 20, 2015, www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/04202015_boomerang_buyers.asp.

251 focusing on areas John Gittelsohn, “Real Estate Investors Plan to Purchase More Homes in U.S.,” Bloomberg, September 19, 2012.

251 a $40 billion flurry Private Equity Stakeholder Project et al., “The Con- tinuing Threat of Private Equity Investment in Single Family Rentals,” April 2019, pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Private-Equity-Single-Family-Rental-4-2019.pdf.

251 spent $1 billion David Dayen, “News Leaks of $1 Billion Blackstone Invest- ment in Foreclosed Properties . . . Just in Tampa Bay,” Shadowproof, September 24, 2012, shadowproof.com/2012/09/24/news-leaks-of-1-billion-blackstone-investment-in-foreclosed-properties-just-in-tampa-bay.

251 27 percent of all home purchases David Dayen, “Your New Landlord Works on Wall Street,” New Republic, February 11, 2013.

251 swelled to 42 percent Aaron Glantz, “Report: Investors Buy Nearly Half of Oakland’s Foreclosed Homes,” The Bay Citizen, June 28, 2012.

251 90 percent of homes sold Chris Campbell et al., “A Look at Private Equity Investors and the Atlanta Foreclosure Residential Market,” Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, May 1, 2013, atlanta.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2012/12/ANDP-Atlanta-Neighborhood-Development-Partnership-Report.pdf.

251 many of the renters Right to the City Alliance, “Renting from Wall Street: Blackstone’s Invitation Homes in Los Angeles and Riverside,” July 2014, homesforall.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/LA-Riverside-Blackstone-Report-071514.pdf.

252 Atlantans found black mold Adam Murphy, “Tornado Damaged Home Causes Health Issues,” CBS 46 Atlanta, October 30, 2018.

252 home in California was deemed unsafe Jim Holt, “Family Displaced for a Week After Home Yellow Tagged as Unsafe,” Santa Clarita Valley Signal, September 7, 2018.

252 fairly common problems Right to the City Alliance, “Renting from Wall Street.”

252 leaving the worst problems Michelle Conlin, “Special Report: Spiders, Sewage and Fees: The Other Side of Renting from Wall Street,” Reuters, July 27, 2018.

252 empire of homes is rotting Brian Ross, Cindy Galli, Cho Park, and Pete Madden, “Billion-Dollar Landlords: Rental Home Giant Once Led by Trump Ally Is Under Fire from Some Tenants, Critics,” ABC News, November 16, 2017.

252 a 2019 Atlantic article Alana Semuels, “When Wall Street Is Your Landlord,” The Atlantic, February 13, 2019.

252 I went to South Los Angeles David Dayen, “Slumlord Millionaires,” New Republic, July 24, 2014.

253 institutional investors evicted tenants Elora Raymond et al., “Corporate Landlords, Institutional Investors,and Displacement: Eviction Rates in Single-Family Rentals,” Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, December 2016, www.frbatlanta.org/-/media/documents/community-development/publications/discussion-papers/2016/04-corporate-landlords-institutional-investors-and-displacement-2016-12-21.pdf.

253 “Happy 30 Day Eviction Notice” cake Property Management Memes, Facebook, January 24, 2019, www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_id=2045942045490387 &id=792535127497758.

253 touting automated fees and charges Semuels, “When Wall Street Is Your Landlord.”

253 a 2018 report Maya Abood, “Wall Street Landlords Turn American Dream into a Nightmare,” ACCE Institute, Americans for Financial Reform, and Public Advocates, 2018, d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/acceinstitute/pages/100/attachments/original/1516388955/WallstreetLandlordsFinalReport.pdf?1516388955.

253 $17.5 billion in outstanding bonds David Dayen, “Private Equity: Looting ‘R’ Us,” American Prospect, March 20, 2018.

253 Trump ally Tom Barrack Aaron Glantz, “Profiting Off Pain: Trump Confidant Cashed In on Housing Crisis,” Reveal News, June 8, 2017, www.revealnews.org/article/profiting-off-pain-trump-confidant-cashed-in-on-housing-crisis.

254 Blackstone finally cashed out Ryan Dezember, “Blackstone Moves out of Rental-Home Wager with a Big Gain,” Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2019.

254 The experience in America Fred Clasen-Kelly, Anna Douglas, and Julianna Rennie, “Company Bought Hundreds of Houses. Now, Poor Are Getting ‘Priced Out,’ Critics Say,” Charlotte Observer, December 5, 2018.

254 blamed investor-owned rentals Lauren Lambie-Hanson, Wenli Li, and Michael Slonkosky, “Leaving Households Behind: Institutional Investors and the U.S. Housing Recovery,” Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, January 2019, www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/research-and-data/publications/working-papers/2019/wp19-01.pdf.

254 formally accused Blackstone United Nations Human Rights O ce of the High Commissioner, “States and Real Estate Private Equity Firms Questioned for Compliance with Human Rights,” March 26, 2019, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24404&LangID=E.

255 proposed class-action lawsuit Jose Rivera v. Invitation Homes, United States District Court, Northern District of California, May 25, 2018, leasinglifestyle.org/class-action-rivera-vs-invitation-homes-inc.

255 also tweets Tweet from Dana Chisholm (@TenantsINVH), December 28, 2018, twitter.com/TenantsINVH/status/1078723561626296321.

255 chaired President Trump’s economic advisory council Lucinda Shen, “Stephen Schwarzman: This Is the Real Reason CEOs Left Trump’s Councils,” Fortune, September 12, 2017.

255 advises the president Michael Kranish, “Trump’s China Whisperer: How Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman Has Sought to Keep the President Close to Beijing,” Washington Post, March 12, 2018.

255 there was a loophole Dayen, “Private Equity: Looting ‘R’ Us.”

255 a $20 billion real estate fund Peter Grant, “Blackstone Aims to Throw Weight Around with a Record Real Estate Fund,” Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2019.

255 raised $8 billion Alana Schetzer, “Private Equity Funds Build Firepower for Property Slump,” Financial Times, April 7, 2019.

255 started to build Felipe Ossa, “Why ‘Build to Rent’ Is Having Its Moment,” American Banker, February 14, 2018.

255 at least one million apartment units Americans for Financial Reform, New York Communities for Change, and Private Equity Stakeholder Project, “Wall Street Private Equity Landlords Snapping Up Apartment Buildings,” April 2019, pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Private-Equity-Apartments-PESP-AFR-NYCC-April-2019.pdf.

255 staking funds for other landlords Diana Olick, “This Private Equity Giant Wants to Give Landlords Millions—Here’s How,” CNBC, June 30, 2016.

256 one out of every six dollars Rana Foroohar, “US Private Equity Moves into Trailer Parks,” Financial Times, May 20, 2019.

256 $15 billion in no-strings loans The Capitol Forum, “Fannie Mae: Mobile- Home Loan Program Leaves Evictions, Billionaire Profits in Wake,” May 16, 2019.

256 resulted in a wave Zachary Owen Smith, “Private Equity Firms Rapidly Investing in Mobile Home Parks,” Associated Press, April 20, 2019; Private Equity Stakeholder Project, MH Action, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, “Private Equity Giants Converge on Manufactured Homes: How Private Equity Is Manufacturing Homelessness & Communities Are Fighting Back,” February 2019, pestakeholder.org/wo-content/uploads/2019/02/Private-Equity-Glants-Converge-on-Manufactured-Homes-PESP-MHAction-AFR-021419.pdf.

256 controlling half the market Data from the Open Markets Institute, concentrationcrisis.openmarketsinstitute.org/industry/mobile-home-manufacturing.

Interlude

257 the one I came across Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Settles Claims with Sterling Jewelers, Inc.,” January 16, 2019, www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-settles-claims-against-sterling-jewelers-inc.

257 mired in a legal odyssey Taffy Brodesser-Akner, “The Company That Sells Love to America Had a Dark Secret,” New York Times, April 23, 2019.

258 Signet’s 2019 annual report Signet Jewelers, 2019 annual report, s2.q4cdn.com/912924347/files/doc_ nancials/2019/SIG_2019_AR_10K.pdf.

258 National Retail Federation’s 2017 figures Stores (National Retail Foundation magazine), “The Top 100 Retailers,” 2018, stores.org/stores-top-retailers-2018. Data from Kantar Consulting, 2017.

258 Signet bought in 2017 Scott Suttell, “Signet Jewelers Buys Online Retailer for $328 Million,” Crain’s Cleveland Business, August 24, 2017.

258 according to Labor Department statistics Signet Jewelers, 2019 annual report.

258 Signet’s share at 15.3 percent Tanvi Kumar, “Jewelry Stores in the US,” IBISWorld Industry Report 44831, December 2018.

258 now part of a conglomerate Matthew Dalton, “Inside LVMH, Tiffany to Fall Under CEO Arnault’s Exacting Eye,” Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2019.

258 Harriet Samuel opened her shop H. Samuel, “About Us,” www.hsamuel.co.uk/about_us.

258 Kay began as a department store Kay Jewelers, “The History of Kay Jewelers,” www.kay.com/kay-about-us.

258 Zales came out of Wichita Falls Zale Corporation, “The Zale Corporation Story,” www.zalecorp.com/History.aspx.

258 Henry Shaw founded LeRoy’s Jewelers Israeli Diamond, “ e Jewelers from Akron: The Story of Sterling Jewelers,” en.israelidiamond.co.il/wikidiamond/diamond-industry-history/jewelers-akron-sterling-jewelers.

11. Monopolies Are Why a Family Has Seen Only the Top of Their Loved One’s Head for the Past Two Years

261 first state penitentiary in America Law Library—American Law and Legal Information, “Walnut Street Prison,” law.jrank.org/pages/11192/Walnut-Street-Prison.html; Adam Jay Hirsch, The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992).

261 small lockup in Auburn, New York Law Library, “Walnut Street Prison”; Hirsch, The Rise of the Penitentiary.

261 something called convict leasing PBS, “Convict Leasing,” Slavery by Another Name, 2012, www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/convict-leasing.

261 three-fourths of Alabama’s state revenue Digital History, University of Houston, “Convict Leasing System,” 2019, www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3179.

261 periodic rebellions James B. Jones Jr., “Convict Lease Wars,” Tennessee Historical Society, October 8, 2017, tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/convict-lease-wars.

