Private Equity Is Devouring the Last Affordable Housing in America 

I think surviving in the US is really a big task. Especially now, the interest of our political leaders is mainly focused on the acquisition of power and not the well-being of the citizens. The government has really called things more difficult for its citizens, and we can't sit back and bear all the consequences of the bad governance.

Sounds like straight up extortion.. These private equity heads should be thrown in prison.

Private equity is literally destroying our country…. Who knew greed could cause so much harm… 😒

"There is no American dream any more, all it is is survival..." I really felt that.

I've lived in my mobile home for 25 years. The rent has gone up EVERY YEAR! It started at $525 a month, now its almost $1800. Once I'm retired I will no longer be able to afford the rent, even tho my house is paid off. It is disgusting what corporations are doing to people.

Private equity is destroying every market in America. Every single one.

Private Equity should be BANNED from buying into the public trust. Housing, hospitals, et al. BANNED!!!! And citizens should come together to purchase and have 1st right of refusal when trying to put together financing for the purchase of their park.

Corporations truly ruin EVERYTHING, don't they???

These protections should be ACROSS THE BOARD, in EVERY state.

In the 50's my Dad worked a modest job, Mom stayed at home and raised the kids, and they lived a nice middle class lifestyle including owning a home. Nowadays both I and my partner works and can barely afford to make ends meet. Soon the kids and family dog will need to work to keep this household going. It's the destruction of the American dream right before our eyes.

This is evil. People are already struggling.

The worst is when investors buy up mobile home parks and proceed to kick them out, demolish the park, and build luxury apartment buildings on the site. It's happened time and time again in the Salt Lake City area.

Yet another example that America isn't a democracy, and absolutely everything is a commodity that can be purchased, including people.

Every where there is a nickel to take, there will be the vultures looking to filch it from your pockets.

My 90-year-old mother lives in a manufactured home that she bought 10 years ago. My sister lives with her, and between the two of them they manage well. They have a very nice house. The park they are in is run by a young man who has taken it over from his parents, who ran it for years. The lot rent has gone up over the years, but only in proportion to actual costs rising. The park is very well maintained, they enforce standards to keep it looking good, and she is very happy there. It will be a disaster if one of these private equity firms buys out the lot owner and raises her rent significantly.

I love the grounded reality of this channel!!! Retirement took a toll on my finances, but with my involvement in the digital market, $47,000 weekly returns has been life changing. AWESOME GOD❤️

This is why you need protections for consumers, don't vote for anyone backing business over people.

This started happening at least 5 years ago. It's another solid disappointment in one corner of the American Dream that should never have been bought by the rich. [Enjoy your 17 mansions sir!]🙄

They will own nothing and they will hate it.

Why are people so greedy. Tribalism. Emotions. What's the purpose if we're all just at the mercy of someone who cries about problems happening to them but not when they do it to others?

I managed the manufactured housing stock for a county auditor for 6 years. It won't take much of an increase to push people out of these parks. It's horrible. They are displaced at the absolute worst time in their lives.

This is happening with my mother's community. 1 month after she downsizes into a manufactured home in a 55 plus community north of Pittsburgh, private equity buys the community, raises lot rent by over 40% and starts passing previously covered utilities like water and trash to the tenants.

Those groups doing their "investor tours" were truly dispicable. Something must be done about private equity companies in this nation.

The us of a is sick to the core, undermined by bottomless greed.

It's happening in Florida also because dictator DeSantis said so..

More Perfect Union... Please do a story on this situation: I live in a rent restricted 55+ apartment complex in Stafford, VA. Bought by Blackstone and now the rents are going up crazy every year. Many people have already had to move. Idk who has ended up on the streets. No end in sight. 😢 We don't even know how to check to see if they are raising rents above the restrictions. Most of us live on SS and/or are disabled.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. Hope I don’t wake up tomorrow.” This is truly sick that people are being forced into this mindset that death is the better option than being put into debt or becoming homeless

I really believe that private equity should not be allowed in the housing market. It’s not a for profit business, it doesn’t make anything tangible to sell, it ruins the lives of regular citizens who should be protected from corporate greed. Pass legislation and get them out of this protected market.

All private equity firms need to be taxed out of existence.

Corporations should not be able to buy homes. Period.

"and this we will not allow" said the shyster suit who is secretly helping them to take the homes away from struggling communities.

If hell is exists there’s a special place there for the folks behind these private equity firms buying homes so that ripple have no choice but to rent forever.

This is why I get angry at politicians and billionaires that call themselves patriots all while screwing over the same elderly veterans and civilians that supported this country.

l’m a 28 year old first generation Mexican American doing okay for myself & this here just pissed me off. I am a believer that no company should own large quantities of homes. There should be no legalities to monopolize homes. Homes should be personally owned & enjoyed.

We have Democrats blaming Republicans and Republicans blaming immigrants, but the real threat to the working-class economy comes from private equity-something both parties are complicit in.

Who is the criminals? The hedge fund and private equity guys or the legislators. Looks like both. We have lost America.

