Private Equity Vultures Target Trailer Parks, Hiking Rents And Neglecting Repairs

While Blackstone may be preparing to snap up some $50 billion in real estate during the coming crash, a constellation of out-of-state institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts, have been swooping in to buy mobile home parks – where they’ve been raising rents and neglecting to perform necessary repairs.

In short, corporate vultures are taking advantage of one of the most vulnerable demographics in the country; some 22 million low-income Americans across 43,000 communities – many of whom are elderly and the disabled who are surviving on social security, disability payments and other forms of fixed income, according to the Associated Press.

“All they care about is raising the rent because they only care about the money,” said 49-year-old Jeremy Ward, who lives on $1,000 per month in disability payments after suffering nerve damage in a car accident. In 2018, corporate owners took over the 65-year-old mobile home he lives at, located around 30 miles northeast of Buffalo, NY.

Ward was recently fined $10 for using a leaf blower.

“I’m disabled,” he said. “You guys aren’t doing your job and I get a violation?”

After residents banded together to protest horrendous conditions, the owners sent eviction notices to dozens of residents. – READ MORE