261 inmates still work Genevieve Carlton, “50 Large American Companies That Use Prison Labor,” Ranker, August 2018, www.ranker.com/list/companies-in-the-united-states-that-use-prison-labor/genevieve-carlton; Jaime Lowe, “The Incarcerated Women Who Fight California’s Wildfires,” New York Times, August 31, 2017.

261 as little as 2¢ Whitney Benns, “American Slavery, Reinvented,” The Atlantic, September 21, 2015.

262 Unicor, which solicits clients Unicor, “The Best Kept Secret in Contact Centers,” www.unicor.gov/publications/services/CATMS361.pdf; Unicor, “The Onshore Advantage,” www.unicor.gov/publications/services/CATS3103_C.pdf.

262 jumped five-fold within forty years The Sentencing Project, “Criminal Justice Facts,” www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts. Data from the Bureau of Justice Studies.

262 in a 1988 report David F. Linowes et al., “Privatization: Toward More Effective Government,” Report of the President’s Commission on Privatization, March 1988, pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABB472.pdf.

262 organs like the Heritage Foundation Dana Joel, “A Guide to Prison Privatization,” Heritage Foundation, May 24, 1988, www.heritage.org/political-process/report/guide-prison-privatization.

262 a billion-dollar business Nzong Xiong, “Private Prisons: A Question of Savings,” New York Times, July 13, 1997.

262 Friedmann first learned about David Dayen, “The True Cost,” Talking Points Memo, June 2016.

263 well under those for public corrections officers In the Public Interest, “Cutting Corners in America’s Criminal Justice System,” April 2016, www.inthepublicinterest.org/wp-content/uploads/ITPI_CuttingCorners_Corrections_April2016.pdf.

263 Shane Bauer received Shane Bauer, “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard: A Mother Jones Investigation,” Mother Jones, July–August 2016.

263 Reduced training and insufficient equipment Beryl Lipton, “OSHA Com- plaints Show Awful Conditions Inside Private Prisons . . . for the Employees,” Muckrock, January 15, 2015, www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2015/jan/15/osha-complaints-show-awful-conditions-insides-priv.

263 a state audit in Idaho In the Public Interest, “Cutting Corners.”

263 told to “just fake it” Karen Lehr, “Employees Sue Corrections Corporation of America for Poor Work Conditions,” ABC 6 KITI-TV, January 27, 2014.

263 reports detail Spencer Woodman, “Mold-Infested Prisons Sicken Guards and Prisoners,” The Intercept, May 28, 2016; U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Citation and Notification of Penalty, June 11, 2012, www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/The_GEO_Group_Inc_315306357_06_11_2012.pdf; Grassroots Leadership, “A ‘Groundbreaking’ Example of Prison Privatization: Squalor and Violence at Lake Erie Correctional Institution,” 2013, grassrootsleadership.org/cca-dirty-30#2.

263 A 2014 ACLU report American Civil Liberties Union, “Warehoused and For- gotten: Immigrants Trapped in Our Shadow Private Prison System,” June 2014, www.texasobserver.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/060614-ACLU-CAR-ReportOnline.pdf.

263 a Justice Department report Katie Benner and Shaila Dewan, “Alabama’s Gruesome Prisons: Report Finds Rape and Murder at All Hours,” New York Times, April 3, 2019.

263 agreed to end their use Charlie Savage, “U.S. to Phase Out Use of Private Prisons for Federal Inmates,” New York Times, August 18, 2016.

263 GEO subsidiary gave $225,000 Campaign Legal Center, “Trump Super PAC Received Illegal Donations from Private Prison Company,” December 20, 2016, campaignlegal.org/press-releases/trump-super-pac-received-illegal-donations-private-prison-company.

264 CoreCivic pushed $250,000 Fredreka Schouten, “Private Prisons Back Trump and Could See Big Payoffs with New Policies,” USA Today, February 23, 2017.

264 two former Jeff Sessions Senate aides Taylor Gee, Kaitlyn Burton, and Mary Lee, “Private Prison Company GEO Hires Three Firms,” Politico, October 12, 2016.

264 Sessions revoked the Obama-era guidance Jefferson B. Sessions, “Memorandum for the Acting Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons,” Office of the Attorney General, February21, 2017, www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015a-6d3f-d49b-a77a -7fbf234a0001.

264 cover only around 8.5 percent The Sentencing Project, “Private Prisons in the United States,” August 7, 2018, www.sentencingproject.org/publications/private-prisons-united-states.

264 median bail in America Bernadette Rabuy and Daniel Kopf, “Detaining the Poor: How Money Bail Perpetuates an Endless Cycle of Poverty and Jail Time,” Prison Policy Initiative, May 10, 2016, www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html.

264 nine insurance companies underwrite Color of Change and the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice, “Selling Off Our Freedom: How Insurance Corporations Have Taken Over Our Bail System,” May 2017, thecrimereport.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ACLU-Bail-Report.pdf.

264 takes convicts into lockups Eli Hager and Alysia Santo, “Inside the Deadly World of Private Prisoner Transport,” Marshall Project, July6, 2016, www.themarshallproject.org/2016/07/06/inside-the-deadly-world-of-private-prisoner-transport.

265 a 2019 Worth Rises report Worth Rises, “The Prison Industrial Complex: Mapping Private Sector Players,” April 2019, worthrises.org/picreport2019.

265 the largest food and commissary giant Tim Requarth, “How Private Equity Is Turning Public Prisons into Big Profits,” The Nation, April 30, 2019, https://www.thenation.com/article/prison-privatization-private-equity-hig.

265 more than one million meals Aramark, “Serving Up the Right Meals for a Safer Environment,” www.aramark.com/industries/business-government/correctional-facilities/food-services.

265 stocked kitchens with spoiled food Requarth, “How Private Equity Is Turning.”

265 workers covered a cake Paul Egan, “E-mails: Aramark Fed Inmates Cake Chewed by Rodents,” Detroit Free Press, March 17, 2015.

265 meat that had been thrown in the trash Matthew Kovac, “Aramark’s Recipe for Disaster,” Progress Michigan, March 30, 2015, www.progressmichigan.org/2015/03/aramarks-recipe-for-disaster.

265 2,945 food quality and sanitation violations Progress Michigan, “A Failed Privatization Experiment: Aramark and the Michigan Department of Corrections,” August18, 2015, www.scribd.com/document/275004778/A-Failed-Privatization-Experiment-Aramark-and-the-Michigan-Department-of-Corrections.

265 ban seventy-four employees Progress Michigan, “A Failed Privatization Experiment.”

265 acting as contraband couriers Christopher Zoukis, “Aramark’s Correctional Food Services: Meals, Maggots and Misconduct,” Prison Legal News, December 2, 2015.

266 Inmates protested chow hall conditions Roland Zullo, “Food Service Privatization in Michigan’s Prisons: Observations of Corrections Officers,” University of Michigan, March 2016, irlee.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PrivatizationOfPrisonFood.pdf.

266 leading Michigan to end its dalliance Paul Egan and Kathleen Gray, “Gov. Rick Snyder: State to End Problem-Plagued Privatization Experiment with Prison Food,” Detroit Free Press, February 7, 2018.

266 Aramark got New York State Tina Luongo and Caroline Hsu, “Care Packages at Inmates Can Afford,” New York Daily News, January 11, 2018.

266 impersonal, standardized care packages Taylor Elizabeth Eldridge, “ e Big Business of Prisoner Care Packages,” Marshall Project, December 21, 2017, www.themarshallproject.org/2017/12/21/the-big-business-of-prisoner-care-packages.

266 can cost over $7 Luongo and Hsu, “Care Packages That Inmates Can Afford.”

266 JPay leads the market Dayen, “The True Cost.”

266 perusing JPay’s fee schedule JPay, “Availability and Pricing,” www.jpay.com/pavail.aspx.

266 can incur $5.95 in fees JPay, “Florida State Prison System,” www.jpay.com/Agency-Details/Florida-State-Prison-System.aspx.

266 JPay release card Amadou Diallo, “‘Release Cards’ Turn Inmates and Their Families into Profit Stream,” Al Jazeera America, April 20, 2015.

266 cough up co-pays Victoria Law, “Behind Bars, Co-Pays Are a Barrier to Basic Health Care,” Truthout, April 3, 2019, truthout.org/articles/behind-bars-co-pays-are-a-barrier-to-basic-health-care.

266 220 facilities in seventeen states Corizon Health, “About Corizon Health,” www.corizonhealth.com/About-Corizon/Locations.

266 that number has shrunk Michael Winerip and Michael Schwirtz, “New York City to End Contract with Rikers Health Care Provider,” New York Times, June 10, 2015; John Kennedy, “Controversial Prison Health Provider Walks Away from Florida Contract,” Palm Beach Post, December 1, 2015; Abigail Hauslohner, “D.C. Council Rejects Corizon Health Contract A er Lobbying Battle,” Washington Post, April 14, 2015; Beth Schwartzapfel, “How Bad Is Prison Health Care? Depends on Who’s Watching,” Marshall Project, February 26, 2018, www.themarshallproject.org/2018/02/25/how-bad-is-prison-health-care-depends-on-who-s-watching.

267 constitute cruel and unusual punishment Marc F. Stern, report to United States District Court, District of Idaho, February 2, 2012, www.clearinghouse.net/chDocs/public/PC-ID-0004-0013.pdf.

267 were “swarmed by flies” Victor Parsons et al. v. Arizona Department of Corrections, United States District Court, District of Arizona, April 11, 2016, www.themarshallproject.org/documents/3549306-Parsons-4-11-16-PLAINTIFFS -MOTION-TO-ENFORCE-THE.html#annotation/a348196.

267 led to his going blind Jan Skutch, “Former Chatham County Jail Inmate Sues Sheriff, Corizon over Blindness,” Savannah Morning News, May 20, 2016.

267 Corizon’s unconscionable health care Southern Poverty Law Center, “Cruel Confinement: Abuse, Discrimination and Death Within Alabama’s Prisons,” June 5, 2014, www.splcenter.org/20140604/cruel-confinement-abuse-discrimination-and-death-within-alabamas-prisons.

267 New Mexico dropped Corizon Geert de Lombaerde, “Corizon Dropped by New Mexico,” Nashville Post, May 25, 2016, www.nashvillepost.com/business/prison-management/article/20781043/corizon-dropped-by-new-mexico.

267 another concoction of HIG Capital Marsha McLeod, “The Private Option,” The Atlantic, September 12, 2019.