Private equity needs to get out of property ownership!

What the "trickle down" crime syndicate is doing to people in manufactured home parks is absolutely criminal. Governments need to put a stop to it.

This should be an hour long documentary and should be talked about on every news station and tv channel. It should be trending on Netflix, discovery, and every politician should be forced to watch it before they go vote on that bill

Private equity firms should be forced to sell back all of the house they have snatched up at affordable prices

Shameful

"There's no amrican dream anymore theres just servivel" is without a doubt THE saddest thing I think I have ever herd of from a more perfect union video

What's even worse, the minute someone calls out the avarice, grotesque level of greed, one gets labelled a "Commie". Citizens United needs 2b Repealed Now. These CEOs need to be publicaly shamed.

America.. loving money more than people.. loving guns more than children. World is wildly unimpressed.

This country is done. We are so fucked. No amount of voting is going to change what needs to change.

This is why we have homelessness. And of course, the corporate press is not covering any of it. And the government has been complicit since Ronald Reagan

I will probably be in my car within the next 2 months. Got more veiled threats of “consequences” from my landlord for my back rent (that I’m paying off as much as I can as soon as I can). This country’s way of life will grind even the most optimistic persons morale to dust. I used to be such a happy person….

10:40 The Bill passed the House but died in the Senate. Lobbyist groups bride the politicians who were elected by the residents

Did that frank Rolfe guy walk people around that park like they were visiting a zoo??? Bro!!! That's diabolical 😢

this video makes me feel utterly disgusted at the corporation shitification in Michigan. Wow what a bunch of leeches profiting from the underprivileged.

There is another side to the housing grab - the sellers no one calls it what it is landowners/home owners who want to cash in and sell to the highest bidders they have control over who they sell to, how their choices affect communities and the individuals who live in the homes

Private equity groups did this to the apartment complex I used to live in. It’s criminal really. The level of greed and exploitation is criminal.

A company like this had my grandmas bank account on auto-pay. They charged her rent this month, after she had already passed. The private equity firm that owns the park took extra time processing the title so they could charge a dead woman who survived off social security and food stamps.

Imagine doing everything right for 50 years. And it somehow isn't good enough. Always trying to gentrify the entire country. And our country's neighbors too.

Private Equity is Devouring Everything in America Fixed the title for ya. 😁

As a native Floridian, I’ve lived & witnessed this experience, as a renter. What a gut punch after a Pandemic. “Freedoms” my ass

Private Equity Ruins Everything Around Me. Get the money. Dollar dollar bill y'all.

What they call normal, is what they'd call price fixing if they're victims.

Mobile home residents should be afforded the first right of refusal to purchase a park when the owner intends to sell, and restrictions should be implemented to prohibit private equity from acquiring essential living resources.

I absolutely hate greed! With every fiber of my being! Just think about how beautiful life could be if we treated each other with kindness, dignity and compassion

This is nothing new. I have a friend who owns his condominium free and clear. Last year he was special assessed $5,000 to cover higher HOA insurance. It is clear the insurance company wants to drain the equity out of his HOA year by year in death by a thousand cuts. His HOA has 433 homes. This amounts to $2.2 million dollar taking each year forward. The insurance industry knows these places require insurance.

Lets find the names of these housing, REIT & private equity cartel companies & publish them on RU-vid

"It's like you genetically bred a superior predator, and let them loose in a target rich environment" Which is basically exactly what America is.

Umh properties just raised my lot rent $501.00 where I live and let me tell you they are SLUM LORDS.

We need a president that will fight against these corporations.

Private equity is nothing more than a bunch of investors (vultures) looking for lucrative industries they can manipulate for the highest profit.

Wow, this is douche baggery to the max. Why is the government allowing this to happen? 😒

corporations should not own 1 home in North America . The same thing happens here in Canada .

Money is the root of all evils.

One of my best friends mom lost her trailer and essentially her livelihood bc of a similar situation. It was Ewing Trace trailer park in Des Moines, Iowa. Essentially a new private equity firm bought it and they had some disputes with her from the onslaught that resulted in them refusing to renew the lease on her lot. She couldn't afford to move the trailer so the Private Equity claimed possession of it and sold it to another family. Crooked. My friends family lived in that trailer for nearly 20 years, it felt like a safe place I could always go as well.

Remember, These corporations who are doing this also enjoy tax payer funded bailouts whenever their profits dip. Because "They are just oh so vital". Like we need this?

My dad is a resident at The Villages in Florida, these scum bag companies host big dinner/investment pitch parties to convince them to invest in “making these parks better for the people That live there” it’s all lies but they get the investors there. It’s terrible all Around.

My wife died unexpectedly two years ago. I fell apart and fell behind on the lot rent which was increased twice after she passed. I ended up homeless for a few months, and trying to buy something in back taxes in Michigan this year was not even remotely possibly as the corporations threw tons of money at the auctions. Corporations should not be allowed to own residences

this preditory, greed-driven behaviour from corporate interests on housing, its utterly stomach churning. with the added bonus of the supreme court making its decision on letting cities punish their homeless...

