The Real Dirt is a monthly column by award-winning advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald that exposes the real estate industry’s lies, scams, and other unscrupulous acts, which impact the lives of millions.
It’s been three years since the RealPage scandal broke, and now Greystar and other real estate companies are trying to settle a class action lawsuit involving tenants from across the United States. A federal judge needs to sign off on it, and attorneys general of Washington D.C. and other states have brought up concerns, so the settlement may not go through. But it’s another reminder of how Big Real Estate will do anything to squeeze every last cent out of renters – no matter what it takes.
The scandal unfolded after ProPublica published a 2022 investigation that found many of the largest corporate landlords in the nation (Greystar, Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential, to name a few) used a RealPage software program to allegedly collude and wildly inflate rents. That brought a bunch of lawsuits, including one from the Department of Justice last year.
Activists and policymakers were quick to point out, with good reason, that the only way to rein in the predatory business tactics of Big Real Estate was to pass strong renter protections, including rent regulations. After all, the actions of those corporate landlords, who operate throughout the country, have undoubtedly fueled the housing affordability crisis.
Greystar and other corporate landlords have now agreed to collectively pay more than $141 million to settle with tenants – Greystar, the nation’s largest corporate landlord, would pay $50 million of that total. But all of the real estate companies will deny wrongdoing. We’ll see what the federal judge says, but, in the meantime, cities from San Francisco to Philadelphia have banned the use of rent-fixing software, with other municipalities considering their own bans.
In Pittsburgh, tenants and activists are holding a corporate landlord to account for awful living conditions. NB Affordable bought rental properties in that city a few years ago, and ever since then, tenants say they’ve been dealing with issues such as a falling ceiling, mold, and pest problems. And when the tenants make maintenance requests, the landlord rarely, if ever, fixes anything.
It’s all done to make as much money. If that means tenants have to live squalid living conditions, so be it.
A similar thing is happening in Evanston, Illinois. A corporate landlord, Quadrel Realty Group, bought a number of properties in that city three years ago, and tenants have since seen their rents skyrocket. In addition, tenants say there have been issues with maintenance and pest control.
See the pattern here? A corporate landlord buys a building, jacks up rents, and then refuses to spend money to do proper upkeep of a property. It’s all about the bottom line.
Then there’s a situation in San Francisco, which also has greed written all over it. Activists are standing up for a group of seniors who may be tossed out of their rent-controlled apartments. They didn’t do anything wrong – the landlord just wants to evict them so the rent can be dramatically raised for new tenants.
“We’re in serious trouble, because I’m 69. I’m the youngest one. I just went through my eleventh heart surgery and these guys are seven years older than me, my roommates. Where are we going to go?,” tenant Brian Harrington told a reporter.
He said about his landlord: “She just wants to make triple the amount of money. It’s just that simple.”
It all shows the desperate need for a nationwide people-power movement to push back against the real estate industry’s predatory business practices. Corporate landlords have tons of money, but we have serious strength in numbers. We must use it.
Until next time…
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