267 at least 1,395 lawsuits since 2003 Edward Lyon, “Correct Care Solutions Redux: Poor Medical Care Leads to More Deaths, Lawsuits,” Prison Legal News, December 7, 2018.

267 forcing one woman in Florida Blake Ellis and Melanie Hicken, “Dangerous Jail Births, Miscarriages, and Stillborn Babies Blamed on the Same Billion Dollar Company,” CNN, May 7, 2019.

267 mostly the payers are families Ella Baker Center for Human Rights et al., “Who Pays? The True Cost of Incareration of Families,” September 2015, whopaysreport.org/who-pays-full-report.

267 a 2015 Prison Policy Initiative report Bernadetter Rabuy and Daniel Kopf, “Prisons of Poverty: Uncovering the Pre-incarceration Incomes of the Imprisoned,” Prison Policy Initiative, July 9, 2015, www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html.

267 branched out into “community corrections” Christopher Zoukis, “From Cages to the Community: Prison Profiteers and the Treatment Industrial Complex,” Prison Legal News, March 6, 2018.

267 bought BI Incorporated Business Wire, “The GEO Group Closes $415 Million Acquisition of B.I. Incorporated,” February 11, 2011, www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110211005372/en/GEO-Group-Closes-415-Million-Acquisition-B.I.

267 ex-cons pay for such monitoring Ava Kofman, “Digital Jail: How Electronic Monitoring Drives Defendants into Debt,” ProPublica, July 3, 2019.

268 real growth area for monopolists Adam Snitzer, “The Nation’s Largest Private Prisons Operator Is Based in Florida. And Profits Are Up,” Miami Herald, April 22, 2019.

268 number rises to 72 percent Worth Rises, “Immigration Detention: An American Business,” June 2018, worthrises.org/immigration.

268 immigrant-only prison system Seth Freed Wessler, “Separate, Unequal, and Deadly,” Type Investigations, January 27, 2016, www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2016/01/27/separate-unequal-deadly.

268 compared to Japanese internment camps Satsuki Ina, “I Know an American ‘Internment’ Camp When I See One,” American Civil Liberties Union, May 27, 2015, www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/i-know-american-internment-camp-when-i-see.

268 contract for immigrant electronic monitoring Zachary Kligler, “Trump’s Turn to Electronic Monitoring Isn’t a Humane Solution,” In These Times, July 24, 2018.

268 firms like Southwest Key Kim Barker, “Southwest Key, Known for Migrant Shelters, Cashes In on Charter Schools,” New York Times, March 15, 2019.

268 under the “ICE Air” brand John Burnett, “ICE Air: The Airline You Never Want to Fly,” NPR News, September 26, 2018.

268 All those border camps David Dayen, “Below the Surface of ICE: The Corporations Profiting from Immigrant Detention,” In These Times, September 17, 2018.

270 will set you back $3.75 Prison Phone Justice, “Federal Bureau of Prisons Phone Rates and Kickbacks,” www.prisonphonejustice.org/state/BOP.

270 Kentucky, where the price is $5.70 Prison Phone Justice, “Kentucky State Prison Phone Rates and Kickbacks,” www.prisonphonejustice.org/state/KY.

270 families worked for two decades Ulandis Forte, “My Grandmother’s 20-Year Fight for Prison Phone Justice,” Truthout, June 21, 2019, truthout.org/articles/my-grandmothers-20-year-fight-for-prison-phone-justice.

270 rolled back by an appeals court Victoria Law, “$15 for 15 Minutes: How Courts Are Letting Prison Phone Companies Gouge Incarcerated People,” The Intercept, June 16, 2017.

270 prices can range as high Peter Wagner and Alexi Jones, “State of Phone Justice: Local Jails, State Prisons and Private Phone Providers,” Prison Policy Initiative, February 2019, www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/state_of_phone_justice.html.

270 Congress complained in 2018 Katy Sword, “Murray, Cantwell Urge ICE to End Phone Call Practice,” The Columbian, July 24, 2018.

270 Amsani Yusli submitted Lorelei Laird, “Appeals Court Stymies Bid to Regulate High Cost of Prison Phone Calls,” ABA Journal, May 1, 2018.

270 wrote longtime prison phone activist Forte, “My Grandmother’s 20-Year Fight.”

271 using digitized phone calls George Joseph and Debbie Nathan, “Prisons Across the U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases of Incarcerated People’s Voice Prints,” The Intercept, January 30, 2019.

271 dozens of smaller mergers Private Equity Stakeholder Project, “Platinum Equity’s Not So Securus Investment,” May 2019, pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Platinum-Equitys-Not-So-Securus-Investment-PESP-052119.pdf.

271 owns the Detroit Pistons Laurence Darmiento, “Troubled Companies Made Him Billions. A Prison Phone Investment Made Him Enemies,” Los Angeles Times, September 5, 2019.

271 Securus serves over 1.2 million inmates Private Equity Stakeholder Project, “Private Equity-Owned Firms Dominate Prison and Detention Services,” December 2018, pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/PE-Incarceration-Detention-PESP-122018.pdf.

271 GTL grew through acquisitions Private Equity Stakeholder Project, “Platinum Equity’s Not So Securus Investment.”

271 Securus often wields patents Business Wire, “Securus Technologies Granted Additional Eight (8) Patents for Law Enforcement and Corrections,” October 18, 2017.

271 expensive licensing agreements PR Newswire, “Securus’ Bilateral Patent License Agreements Allow Facilities to Share Technology Developed and Bring More Products to Corrections/Law Enforcement Quicker,” September 29, 2016.

271 Securus will happily sue Jessica M. Karmasek, “Inmate Technology Company Continues to Challenge Competitor’s Patent Portfolio, Files 10 New Petitions with PTAB,” Legal Newsline, May 19, 2015, legalnewsline.com/stories/510550763-inmate-technology-company-continues-to-challenge-competitor-rsquo-s-patent-portfolio-files-10-new-petitions-with-ptab.

271 Securus attempted to buy Bianca Tylek and Connor McCleskey, “This Call May Be Monopolized and Recorded,” Marshall Project, July 11, 2018, www.themarshallproject.org/2018/07/11/this-call-may-be-monopolized-and-recorded.

271 blocking that merger David Shepardson, “Inmate Calling Services Companies Drop Merger Bid After U.S. Regulatory Opposition,” Reuters, April 2, 2019.

271 GTL acquired it John Dannenberg, “Nationwide PLN Survey Examines Prison Phone Contracts, Kickbacks,” Prison Legal News, April 15, 2011.

271 GTL acquired VAC Global Tel*Link, “VAC,” www.gtl.net/vac.

272 acquired seventeen different companies Eric Markowitz, “Amid Death Threats, An Embattled Prison Phone Company CEO Speaks Out,” International Business Times, January 26, 2016.

272 police departments have employed Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, “Service Meant to Monitor Inmates’ Calls Could Track You, Too,” New York Times, May 10, 2018.

272 Securus bought it PR Newswire, “Securus Technologies, Inc. to Acquire JPay Inc.,” April 24, 2015.

272 who need a stamp Victoria Law, “Captive Audience: How Companies Make Millions Charging Prisoners to Send an Email,” Wired, August 3, 2018.

272 an album can cost $46 Patrick Lohmann, “Company Giving Tablets to NY Prisoners Expects to Get $9M from Inmates over 5 Years,” Syracuse Post-Standard, February 15, 2018.

272 increase prices on any of these services Stephen Raher, “The Wireless Prison: How Colorado’s Tablet Computer Program Misses Opportunities and Monetizes the Poor,” Prison Policy Initiative, July 6, 2017, www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/07/06/tablets.

272 tablets are sometimes “free” Lohmann, “Company Giving Tablets.”

273 banned greeting cards Law, “Captive Audience.”

273 Pennsylvania banned the delivery Jodi Lincoln, “Incarcerated Pennsylvanians Now Have to Pay $150 to Read. We Should All Be Outraged,” Washington Post, October 11, 2018.

273 using the security excuse “Governor Wolf Meets with Corrections O cers to Discuss Safety Concerns, Announce New Protocols,” Pennsylvania Pressroom, September 5, 2018, www.media.pa.gov/pages/corrections_details.aspx?newsid=355.

273 GTL’s 8,500 ebook titles “GTL E-Book Availability List,” www.cor.pa.gov/Inmates/Documents/master-ebook-list.pdf.

273 After public outcry Amistad Law Project, “Cancel the New Punitive PADOC Policies, Respect the Rights of Prisoners and Their Families,” Change.org, October 2018, www.change.org/p/tom-wolf-cancel-the-new-punitive-padoc-policies-respect-the-rights-of-prisoners-and-their-families.

273 rolled the policy back Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, “Department of Corrections Announces Book, Publications Policy,” November 1, 2018, www.cor.pa.gov/About%20Us/Newsroom/Documents/2018%20Press%20Releases/Updated%20 Book%20Policy%20PR.pdf.

273 pushing out bans on used books Nila Bala, “There’s a War on Books in Prisons. It Needs to End,” Washington Post, February 8, 2018; IDoc Watch, “Call-In to End Used Book Bans in Indiana Prisons!,” May 15, 2019, https://www.idocwatch.org/blog-1/2019/5/15/call-in-to-end-used-book-bans-in-indiana-prisons.

273 confiscated the old players Ben Conarck, “Florida Inmates Spent $11.3 Million on MP3s. Now Prisons Are Taking the Players,” Florida Times-Union, August 8, 2018.

273 Prisoners filed suit Demler et al. v. Inch, United States District Court, Northern District of Florida, February 19, 2019, www.documentcloud.org/documents/5743758-Demler-v-Inch-Complaint-Filed-07202845xB3B17.html.

274 “feelings of being welcome” Joan Petersilla, When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry, Studies in Crime and Public Policy (London: Oxford University Press, 2009).

274 2011 Minnesota Department of Corrections study Minnesota Department of Corrections, “The Effects of Prison Visitation on Offender Recidivism,” November 2011, www.coursehero.com/file/21712260/11-11MNPrisonVisitationStudy.

274 over six hundred correctional facilities in forty-six states Jack Smith IV, “The End of Prison Visitation,” Mic, May 5, 2016, www.mic.com/articles/142779/the-end-of-prison-visitation.

274 around three-quarters of the jails Shannon Sims, “The End of American Prison Visits: Jails End Face-to-Face Contact—and Families Suffer,” The Guardian, December 9, 2017.