It's sad to know so many people are disillusioned into blaming their problems on socialism in the US when really they are suffering from the effects of capitalism. And there is no way to reason with them for them to finally understand

Wealth is a zero sum game and the rich will win until we have nothing left.

It’s not only manufacturered homes. I bought my home in 2016, my utilities went up $700 a month this year. Complete insanity

The private equity company I rented from last year allowed my house to collapse and would not release me from my lease. After the house was condemned, they insisted I paint the walls before they'd give me my deposit back. I wrote this before I realized I lived in that exact community outside of Flint. The house that collapsed was in Saginaw.

The corporate owners know nothing about mobile home parks and are destroying their investment. All those vacant lots where a trailer once stood are eroding the property value. Smart mobile home owners let some tenants stay at reduced rent or even free. They report the rent is being paid and pay taxes on the rent they did not collect. Their books show full occupancy with paying tenants, making the park more valuable when you sell. Take comfort in knowing the previous owners screwed the investors on the sale.

If you’re so concerned about the way, private equity companies are treating this company or how corporations defeat the American ideal then I ask you why do you keep electing the same clowns?

Tolerate is another word for suffer.

If Americans are consistently provoked, it could eventually lead to some form of revolt. We may witness an unprecedented cessation of mortgage and rent payments, potentially triggered by a single individual with a significant following.

We need financing to help residents buy their mobile home parks and run them as cooperatives. The USDA Rural Development helps rural mobile home owners buy their parks with financing and then now it's a cooperative run by residents.

I manage a location that serves fuel and electric benefits to my community in NH, and it has a food pantry. I've watched rents on applications go up anywhere from 50 to 400 dollars in the last two years. New landlords are jacking up rents and forcing out local residents to pay for their new overpriced mortgages, or are simply getting greedy in this market. I hear a lot of complaints from people, many of whom are on fixed income or struggling parents. It's disgusting and upsetting, what we're doing to each other.

I fear for the future of our country. It seems as though there will be a lot of rich people walking away while everything is reclaimed by nature, including US citizens.

That is capitalism for you take and take and take until there is nothing left

Wake up America!

The average private American investor buys a dividend ETF to get passive income. Where is the dividend coming from? Blackstone ect… and with that also from those poor people. World is sick 😢

Now that homelessness is considered illegal the states are under no obligation to keep people housed. And newly unhoused people can become further disadvantaged by nickel and diming them for temporary shelter until they wind up in prison/jail. On the other side is the growth of company towns, which ensures people will be homeless without work.

Its wild that we constantly have to force businesses to do the right thing when the government is the one that allows them to operate in the first place.

When will we realize that corporations shouldn't own housing and that housing is Right, not an investment.

Absolutely soulless

My slumlord neighbor has got out of mobile homes and is opening a RV park. I have yet to see any RV owners, he just rents them a RV and the site. They are stuck in BFE.

I live in a massive manufactured home community. It's a city of manufactured homes. It's an actual city with streets and a sewer system and a government. They're not like old school trailers, they are manufactured homes. There is no lot rent. The lot and home are both owned as one. There are many home owners here, but there are also many renters here, too. So anyway, the rents for these places were like $500 per month about a dozen years ago. But what has been happening is when a homeowner sells their home or they pass away, the home ends up getting bought by a corporation who intends to rent the home out, and the corporation is often a corporation from another state. Then they go into the home and do repairs. Sometimes they do good repairs, but often they just put a new coat of paint on it. They don't fix the roof or put in a new AC or put in new floors or put in new plumbing. Sometimes they might put in new appliances. Then they put it up for rent at $2000. Then a family usually moves in quickly because that family is in a tough spot and can't afford to rent a concrete block home for $3500 per month. So they end up paying $2000 per month just for an older manufactured home which needs repairs. The wages around here are low and definitely don't support that price, so the family sometimes gets evicted after just one year. It's really sad. That situation is common here, too.

The United States is completely unsustainable at this point

Involuntary Displacement is a violation of human rights. It's just that instead of arms. The abuser is using exponentially high prices instead.

Politicians, governments allowed this to happen. In Ireland, they buy entire housing estates and rent back to Irish at huge cost. These are foreign, US and Canadian, pension funds. Ordinary people are priced out of the market, and have to pay colossal rents meaning they can't save. All allowed by our government. It's disgusting

I live in a mobile home park... Capital venturist bought out my my trailer park 4 years ago... My rent has tripled now... They have priced me out of my home... On limited income I cannot afford to move it... And I cannot afford to continue to live here. They will seize my property when I am no longer able to afford it... And I will be out of a home and my property. I'm hoping to sell as soon as my elderly old large dog dies.... Which is a terrible reason to stay but my old dog is worth it. Beware if you live in a trailer park and Park Nation buys it out

Guess what happens when you squeeze the rent on mobile home lots? Yes, you can then squeeze on all the other rents, and house prices too. And big money can sit with their empty homes for a long time. This will not end well.

That's not mobile enough, make them live in their cars - private equity