Working-class renters rail against corporate landlords

KYLIE MARSH | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Action NC tenant organizer Jessica Morenos holds a poster showing photos of flood damage inside Sandra De Los Santos' Charlotte home. Activists gathered at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Center to raise awareness of corporate landlords' impact on working-class renters and the local housing market.

Charlotte’s working-class renters have no love for corporate landlords.

On Wednesday, activists gathered in front of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center as part of a national campaign to demand the Biden administration crack down on corporate greed in real estate. Sandra De Los Santos, a mother of eight, has lived in a house owned by Main Street Renewal for seven years. She told reporters about her experience missing work to clean up water that consistently floods her apartment after it rains.

Speaking through an interpreter, De Los Santos said she is concerned about the health and safety of her children due to mold growing in the house. Although she has renters’ insurance, it doesn’t cover flood damage, and Main Street Renewal wouldn’t help her remove the water, either.

De Los Santos also reported that her rent has increased from $1,200 to $1,700 monthly, and she’s also  had to replace the stove and refrigerator out of her own pocket.  

America has a housing crisis, especially for lower-income people. Texas-based Main Street Renewal owns at least 225 properties in Mecklenburg County.

“Corporate landlords are profit driven,” said Jessica Moreno, a tenant organizer with Action NC, adding that Wall Street investors are buying properties and exacerbating the housing crisis by raising rent while buying up homes.

Wednesday’s demonstration was to announce the launch of Action NC’s “House Everyone” campaign, which calls for green social housing, which “is permanently affordable and publicly owned,” Moreno said. “It is under democratic and community control.”

The rally included demands like $1 trillion in federal, state, and local funds to build 12 million “high-quality, permanently affordable homes” across the country; end evictions for anyone owing less than $1,000 in rent and end proposed cuts to the department of Housing and Urban Development. Advocates also want an Office of Social Housing created under HUD to support and pilot social housing projects.

Locally, Action NC is pushing for $100 million in investment in the Charlotte Housing Trust Fund.  

“Charlotte is building all these beautiful homes around us, but they’re not for us,” said Arit Bey, who has lived in Charlotte over 25 years. “It’s running us out of our city.”

Bey, 67, lives on a fixed income in a HUD-owned and operated senior living facility. She says corporate landlords receive HUD funding, which creates corruption and poor conditions like those in her facility. She cited mold, mildew and broken locks, which have led to homeless people entering the building to relieve themselves on the stairs, as well as robbing tenants.

Moreno said part of Action NC’s strategy is to continue public demonstrations to raise awareness about issues renters face.

“The first step is making sure we uplift the issues we see in the community to prove our point that we need something different,” she said.

Moreno also said Action NC plans to work on a study that highlights community ownership models in metro areas comparable to Charlotte.

“It disgusts me to see all these buildings going up,” she said. “When you look at these properties it’s not for us. Where’s the affordable housing for us? “These companies make it seem like everything’s hunky dory, and it’s not.”

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