274 local jails block access Rayna Karst, “Newton County Jail Video-Only Visitation Policy Draws Praise, Criticism,” Joplin Globe, April 6, 2019; Isabelle Altman, “Lowndes County Jail Implements Video Visitation for Inmates,” The Dispatch (Columbus and Starkville, MI), April 5, 2019; WPTA21 (Fort Wayne, Indiana), “Allen County Jail to Use Video Visitation Instead of In-Person Visits,” March 11, 2019.

274 as much as $1 a minute Bernadette Rabuy and Peter Wagner, “Screening Out Family Time: The For-Profit Video Visitation Industry in Prisons and Jails,” Prison Policy Initiative, January 2015, www.prisonpolicy.org/visitation/report.html.

276 A 2015 report Ella Baker Center for Human Rights et al., “Who Pays?”

276 healthy family relationships reduce Ryan Shanahan and Sandra Villalobos Agudelo, “The Family and Recidivism,” American Jails, September–October 2012.

276 sells video visitation Securus Technologies, “Watching Them Grow with Securus Technologies Video Visitation,” May 31, 2016, youtu.be/ictEY26Tw8M.

276 bans on the practice Grassroots Leadership, “Legislation Protecting In-Person County Jail Visits Goes into Effect,” September 1, 2015, grassrootsleadership.org/releases/2015/09/legislation-protecting-person-county-jail-visits-goes-effect; Lucius Couloute, “New Massachusetts Reform Package Aims to Protect In-Person Jail Visits,” Prison Policy Initiative, March 26, 2018, www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2018/03/26/ma_cj_reform18.

276 California has required in-person visits Bernadette Rabuy, “California Legislators Continue Fighting for In-Person Jail Visits,” Prison Policy Initiative, September 6, 2017, www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/09/06/california-hearing-visits.

276 Texas cut inmate phone calls Angela Helm, “Texas Prison System Slashes Price of Inmate Phone Calls by 77 Percent, Contractor to Set Up Video Phones,” The Root, August 26, 2018, www.theroot.com/texas-prison-system-slashes-price-of-inmate-phone-calls-1828612862.

276 made all calls free Joshua Sabatini, “SF Plans to Make Jail Calls Free for Inmates,” San Francisco Examiner, July 12, 2019; Zoe Greenberg, “Phone Calls from New York City Jails Will Soon Be Free,” New York Times, August 6, 2018.

276 call volume increased 38 percent Tweet from Worth Rises (@WorthRises), May 3, 2019, twitter.com/WorthRises/status/1124407971667161091.

276 Connecticut was about to follow suit Rachel M. Cohen, “Free Prison Calls Could Finally Be Coming to Connecticut,” The Intercept, April 2, 2019, theintercept.com/2019/04/02/connecticut-free-prison-calls.

277 wavered on supporting it Rachel M. Cohen, “Connecticut’s Democratic Governor Is Stonewalling a Bill  at Would Make Phone Calls from Prison Free,” The Intercept, May 23, 2019, theintercept.com/2019/05/23/connecticut-prison-inmate-calls.

277 protesting video-only visits Matt Lakin, “Rally Demands Return of Face- to-Face Visits at Knox County Jail,” Knoxville News Sentinel, January 29, 2018; Matt Lakin, “Lawsuit Blasts Video Visitation Rules at Knox Jail, Demands Return of In-Person Visits,” Knoxville News Sentinel, January 14, 2019.

277 left to go work for Tech Friends LinkedIn, “Terry Wilshire,” www.linkedin.com/in/terry-wilshire-a79b3015.

277 immediately reinstated in-person visitation WFAE 90.7, “In-Person Visitations Restored at Mecklenburg County Jails, Sheriff’s Office Says,” January 16, 2019.

Interlude

279 owned 1,478 funeral homes SCI Corporate Communications, “Service Corporation International Announces Second Quarter 2019 Financial Results and Raises Guidance,” July 29, 2019, investors.sci-corp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/service-corporation-international-announces-second-quarter-2019.

279 2013 purchase of Stewart Enterprises Erin Mulvaney, “2 Top Funeral Services Companies Join in $1.2 billion Deal,” Houston Chronicle, May 29, 2013.

279 more than one of every five dollars Tanya D. Marsh, “Regulated to Death: Occupational Licensing and the Demise of the U.S. Funeral Services Industry,” Wake Forest Journal of Law and Policy 8, no. 1 (2018): 5–27.

279 expressed ghoulishly Service Corporation International, Annual Report for the Year Ending December 31, 2018, Securities and Exchange Commission, investors.sci-corp.com/static-files/c1a836de-f4f7-4878-9521-2aac16e64925.

279 Investor concerns about changing desires Spencer Jakob, “Death-Care Stocks Have Made a Killing for Investors. Now It’s Time to Say Goodbye,” Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2019.

279 never heard of SCI Michael Waters, “The Death Industry Is Getting Away with Murder,” Washington Monthly, July 23, 2019.

279 earns more than five times Marsh, “Regulated to Death.”

279 virtually no prices for burials Joshua Slocum and Stephen Brobeck, “A Needle in a Haystack—Finding Funeral Prices Online in 26 State Capitals,” Funeral Consumers Alliance and Consumer Federation of America, January 29, 2018, consumerfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/needle-in-a-haystack-finding-funeral-prices-online-report.pdf.

279 47 to 72 percent higher Joshua Slocum, “Death with Dignity? A Report on SCI/Dignity Memorial High Prices and Refusal to Disclose These Prices,” Funeral Consumers Alliance and Consumer Federation of America, March 2017, consumerfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/3-6-17-Funeral-SCI_Report.pdf.

280 82 percent of all coffins Data from the Open Markets Institute, concentrationcrisis.openmarketsinstitute.org/industry/coffin-casket-manufacturing.

280 SCI takes this to a higher level Waters, “The Death Industry Is Getting Away with Murder.”

280 2018 lawsuit in Brownsville, Texas Service Corporation International and SCI Texas Funeral Services, Inc. v. Maria Ruiz, Court of Appeals, 13th District of Texas, January 25, 2018, law.justia.com/cases/texas/thirteenth-court-of-appeals/2018/13-16-00699-cv.html.

280 SCI stacks its consumer contracts Service Corporation International and SCI Texas Funeral Services, Inc. v. Maria Ruiz.

280 Federal Trade Commission announced plans Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Announces Regulatory Review Schedule,” May 7, 2019, www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/05/ftc-announces-regulatory-review-schedule.

280 current rule is routinely flouted Tracy Samilton, “Why the Funeral Rule Is One of the Least-Known Consumer Protection Laws in the Country,” Michigan Radio, October 22, 2018, www.michiganradio.org/post/why-funeral-rule-one-least-known-consumer-protection-laws-country.

280 substitute the language “price by request” Slocum and Brobeck, “A Needle in a Haystack.”

12. Monopolies Are Why I Traveled to Chicago and Tel Aviv to Learn How to Stop Them

281 beyond just consumer welfare Open Markets Institute, “Restoring Anti- monopoly Through Bright-Line Rules,” ProMarket, April 26, 2019, promarket.org/restoring-antimonopoly-through-bright-line-rules.

281 structurally separate functions Elizabeth Warren, “Here’s How We Can Break Up Big Tech,” Medium, March 8, 2019.

281 laws preventing “supermarket”-style banks Ganesh Sitaraman, “The Case for Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-Era Law We Need Today,” The Guardian, June 16, 2018.

281 Robinson-Patman Act Will Kenton, “Robinson-Patman Act,” Investopedia, October 20, 2019, www.investopedia.com/terms/r/robinson-patman-act.asp.

281 a state-run bank David Dayen, “A Bank Even a Socialist Could Love,” In These Times, April 17, 2017.

281 local ownership of pharmacies Olivia LaVecchia, “In Big Win for Local Ownership, North Dakota Votes to Keep State’s Pharmacy Law,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, November 5, 2014, ilsr.org/big-win-local-ownership-north-dakota-votes-states-pharmacy-law.

281 public wireless companies Community Networks, “Community Network Map,” muninetworks.org/communitymap.

281 restrictions on dollar stores Marie Donahue, “Dollar Store Restriction—Tulsa, Okla.,” Institute for Local Self-Reliance, July 2, 2019, ilsr.org/rule/dollar-store-dispersal-restrictions/dollar-store-restriction-tulsa-okla.

281 antitrust authorities’ guidelines United States Department of Justice Archives, “1968 Merger Guidelines,” www.justice.gov/archives/atr/1968-merger-guideline.

281 Bell Labs consent decree David Dayen, “Big Tech: The New Predatory Capitalism,” American Prospect, December 26, 2017.

282 case against Microsoft changed the culture Victor Luckerson, “‘Crush Them’: An Oral History of the Lawsuit That Upended Silicon Valley,” The Ringer, May 18, 2018, www.theringer.com/tech/2018/5/18/17362452/microsoft-antitrust-lawsuit-netscape-internet-explorer-20-years.

283 The current roster Arnold & Porter, “Antitrust/Competition,” www.arnoldporter.com/en/services/capabilities/practices/antitrust-competition.

283 routinely overruled lower-level FTC staffers David Dayen, “Why Are Drug Monopolies Running Amok? Meet Deborah Feinstein,” The Intercept, December 16, 2015.

283 in a 2013 speech Deborah L. Feinstein, “The Significance of Consent Orders in the Federal Trade Commission’s Competition Enforcement Efforts,” Federal Trade Commission, remarks at GCR Live, September 17, 2013, www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/public_statements/significance-consent-orders-federal-trade-commission%E2%80%99s-competition-enforcement-efforts-gcr-live/130917gcrspeech.pdf.

283 Feinstein represented Elizabeth Amon, “Davis Polk, Arnold & Porter, Skadden: Business of Law,” Bloomberg, June 18, 2013.

283 most recently NxStage Medical David Dayen, “Watchdog Group Slams FTC for Revolving-Door Practices Ahead of Pending Staples Merger,” The Intercept, February 26, 2019.

283 current FTC chair represented Joseph J. Simons, bio, Paul Weiss, web.archive.org/web/20171112123136/https:/www.paulweiss.com/professionals/partners-and-counsel/joseph-j-simons.

283 worked at Kirkland & Ellis Sue Reisinger, “FTC Nominee Christine Wilson Discloses Her In-House Earnings at Delta,” Law.com, February 2, 2018, www.law.com/corpcounsel/sites/corpcounsel/2018/02/02/c-nominee-christine-wilson-discloses-her-in-house-earnings-at-delta.

