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From a long but blockbusting article about Blackstone's role in buying
foreclosed properties and turning them into rentals that were maintained
poorly and that evicted people at the drop of a hat. Invitation Homes
was a Blackstone company that generated billions of dollars in profits.
It also functioned like a slumlord.
---
Of all of Invitation Homes’s practices, those that most alarmed Chisholm
involved habitability issues — poor maintenance and lack of inspections.
In Georgia, as reported in The Atlantic last year and documented in a
Facebook video, Rene Valentin and his wife and their two young children
rented a home with defective piping. Their home flooded six times. Once,
the water ran six inches high. They say Invitation Homes would pay
neither for the removal of the mildewed carpeting nor for the family to
stay in a hotel. (When contacted, the Valentins could not comment for
this article because they were in negotiations with Invitation Homes.)
As moderator of the group, Chisholm began taking it upon herself to
intervene on behalf of tenants. She would email blast Stephen
Schwarzman, the chief executive of Blackstone; Charles Young, the chief
operating officer of Invitation Homes; Mark Solls, the chief counsel of
Invitation Homes; and various Blackstone officials who were members of
the Invitation Homes board. Often, the local office would suddenly
respond to the issue within hours. (DesJarlais, the spokeswoman for
Invitation Homes, says that if this happened, it was a coincidence.)
So when William Scepkowski, a Marine veteran, sent Chisholm pictures of
his young daughter’s pink, rashy back, a result of her prolonged
exposure to toxic mold, Chisholm began emailing. According to Chisholm,
Scepkowski couldn’t get anywhere with the local office. He moved his
family to a hotel and at 9 p.m. on a Friday cold-called Schwarzman at
his office in New York and left a message. The next day, Chisholm says,
he got a call from Rob Harper, an Invitation Homes board member and
Blackstone employee, who asked Scepkowski how Blackstone could right the
situation. Chisholm says Scepkowski eventually settled for enough money
to put a down payment on a house of his own. (As part of the settlement,
Scepkowski signed a nondisclosure agreement, so he couldn’t comment for
this article. Harper declined multiple requests for comment.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/magazine/wall-street-landlords.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/magazine/wall-street-landlords.html
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