Private Equity's Ruthless Takeover Of The Last Affordable Housing In America

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Private Equity’s Ruthless Takeover Of The Last Affordable Housing In America

[Trailrider1951]

1. Cascade PBS recently had a special on this subject

focusing on one particular company in our area:

https://video.cascadepbs.org/show/priced-out/episodes

We are human $$$ to them

[Abolishinist]

2. Interesting article, thanks for posting.

I'm 5 minutes in but will have to continue later. This is so true...

There's a guy named Frank Rolfe who runs something called Manufactured Housing University. He was quoted saying something along the lines of, “Owning a mobile home park is like owning a Waffle House and having your customers chained to the booth.”

So true, the units are not 'mobile' at all, it costs around $20,000 just to move one, excess funds which most don't have, so they have no choice but to ante up.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

10. yep. rarely moved. Mostly sold... or bailed on.

[applegrove]

3. When the market is faced with millions of undocumented

leaving it will be a renters market. And AI reducing the need for the employment of the educated, people will be going to less expensive homes. Private equity will crash as the upscale housing market goes through hell. Unfortunately so will some rich and middle class homeowners.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

8. non profit that gets funding by donations through Actblue. More info here:

Mobile homes are one of the last remaining affordable housing options in America. Now they’ve become private equity’s latest target. Private equity firms now own at least 1200 parks nationwide. And residents have seen their rents spike by as much as 100% in the last 6 years.
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More Perfect Union’s mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means:

We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective, and we attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions.

We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power, and we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.

We're an independent, nonprofit newsroom. To support our work:
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[flvegan]

4. I like that the OP repeated itself twice, while offering nothing further.

But hey, lets all click on YouTube links and monetize those accounts and click/rec DU posts here at the same time!!!

OMG, am I social media-ing this right???

[soandso]

6. WTF?

This is an incredibly important issue that is a fucking crisis, all over the country.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

9. non profit funded by donations through actblue. More info here:

Mobile homes are one of the last remaining affordable housing options in America. Now they’ve become private equity’s latest target. Private equity firms now own at least 1200 parks nationwide. And residents have seen their rents spike by as much as 100% in the last 6 years.
-----
More Perfect Union’s mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means:

We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective, and we attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions.

We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power, and we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.

We're an independent, nonprofit newsroom. To support our work:
Help fund our reporting: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mpu...

[soandso]

5. OMG, Blue Wave, I am so thankfull you posted this!!!!!!!

For two reasons: this has been an interest of of mine since Obama was president which, AFAIK, is about when private equity started buying up single homes (thousands and thousands of them), including trailer and manufactured home parks. In addition to that, I know the guy in the video, Theo Gantos. We grew up and hung out together for years. He moved to Chicago and we stopped communicating and I had no idea he'd moved back to Michigan. What's really bizarre is that he came from a very wealthy family that owned a women's clothing store (best store I have ever shopped in, with the most beautiful clothes, bar none), called Gantos. Anything you bought, they would tailor for free. For reasons unknown to me, they filed for bankruptcy and closed. Theo lived in the most expensive part of town, in a beautiful home (his dad's) that even had in indoor pool. I'm shocked to see he lives in that park because it obviously means he doesn't have much money. I am definitely going to get in touch with him. This an issue I can really get behind and I have formulated some ideas about to deal with this terrible problem, though not the lot rent part.

[Blue Full Moon]

7. Bush Jr. Financial crash.

The investors will move into the housing market. Black Rock leading the way. People have forgotten that was a republican debacle, Obama got us out of. Trump's inflation, Biden was getting us of.