283 an incredible 120 different corporate clients Public Citizen, “Federal Trade Commission’s Andrew Smith Has Conflicts with 120 Companies. How Can He Do His Job?” December 6, 2018, www.citizen.org/news/federal-trade-commissions-andrew-smith-has-conflicts-with-120-companies-how-can-he-do-his-job.

283 with Google’s main law firm David Dayen, “From Google Payroll to Government and Back Again,” The Intercept, January 13, 2016.

283 now writes papers Google Transparency Project, “Research Papers by Google-Funded Academics,” django.googletransparencyproject.org/table.

283 Makan Delrahim . . . worked David Dayen, “Democrats Face an Important Anti-Monopoly Test,” New Republic, September 6, 2017; Steven Overly and Margaret Harding McGill, “Google’s Onetime Hired Gun Could Now Be Its Antitrust Nightmare,” Politico, July 6, 2019.

283 Edith Ramirez joined Hogan Lovells Chris Johnson, “Former FTC Chair Joins Hogan Lovells to Lead Antitrust Practice,” Law.com, September 6, 2017, www.law.com/americanlawyer/almID/1202797350571.

283 repped YouTube last year Law360, “Google, YouTube Shake Privacy Suit over Kids’ Data Use,” April 1, 2019, www.law360.com/media/articles/1145087/google-youtube-shake-privacy-suit-over-kids-data-use.

283 now at Covington & Burling Terrell McSweeny, bio, Covington, www.cov.com/en/professionals/m/terrell-mcsweeny.

284 Democratic and Republican former enforcers Rick Claypool, “The FTC’s Big Tech Revolving Door Problem,” Public Citizen, May 23, 2019, www.citizen.org/article/ftc-big-tech-revolving-door-problem-report.

284 ProPublica estimates Jesse Eisinger and Justin Elliott, “These Professors Make More than a Thousand Bucks an Hour Peddling Mega-Mergers,” ProPublica, November 16, 2016.

284 between Shapiro’s economic models and Carlton’s Hadas Gold and Jessica Schneider, “With First Witness, AT&T Aims to Undermine DOJ’s Case Against Time Warner Bid,” CNN, April 12, 2018.

284 Tepper wrote in 2019 Jonathan Tepper, “Why Regulators Went Soft on Monopolies,” American Conservative, January 9, 2019.

284 A 2017 Harvard Business School study Mihir N. Mehta, Suraj Srinivasan, and Wanli Zhao, “Political Influence and Merger Antitrust Reviews,” Harvard Business School, June 4, 2019, hbswk.hbs.edu/item/political-influence-and-merger-antitrust-reviews.

284 Administration officials held meetings David Dayen, “Google’s Remarkably Close Relationship with the Obama White House, in Two Charts,” The Intercept, April 22, 2016.

284 augments its millions Alana Abramson, “Google Spent Millions More than Its Rivals Lobbying Politicians Last Year,” Time, January 24, 2018.

284 underwriting hundreds of “independent” papers Olivia Solon, “Google Spends Millions on Academic Research to Influence Opinion, Says Watchdog,” The Guardian, July 12, 2017.

284 side with big business Zephyr Teachout, “Neil Gorsuch Sides with Big Business, Big Donors and Big Bosses,” Washington Post, February 21, 2017.

284 Economics Institute for Federal Judges Henry N. Butler, “The Manne Programs in Economics for Federal Judges,” Case Western Reserve Law Review 50, no. 2 (1999): 351–420.

284 a recent working paper Elliot Ash, Daniel L. Chen, and Suresh Naidu, “Ideas Have Consequences: The Impact of Law and Economics on American Justice,” working paper, March 20, 2019, elliottash.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ash-chen-naidu-2019-03-20.pdf.

284 Elizabeth Warren met her husband Stephanie Ebbert, “Family Long a Bedrock for Elizabeth Warren,” Boston Globe, October 25, 2012.

284 antitrust agency funding falling David McCabe, “Mergers Are Spiking, but Antitrust Cop Funding Isn’t,” Axios, May 7, 2018.

285 to go after organists Sandeep Vaheesan, “America’s Most Insidious Union-Buster? Its Own Government,” The Guardian, June 29, 2018.

285 supporting Uber over Uber drivers Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America and Rasier, LLC, v. City of Seattle, et al., Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, brief of the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, November 6, 2017, www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy/amicus-briefs/2017/11/chamber-commerce-united-states-america-rasier-llc-v-city.

285 supporting Apple over Apple customers Apple v. Pepper, Supreme Court of the United States, amicus curiae brief, United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, May 2018, www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-204/46060/20180508135603183_17-204%20Apple%20v.%20Pepper%20%20-%20AC%20Pet.pdf.

285 slobbers over tech giants Matthew Buck and Sandeep Vaheesan, “Trump’s Big Tech Bluster,” New York Times, March 6, 2019.

285 in the space of a few months David Dayen, “The Big Tech Investigations  at Should Have Started in 2012,” American Prospect, June 11, 2019.

285 became the launching pad David Dayen, “This Budding Movement Wants to Smash Monopolies,” The Nation, April 4, 2017.

286 funds came into control Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Israel, “The Silver Platter,” April 12, 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuIY7jn2w2E.

286 Nochi Dankner ran IDB Government of Israel, report of the Centralization Decrease Committee, July 31, 2016, www.gov.il/BlobFolder/unit/centralization_decrease_committee/he/Vaadot_ahchud_CentralizationDecreaseCommittee_opinion_RotemAmpartNegev.pdf.

286 controlled half the stock market Konstantin Kosenko, “Evolution of Business Groups in Israel: Their Impact at the Level of the Firm and the Economy,” Bank of Israel, April 16, 2008, www.boi.org.il/en/Research/Pages/papers_dp0802e.aspx.

286 seemingly impenetrably concentrated Dany Bahar, “Delivering on Eco- nomic Prosperity in Israel: How Monopolies Are Hampering the ‘Start-up Nation,’” Brookings Institution, May 4, 2016, www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/05/04/delivering-on-economic-prosperity-in-israel-how-monopolies-are-hampering-the-start-up-nation.

286 Audiotapes produced later Al Jazeera, “Caught on Tape: Netanyahu Pulling the Media Strings,” January 16, 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI3HyewNrG4.

287 Four straight government bank supervisors FES Israel, “The Silver Platter.”

287 ran a special weekend edition Guy Rolnik, “Democracy or Economic Concentration. Your Choice,” Haaretz, July 6, 2010.

288 challenged incumbent telecom owners Guy Rolnik, “Learn from the French—Reducing Our Mobile Bills by 90%,” Huffington Post, October 20, 2014.

289 posted a Facebook message Naor Meningher and Eytan Weinstein, “Daphni Leef: Leading Israel’s Biggest Protest,” Two Nice Jewish Boys (podcast), December 31, 2018, jewishjournal.com/podcasts/twonicejewishboys/291641/episode-119-daphni-leef-leading-israels-biggest-protest.

289 said the chair Isabel Kershner, “Protests Grow in Israel, with 250,000 Marching,” New York Times, August 6, 2011.

289 as large as 430,000 Harriet Sherwood, “Israeli Protests: 430,000 Take to Streets to Demand Social Justice,” The Guardian, September 4, 2011.

289 they were instructed to stop coverage “Feder and Tiffenbron Hind It Up,” Pine Parsico, The7Eye, April 2, 2015, www.the7eye.org.il/153541.

290 interim report of the committee Steven Davidoff, “Overhaul of Israel’s Economy Offers Lessons for United States,” New York Times, January 7, 2014.

290 driving prices down 90 percent Rolnik, “Learn from the French.”

290 passed the Knesset unanimously Knesset vote, December 9, 2013, www.knesset.gov.il/vote/heb/Vote_Res_Map.asp?vote_id_t=19913.

290 The effect was dramatic Eran Azran, “Israeli Tycoons’ Holding Groups Have Been Cut Down to Size,” Haaretz, August 20, 2019.

290 IDB turned insolvent Sharon Wrobel, “Israel’s Dankner in Last-Ditch Debt Fight for Control of IDB,” Bloomberg, June 3, 2013.

290 tycoon-run conglomerates were dissolved David Wainer and Yaacov Ben-meleh, “Israel Turns the Screw on Tycoons,” Bloomberg Businessweek, January 15, 2018.

290 Danny for bribery Steven Scheer, “Former Hapoalim Chairman Dankner Gets 3 Years in Jail for Bribery,” Reuters, May 13, 2014.

290 Nochi for stock fraud TheMarker and Jasmin Gueta, “Israeli Ex-Tycoon Nochi Dankner Sentenced to Two Years for Stock Manipulation,” Haaretz, December 5, 2016.

290 Even Netanyahu Asher Schechter, “Benjamin Netanyahu Sided with Israel’s Oligarchs—and It Led to His Downfall,” ProMarket, November 25, 2019.

290 Rolnik won the Israeli version Haaretz, “Guy Rolnik, Founder of TheMarker, Receives Prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award,” December 29, 2013.

291 As The Economist wrote The Economist, “The University of Chicago Worries About a Lack of Competition,” April 12, 2017.

291 most well-known law review essays Lina Khan, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” Yale Law Journal 126, no. 3 (2017): 564–907.

291 I wrote for The Nation Dayen, “This Budding Movement.”

292 writing a platform Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, “2019 Antitrust and Competition Conference—Digital Platforms, Markets, and Democracy: A Path Forward,” University of Chicago, May 15–16, 2019, research.chicagobooth.edu/stigler/events/single-events/antitrust-competition-conference.

292 figures as varied as Elizabeth Warren, “Reigniting Competition in the American Economy,” remarks at New America’s Open Markets Program Event, June 29, 2016, www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/2016-6-29_Warren_Antitrust_Speech.pdf; Asher Schechter, “The White House Acknowledges: The U.S. Has a Concentration Problem; President Obama Launches New Pro-Competition Initiative,” ProMarket, April15, 2016, promarket.org/the-white-house-acknowledges-the-u-s-has-a-concentration-problem-president-obama-launches-new-pro-competition-initiative; Senate Committee on the Judiciary, “Oversight of the Enforcement of the Antitrust Laws,” March 9, 2016, www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/oversight-of-the-enforcement-of-the-antitrust-laws-2016.

292 Lynn got ousted from New America Kenneth P. Vogel, “Google Critic Ousted from Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant,” New York Times, August 30, 2017.

292 Roger McNamee, an early tech funder Roger McNamee, “I Invested Early in Google and Facebook. Now They Terrify Me,” USA Today, August 8, 2017.

292 so did Chris Hughes Chris Hughes, “It’s Time to Break Up Facebook,” New York Times, May 9, 2019.

292 “blood in the water” in Silicon Valley Ben Smith, “There’s Blood in the Water in Silicon Valley,” BuzzFeed, September 12, 2017.

293 more discussion of monopoly Elena Schneider, “How Sen. Amy Klobuchar Would Regulate Big Business,” Politico, May 19, 2019; Matthew Yglesias, “Booker Calls on Antitrust Regulators to Start Paying Attention to Workers,” Vox, November 1, 2017; Franklin Foer, “Elizabeth Warren’s Theory of Capitalism,” The Atlantic, August 28, 2018.

293 Bernie Sanders to John Hickenlooper Tara Golshan, “Read: Bernie Sand- ers Defines His Vision for Democratic Socialism in the United States,” Vox, June 12, 2019; John Hickenlooper, “Leveling the Playing Field for Small Businesses,” Medium, April 25, 2019.

293 proposed a “do not track” Makena Kelly, “Senator Proposes Strict Do Not Track Rules in New Bill,” The Verge, May 20, 2019.

293 studying the effect of tech concentration House Committee on the Judiciary, “House Judiciary Committee Launches Bipartisan Investigation into Competition in Digital Markets,” June 3, 2019, judiciary.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-judiciary-committee-launches-bipartisan-investigation-competition-digital.

293 forced Amazon to take down Eugene Kim, “Amazon Quietly Removes Promotional Spots That Gave Special Treatment to Its Own Products as Scrutiny of Tech Giants Grows,” CNBC, April 3, 2019.

293 holding meaningless field hearings Federal Trade Commission, “Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century,” September 13, 2018–June 12, 2019, www.ftc.gov/policy/hearings-competition-consumer-protection.

293 came to the Chicago conference Makan Delrahim, “Don’t Stop Believin’: Anti- trust Enforcement in the Digital Era,” remarks at Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, April 19, 2018, www.justice.gov/opa/speech/file/1054766/download.

293 sort out jurisdictional issues David McLaughlin and Naomi Nix, “Google’s Enemies Sharpen Complaints as DOJ Opens Antitrust Probe,” Bloomberg, June 4, 2019.

293 the parties abandoned the merger Arjun Panchadar and David Shepardson, “LSC, Quad/Graphics Abandon $1.4 Billion Merger After U.S. Antitrust Suit,” Reuters, July 23, 2019.

293 Justice Department announced a lawsuit Diane Bartz, “U.S. Sues to Stop Merger of Two Printing Companies,” Reuters, June 20, 2019.

293 judge sided with the FTC Tripp Mickle, Brent Kendall, and Asa Fitch, “Qualcomm’s Practices Violate Antitrust Law, Judge Rules,” Wall Street Journal, May 22, 2019.

293 Apple v. Pepper Apple v. Pepper, Supreme Court of the United States, oral arguments, November26, 2018, www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2018/17-204_32q3.pdf.

294 She joined the majority Apple v. Pepper, Supreme Court of the United States, ruling, May 13, 2019, www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/17-204_bq7d.pdf.

294 India prevented Amazon BBC News, “Amazon Forced to Pull Products in India as New Rules Bite,” February 1, 2019.

294 Germany outlawed Facebook’s Emily Dreyfuss, “German Regulators Just Outlawed Facebook’s Whole Ad Business,” Wired, February 7, 2019.

294 investigations against Big Tech John D. McKinnon, “States Prepare to Launch Investigations into Tech Giants,” Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2019.

294 pursuit of pharmacy benefit manager middlemen Bob Herman, “States Are the New Battleground for Drug Price Middlemen,” Axios, December 19, 2018.

294 bipartisan coalition in Virginia Gregory S. Schneider, “Coalition of Unlikely Allies Calls on State to Break Up Utilities, Deregulate Energy,” Washington Post, May 7, 2019.

294 Arizona has also taken aim Millicent Dent, “In Battle to Break Up Utilities, Arizona Steps to the Front Line,” Bloomberg, August 8, 2019.

294 forced fast-food giants Rachel Abrams, “8 Fast-Food Chains Will End ‘No-Poach’ Policies,” New York Times, August 20, 2018.

294 states banded together to sue Emily Birnbaum, “Four More States Join Attorneys General Lawsuit to Block T-Mobile-Sprint Merger,” The Hill, June 21, 2019.

294 increasingly used the same power Lydia DePillis, “Corporations Are Getting Bigger. Thank a Trial Lawyer for Keeping Them in Check,” CNN, May 14, 2019.

294 analyst’s report or activist investor Steve Schaefer, “JPMorgan Worth More in Pieces? Goldman Analysts Think Breakup Makes Sense,” Forbes, January 5, 2015; Patrick Thomas, “Daniel Loeb’s Third Point Calls for Breakup of Sony—Again,” Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2019.

294 United Technologies split Ankit Ajmera and Greg Roumeliotis, “United Technologies to Separate into Three Companies,” Reuters, November 26, 2018.

294 Google employees marched out Claire Stapleton et al., “We’re the Organizers of the Google Walkout. Here Are Our Demands,” The Cut, November 1, 2018, www.thecut.com/2018/11/google-walkout-organizers-explain-demands.html.

294 they won Kara Swisher, “After Paying Off Men Accused of Sexual Harassment, Google Says It Will Meet Many of the Protesters’ Demands,” New York Times, November 8, 2018.

294 Citizens organized long-shot initiatives Nicholas Confessore, “The Unlikely Activists Who Took on Silicon Valley—and Won,” New York Times, August 14, 2018.

294 supporters of public Wi-Fi David Z. Morris, “Private Providers Spent Nearly $1 Million to Fight Municipal Broadband in One Small Colorado City,” Fortune, December 10, 2017.

294 taken over Hollywood talent agencies Writers Guild of America, West, “Agencies for Sale: Private Equity Investment and Soaring Agency Valuations,” March 18, 2019, www.wga.org/uploadedfiles/members/member_info/agency_agreement/Agencies_for_Sale_WGA_31819.pdf.

294 new goal is “packaging fees” Steven Pearlstein, “Big Agencies and Studios Have a Lock on Hollywood. It’s High Time to Apply Antitrust Law,” Washington Post, September 7, 2019.

295 writers fired their agents Ross A. Lincoln, “‘ ousands’ of Members Have Signed Letters Firing Agents, WGA Says,” The Wrap, April 15, 2019, www.thewrap.com/thousands-of-members-have-signed-letters-firing-agents-wga-says.

[kansascityhappenings]

KC mobile home park filled with trash, crime and squatters has one code inspector ‘fed up’

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cross the bridge into Stonecroft Mobile and you’ll see the underbelly of Kansas City.

More than two dozen people call it home, but it’s overflowing with trash, crime and squatters.

“Last year it started getting bad, bad, bad,” said Eva May Renaut, who lived here 11 years until her trailer burned down a few weeks ago.

Now she returns only to feed her cats who aren’t allowed where she’s temporarily living. She said she’s glad to be gone from Stonecroft.

“We have stolen cars,” Renaut said. “We have drugs. We have it all.”

Alan Ashurst, a Kansas City codes inspector in charge of illegal dumping, said the mobile home park is costing taxpayers tens of thousand of dollars to fight fires and crime.

“As far as drains on city resources this is probably right up there in the top five,” Ashurst said.

The week before FOX4 interviewed Ashurst there were two fires at Stonecroft. It costs taxpayers a minimum of $6,000 to respond to each fire. Last year, the fire department made 100 visits here — although not all were for fires.

“I want the people who are responsible for this property to be held responsible,” Ashurst said.

Stonecroft is owned by the Boavida Group, based nearly 2,000 miles away in Sacramento, California.

When Boavida bought this park on 4900 Raytown Road 13 months ago, it made the city big promises of cleaning it up, rebuilding it and making it safe again.

The city believed them.

After all, the Boavida Group owns manufactured home parks across the United States, including a second mobile home park in Kansas City on Blue Ridge Boulevard.

FOX4 tried to reach someone at that park, but a sign on the office door said it was closed due to the coronavirus.

We tracked down the company’s owner, Eli Weiner, by phone at his home in Sacramento.

Weiner, who paid nearly $1 million for Stonecroft, said he’s working hard to improve the park. He’s cleared 50 trailers from the property and given cash incentives for tenants to leave.

But city officials said they haven’t seen Boavida do much of anything in at least six months.

Boavida’s owner blamed the coronavirus. He said at least 24 eviction orders have been filed with the courts, but couldn’t be served because of the virus. We checked court records and couldn’t find a single eviction on file.

Add to that no on-site manager, no security and no garbage pick-up and you can see why city officials like Ashurst have lost their patience.

Alan Ashurst

“I got fed up,” Ashurst said. “They are not listening to the fire. They are not listening to the city’s letters.”

That’s why he called FOX4 Problem Solvers.

Tired of waiting for Boavida to take action, the city has started posting notices on run-down trailers — mostly filled by squatters — demanding they vacate the premises for health and safety reasons.

“You cannot live here without running water or a flushing toilet in the stated condition that it’s in,” Ashurst told one man before posting a notice on his trailer preventing him from continuing to live there.

That day, city workers found people living in six trailers without electricity and a seventh trailer with neither electricity nor water.

During a pandemic, that’s scary.

Kansas City also has the city’s legal department involved. It’s already filed two lawsuits against a Michigan company that’s supposedly managing this property.

That pressure, along with FOX4’s camera, seemed to finally get the owner’s attention.

The day we were there, Boavida sent a man from its Wichita office to tour the property with the fire department. He wouldn’t talk to us but was constantly on the phone with his bosses in California.

At the end of the day, there appeared to be progress.

The company promised that very week it would start cleaning up the place, removing dilapidated and burned out trailers and rebuild the entry bridge to the property, which is in such bad shape that when a fire breaks out, firefighters can’t even bring their truck inside.

FOX4 checked back a few days later, and Boavida appeared to be keeping its word.

The gas company had started removing its meters, trailers were marked for demolition and a private security company was roaming the property.

It seems to be progress toward eliminating one of Kansas City’s biggest eyesores.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/news/problem-solvers/kc-mobile-home-park-filled-with-trash-crime-and-squatters-has-one-code-inspector-fed-up/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2020/05/21/kc-mobile-home-park-filled-with-trash-crime-and-squatters-has-one-code-inspector-fed-up/

[biofunmy]

How New Rent Laws in N.Y. Help All Tenants

[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

The bulk of the landmark changes to New York’s rent laws last week was aimed at strengthening protections for the 2.4 million people who live in New York City’s rent-regulated apartments, or almost half of the city’s tenants.

But buried in the 74-page bill is an expansive patchwork of new protections that apply to all renters statewide, including 43 percent of New York City renters who live in unregulated apartments.

Taken together, the new laws — on everything from evictions to security deposits to rent caps for residents of mobile homes — represent a significant power shift away from landlords and cement New York’s standing as a national leader of policies favorable to renters, of which there are 8.2 million statewide.

“It’s arguable now that New York state’s protections are more stringent than in any other state,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, professor and faculty director of New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. “Ultimately, the real measure of stringency is going to come from the actual implementation and enforcement of these laws.”

Trade groups representing landlords and property managers said new limits on security deposits and evictions could hinder an owner’s finances and ability to remove disruptive tenants. The New York real estate industry vigorously opposed the new laws and invested in an expensive lobbying campaign and ad blitz to unsuccessfully counter the measures.

[Read more about how landlords are reacting to the new rent laws.]

The changes, on the heels of a statewide rent cap that Oregon approved earlier this year, could fuel momentum in other states considering tenant-favorable laws at a time when more households are renting than at any point in a half-century.

New York has long been heralded as a haven for renters: New York City helped pioneer regulations that now dictate the rents of almost one million apartments in the city.

The changes last week tightened those regulations, but legislators also borrowed policies from other states, bolstering the rights and protections for millions of unregulated renters, who do not enjoy the same safeguards regulated tenants do.

Here’s what you need to know if you rent an apartment in New York.

Security deposits

Security deposits will now be limited to one month’s rent, and it will be easier for all renters to get their security deposits back.

“For people who are very low income or even homeless, the security deposit can be a big barrier,” said Maria Foscarinis, the executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

Ten other states and Washington, D.C., have the one-month limit on security deposits, according to a March 2018 analysis from Rent Cafe, a rental listings site.

There was already a similar rule for regulated renters in New York. About two dozen states do not have limits for security deposits.

Greg Brown, the senior vice president of government affairs at the National Apartment Association, said the new limits could hurt a property owner’s ability to pay for apartment damages or cover owed rent if a tenant breaks a lease.

“If there is damage to the unit, a larger owner might be able to absorb that more easily than a smaller owner could,” said Mr. Brown, whose association represents 82,000 property managers, leasing agents, developers and others nationwide.

Notice

Landlords are now required to provide tenants with notice if they intend to raise the rent by more than 5 percent.

They must also notify tenants if they do not intend to renew a lease.

If a tenant has a lease of less than one year, a 30-day notice is now mandatory. A 60-day notice is required for renters who have lived in an apartment for more than one year, but less than two years, or have a lease of at least one year, but less than two years.

Tenants who have lived in a unit for more than two years, or have a lease of at least two years, must get a 90-day notice.

Landlords of regulated apartments were already required to give 90- to 120-day notices.

New eviction protections

One of the most significant changes is a new protection that bolsters a tenant’s defense against a landlord pursuing a retaliatory eviction. The change applies to all renters.

A judge may now stay an eviction for up to one year, rather than six months, if the tenant cannot find a similar dwelling in the same neighborhood after a reasonable search.

And a court must also consider how an eviction may exacerbate a tenant’s health condition, affect a child’s enrollment in a local school, and other factors.

“We see tenants getting evicted in the middle of the school year and what that does to families,” said Judith Goldiner, head of the Legal Aid Society’s civil law reform unit. “The changes give these families the ability to move into a stable situation.”

She added, “These changes might dissuade some landlords from bringing eviction cases against month-to-month tenants merely in order to keep application fees and security deposits.”

Unlawful evictions, such as when a landlord illegally locks out or uses force to evict a tenant, would become a misdemeanor punishable by a civil penalty of $1,000 to $10,000 per violation.

Mr. Brown said longer stays on evictions would limit an landlord’s ability to remove tenants with behavioral issues, which could negatively affect neighbors and the building’s finances if the tenant withheld rent.

The changes “don’t really solve the core problem of why most people face evictions, which is their inability to pay rent.”

These new protections would complement a 2017 law that made New York the first city to implement a universal right to counsel, guaranteeing free legal assistance for tenants facing eviction.

Mobile homes

Fun fact: There is only one trailer park in New York City, on Staten Island.

But there are about 200,000 mobile and manufactured homes across the state, an important source of affordable housing, according to Brian P. Kavanagh, a Democratic state senator and chairman of the Senate’s Housing Committee.

“Those residents are particularly vulnerable because they often own the structure, but not the land underneath it,” Mr. Kavanagh said.

The rent increase a park owner can charge is now capped at 3 percent, or up to 6 percent if the government finds the increase justifiable.

Protections against evictions, including for seasonal residents, were also strengthened, making it harder to evict a tenant if a park owner decides to repurpose the land.

Other changes

Tenants now have 30 days to fix lease violations, rather than 10 days under previous rules.

Application fees, including fees for a background check, are now limited to $20.

Tenants who were seen as troublemakers by landlords — perhaps for standing up for their rights — would sometimes end up on blacklists that would be shared among rental agencies.

That practice would be banned, prohibiting landlords from discriminating based on a tenant’s history in housing court. Other states, including California and Illinois, have experimented with other solutions, like having certain housing court records automatically sealed.

If a tenant breaks a lease, a landlord is now required to try to rent the apartment to someone else, making it harder for owners to keep a unit vacant and charge the tenant for the remainder of the lease.

That’s a lot. What does it all mean?

Tenant organizers nationwide said they are hopeful the changes could pave the way for more tenant rights in other states and fuel a push for rent controls that are an age-old staple of New York City.

“Right behind Oregon, we see New York’s victory as the second in this wave of historic rent regulation victories,” said Lisa Owens, a steering committee member of Right to the City Alliance, a national housing justice coalition that supports universal rent control.

“They have opened the doors for states like mine,” she said, referring to Massachusetts, “which have pre-emptions against rent regulations, but have strong and growing tenant movements.”

Mr. Brown, of the National Apartment Association, said the push for rent control — which limits how much landlords can raise rents — was not surprising, but would not address the underlying issue of producing for affordable housing.

“Rent control will not contribute a single unit to that effort and, in fact, will hinder our ability to reach that goal,” he said.

Rent control in the United States varies by state. Most states prohibit rent control, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.

As of 2018, only four states — California, Maryland, New Jersey and New York — and Washington, D.C., had localities with some type of rent control. A few months ago, Oregon became the first state to implement statewide rent control.

Last month, the California Assembly passed a bill to cap rent increases statewide, sending the proposal to the Senate. There are also campaigns to pass universal rent control in Colorado, Illinois and Washington.

Even as the new rent laws riled the New York real estate industry, tenant advocates said they were upset legislators did not pass a “good cause” eviction bill that would have made it considerably harder for landlords to evict tenants in most market-rate apartments statewide.

Sahred From Source link Real Estate

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2ZzhpTt via IFTTT

[mikemarko567-blog]

Referencing A Sample Rental Agreement In Preparing A Rental Agreement | Top Property Management Resources

“Referencing a Sample Rental Agreement in Preparing a Rental Agreement”

You’re probably wondering why there are many sample rental agreement templates on the internet.

If you search for a rental agreement, there are be dozens of websites offering templates for it.

Questions like, “Can I use it in my rental agreement?” or “Does it need to be followed?” may fill up your mind.

A sample agreement can help ease up your workload when tenants pile up and start applying to rent your property. But the use of this agreement is more than that.

That’s why today we’re going to discuss what’s a sample rental agreement and how it can help you make your own rental agreement.

Using a Sample Rental Agreement as Reference

When beginning or developing your property management business you will need to develop a rental agreement that is customized to serve the rental properties you will be renting to tenants. Using a sample rental agreement is ok when you have limited properties to manage and the sample agreement addresses all the needs of those properties.

However, there will come a time when the unexpected happens, where a lot of tenants applications pile up at one time, all of them wishing they could rent your property. Your rental property business could expand rapidly making using a sample rental agreement obsolete.

Whatever the reason may be, the important part is that you should always be ready to cater to all these applying tenantswith a customized rental agreement.

However, when you do not have a lot of time to prepare your agreement, you can just use a sample rental agreementtemplate. As your rental business grows and expands into different properties with different needs you will still need to customize it to fit your rules on the property.

Prior to customizing and finalizing rental agreements for your properties, you may decide to use a sample rental agreement until a customized agreement is needed.

When evaluating if you need a customized rental agreement for your properties to let’s first look at what a sample rental agreement is and how it can be used…

What Is a Sample Rental Agreement?

A sample rental agreement is a template that property managers use as a basis when writing the actual agreement for a tenant. It can usually be found all around the internet, but it can be readily available from a real estate company. Normally, it’s not customized and contains the most basic and generic information regarding the contract for the rental property.

When you rent similar units or houses that all have identical needs you can easily edit a sample rental agreement to make it appropriate for your rental businesses. However, there are still guidelines that you need to follow to avoid violating the rental laws in your area.

These templates are mostly free, due to the fact that it is readily available for download from the internet. Although the terms within the samples are already included, it is highly advisable for you to modify them in accordance with your own policies. Since the sample rental agreement is a legal document it should be reviewed to make sure that it meets all legal a local rental laws where your properties are located prior to using it…

A Simple Guide on How to Write a Rental Agreement

New property managers have little to no experience in preparing rental agreements. Thus, sample rental agreements were created for the purpose of helping them in coming up with one.

We have prepared a simple guide that property managers can refer to when writing a rental agreement.

Research Rental Laws

The first and most important thing you need to do is do a research on your local rental laws before writing your rental agreement. This will serve as your foundation of knowledge pertaining to the subject matter. The internet will always be there to help, but if you want to ensure accuracy, it’s better to contact a real estate attorney or other realtors to explain it to you.

In select states, a property manager can just call the courthouse to ask for a renter’s handbook or copies of applicable acts. A copy of rental laws will give you an insight regarding different laws such as Landlord/Tenant Acts, Asbestos Acts, Lead Paint Acts, Mobile Home Acts, and Security Deposit Acts.

Write a Draft

If you’re looking for a sample rental agreement online, it is advisable to check your local government’s website first. See if your state requires a format in rental agreements. Standard rental agreements are available online from rental associations and legal document companies but are not state-specific.

Using a sample draft for a rental agreement is advisable to write a draft first. And before you start your draft, try researching your state and “rental agreement”. The results of your research will show you the format that most rental business use in your area.

When completing your rental agreement draft it is recommended that you adopt a state or local sample rental agreement to start your draft. After customizing the draft to meet local rental laws you should have it reviewed to make sure it is legally enforceable and meets all legal requirements in your area

Include Information About the Property

Once you’re done checking the rental laws and the required rental agreement format of your state, you can now proceed on making your own agreement. You can either give a detailed description of the property, or just include the address, and the name and address of the property owner.

Additional details regarding the property helps when issues, disputes or damages occur. Be sure to explain the rules and responsibilities of both sides for the rented property in the rental agreement.

Leave blank lines to make way for some details that you may want to add later on. This gives your rental agreement flexible to the terms.

Describe the Terms of the Rental Agreement

A rental agreement should include every important information about the tenant’s residency. However, your terms should meet the minimum state and local rent laws requirements

In your draft, don’t forget to include how many days of notice the landlord must give in order to terminate the agreement. Also, specify that the rental agreement only lasts for a month or will continue to be in effect after the end date of tenancy until a new agreement is negotiated. If the tenant decides to stay longer, use a lease agreement instead to better detail the use and responsibilities to the property over a longer term.

State the Consequences If the Lease Is Broken

Just like any kind of agreement, a rental agreement should also include the consequences if the lease ended early. It is important to put into detail as to what will happen when either of the parties break the lease. The rental courts normally rule when it comes to dealing with these disputes, and they usually refer to the rental agreement to settle the dispute.

This part of the agreement is sensitive. That is why you have to make sure that what you write in your document complies with local and state laws, especially those regarding eviction and/or agreement termination.

Here’s an example of what you could include in your terms…

“The tenant may forfeit all or part of the security deposit for failure to pay rent, give proper notice, or fill out the full term of the agreement.”

As a further way to document this, you may ask or add a section to initial or sign that this policy term has been discussed and agreed to in detail…

Specify the Payment, Security Deposit, and Fee Policy

Even if your state doesn’t require you to include details about the rent payment, security deposits, and fee policy during the tenancy, it is common sense to include them for transparency purposes.

Make sure to indicate your preferred forms and payment options in the rental agreement. Don’t forget to also include as to where the payments should be delivered to or sent. Being detailed about late fees or repairs that the security deposit will be used for is highly recommended as well…

Create a Repair and Maintenance Policy

Consider adding a repair and maintenance policy to your terms. This will further guarantee that the property is protected from any kind of damages.

Use the rental agreement terms to secure the tenant to agree to a repair and maintenance policy. Clearly specify when the tenant is responsible for repairing the rented property and when the repair issue will be handled by your property management firm. Also, include the tenant’s options for resolving the problems regarding this matter.

Consulting your local and state laws will give you an in-depth understanding of the repair and maintenance terms. It will also give you an idea about the allowed responsibilities you can share with your tenants.

Include Additional/Optional Policies

The sample rental agreement only contains the basic terms. And so, you need to customize its contents depending on your needs. You can add any requirement or restriction to the rental property, as long as it’s possible under state and local rental laws.

Some common terms you should include are policies concerning:

Pets,

Utilities,

Number of occupants,

Smoking,

Subletting,

Parking, and

Common area rules.

Review the Final Agreement

You’re almost done with your draft utilizing and customizing a sample rental agreement! But before finalizing it, there’s one more thing you need to do.

Prior to using it have it reviewed and approved by a real estate attorney familiar with local and state rental laws in the area your properties are located. Having the legal document finalized by legal review will help to avoid misunderstandings or legal challenges in the future when you begin to use it for your rental properties.

When your tenants sign the agreement after you finalize it, it will become a legal document. That means fixing any mistake or wrong information in it after finalizing the draft could cost you money and even affect the outcome of lawsuits filed against you.

To avoid this, consider consulting a real estate lawyer and other real estate professionals to review the final document, or even edit it for that matter. They will fix the agreement for you and suggest terms you might have missed. Proofreading the draft is also crucial so there are no errors.

Final Thoughts on Using a Sample Rental Agreement as Reference

In today’s article, we talked about the sample rental agreement. The sample rental agreement is a template that many property managers utilize to quickly prepare the agreement within a short period of time. These samples are available on the internet and in local government offices or real estate companies.

From the sample, you can customize it to your own terms and conditions using the points mentioned in this post. From writing a draft to finalizing the agreement, you should be careful and meticulous on what to include.

Be sure to post your questions in the comments section below.

[baxtonme]

Property Management: What to Do When Things get Noisy

When anger rises along with the decibels at the rental property, resolving the situation can get a bit complicated. This is partly because the rules and regulations governing the landlord/tenant relationship have limitations which can pour oil on the fire of finding a peaceful solution. Baxton Property Management in Hobart looks at factors to bear in mind when things get noisy.

Taken at face value, the Residential Tenancy Act places emphasis on the tenant’s rights to “quiet enjoyment” of the property. This would seem to place the responsibility to deal with noise directly on the landlord’s plate, and  he or she might be the first person tenants think to call if their neighbour is making a noise. But is it really within a owner or landlord’s power to do anything about it? And how could they go about it?

Caught in the Middle

The landlord is between a rock and a hard place in trying to deal with the situation. As much as the regulations protect the tenant’s right to peaceful enjoyment, they also include measures to guard their privacy. These include controlling a landlord’s access to the property, effectively tying his or her hands  when faced with a noise complaint.

If the noise is generated by a neighbour who is not also the landlord’s tenant, the landlord is powerless to do anything about it. And if there are two of his tenants having a disagreement over noise, the landlord or owner will have difficulty deciding which of his tenants should be supported in their position.  The landlord may have difficulty finding proof because 24 hours’ notice would have to be given before going to the rental house to speak to the tenant accused of making a noise.

Without issuing that warning, he could be contravening tenancy regulations which govern such visits to the rental property. And after 24 hours the noise will have probably died down, and if it’s a one-off thing, like a noisy BBQ to celebrate a birthday, there will be a whole year before the next one.

When it’s Not a Once-off Thing

Sometimes it’s a continuing problem, like dogs barking all day while their owner is at work, a music scholar practising a loud instrument regularly, or a tenant mowing the lawn in the early morning. However, it is likely that if the landlord or owner visits the premises, the dogs would not bark, and the music scholar would have put down the instrument or stood up from the piano, to answer the door. The only chance a landlord would have of investigating, would be by spending lengthy periods parked outside the neighbour’s rental and listening for the noise. And how does that differ from infringing on a tenant’s right to privacy?

The Noisy Tenant Could Lose Their Home

At the same time, causing excessive noise also forms part of the tenants’ obligation to avoid “causing a nuisance”. This means that the landlord would be able to submit an application for a Notice to Vacate, effectively eviction, unless the tenant repairs the breach of the agreement by no longer causing a nuisance during the process. The owner also has to be pretty sure that the problem does exist, as Tasmania’s tenancy laws insist on a valid reason for  terminating a lease.

Turning To the Council

At the end of the day, if the noise problem cannot be solved by communication with a neighbour, or  a meeting between the landlord and his two tenants, the best recourse probably falls within the ambit of the Hobart council, and more specifically, Police Tasmania, which control noise pollution situations in the Tasmanian capital. The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has set fixed times for noise levels being switched down or off. An upper limit of 55 dBA has been placed on the amount of noise allowed to come into one property from another.

When Quiet Must Prevail

Quiet times are applied to noise which is emitted from inside a room in one property that can be heard by someone who is in a room in another property. Weeknight noise restrictions start between 6pm and 10pm on weeknights, depending on what is causing the noise. The 6pm restriction is on chainsaws, stationery motor vehicles, motor vessels and outboard motors, as well as power and other noisy building tools and mobile machinery. Lawnmowers can go on cutting grass till 8pm and music lovers can continue to play their music till 10pm on weeknights, and till midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Time to kick off  again is at 7am on weekdays.  Another two hours are allowed so people can sleep in on Saturdays till 9am, and on Sundays and public holidays, the limit of quiet time is extended till 10am.

After many years handling disputes between rental property owners and their tenants, or between neighbouring tenants, Baxton Property Management in Hobart does its best to resolve issues like noise complaints without it ending up in court. For them,  dispute resolution forms part of the property management service. Contact Baxton online.

Written and syndicated by

– Baxton Media.

RELATED ARTICLES

Do tenants need insurance? Hobart property management company says yes

Tenants: Do you need insurance?

Hobart property management company guide to application documents and fees

FOLLOW US

Apple News | Facebook | Google+ | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

#1 – Australia’s Property Management Specialists

Property Management: What to Do When Things get Noisy was originally published on Baxton

[robgeo973]

$1675 46 Howard Court Newark, NJ 07102 WELCOME TO University Heights - INTRODUCING this MODERN, 2 bedroom rental!! Minutes from Rutgers University, NJIT, Essex County College and Downtown Newark This PET FRIENDLY location offers off street parking and is a COMMUTERS DREAM! Offering quick, convenient access to Newark Penn Station, NJPAC, Prudential Center and surrounding areas. Minutes from Garden State Parkway with a quick connection to I-280 or I-78 AVAILABLE FOR AN IMMEDIATE LEASE UP!! Call Robert for details.  609-474-0360 TENANT PAYS : GAS/ELECTRIC Total Due to Move In : $4187.50 *All prospects must complete the application process; rental, credit and criminal histories will be screened. Credit is NOT the determining factor in an application being approved, owners would like to see a clean rental history (no recent filings or evictions). Please note, there is an application fee to process. *Total household income must gross and exceed $60,000/yr (3x's the monthly rent before taxes) to qualify. Verifiable income is a must! Successfully, Robert T. George Federated Homes Realty 327 Main Street Suite 6 Orange, NJ 07050 609-577-9110 Mobile 973-678-3053 Fax Confidentiality Privacy Notice : This transmission is intended only for the addressee, and may contain privileged and/or confidential information from the office of Federated Homes Realty, Inc. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not use, disseminate, or copy this material. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by telephone, return this transmission, and delete or destroy any copies. https://www.instagram.com/p/BrAqUOlnslq3BAUsCLqK97zcD3Pq7PQ1LC6qdk0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1iuuxwnapap5a