The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "renters" ...
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Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions on Rental Deals
This story is about one of the most fought-over pieces of property in Los Angeles, the 400 acre Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus in West Los Angeles. It’s in an affluent neighborhood and has been a target of developers. But with many unused buildings, it’s also been coveted as a place to house some of L.A.’s 8,000 homeless veterans. That was the original use of the land, which was donated for an Old Soldiers’ Home in the late 19th century. The VA has not acted on plans announced in 2007 to begin rehabbing unused buildings there for housing for homeless vets. Meanwhile, it’s rented out land and buildings to commercial enterprises. There is no public accounting for this income. Through FOIA and other documents, we found that the VA is renting out the property using a law intended for sharing health care resources, though the renters are non-health related commercial enterprises. We were also able to estimate that the VA has taken in at least 28 million and possibly more than 40 million dollars over the past dozen years, far more than the cost of re-habbing a building to house homeless vets.
Tags: Property; neighborhood; land uses; veterans
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Troubled Landlords
For at least a decade, Twin Cities landlords Hyder Jaweed and Asgher Ali ran a rental property empire that left hundreds of tenants -- most often low income and/or immigrants -- living in squalid conditions and left city inspectors wishing there were laws to stop the landlords.
Tags: landlords; housing; inspectors; renters
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A Renter's Nightmare
"Banks are illegally evicting Chicago tenants when their landlords foreclose, with the unwitting assistance of the Cook County Sheriff's Office."
Tags: paperwork; fraud; eviction; realty; Realtor; mortgage service;
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Welfare Slum Lord
This investigation revealed the misdeeds of one of Canada's worst slumlords. The landlord rented tiny, substandard rooms at exorbitant rates to poor tenants. Many of his renters were on welfare, so the state was paying the landlord thousands of dollars per month. He was later charged with the murder of one of his tenants and was caught trying to flee the country.
Tags: housing; welfare; Vancouver; slums; slumlords; murder; rental housing
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If These Walls Could Talk
Those living or looking to live rental housing in L.A. depend on the Health Department for inspections. The investigation exposed that the L.A. County Health Department has a secret system of grading rental housing inspections, but doesn't make these records available to the public. So renters are unaware of these conditions before they move in. Additionally, the investigation exposes further problems with L.A.'s housing inspection program. There are repeat health code violators, and action is rarely taken against them.
Tags: Los Angeles County Health Department; Rental Housing; Landlords; Housing Inspections; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Health Code
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San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
A collection of stories about Willie Brown's shortcomings as a mayor. The first story draws lines between major donors to Brown's campaign and multi-million dollar city contracts. The second story exposes unfulfilled campaign promises to renters. And the final story highlights even more shortcomings of the mayor, promises he'd either not lived up to, or forgotten about since his first election.
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Your Home is Your Landlord's Castle
Village Voice reports on the owner's use law- "based on the theory that a landlord's right to use his property for his own needs surpasses the rights of a tenant, even one who is protected by rent laws. While the owner's use law is not new-it has not even been modified since 1984- what is new is how frequently it is being used, usually with success." The owner's law also states that landlords who use it must live in the apartment themselves or have a family member live there for at least three years. Village Voice reports on how many landlord's are misusing this law and taking advantage of tenants.
Tags: landlords; renters; owner's use law
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Sky-high Rents
This CAR project show that rents in New York have gone up by 67% as compared to a decade ago. An average renter in a New York household in 1999 spent more than 35% of its monthly income on rent. The rising prices are not limited to Manhattan but also apply to historically less expensive neighborhoods far from Manhattan.
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Rental Rip-Offs
KCOP-TV reports that "Rental services claim that, for a fee, they would five would-be renters a daily, updated list of available apartments that meet the renter's specifications. The services even claim to have exclusive listings.... we went undercover to two local rental services.. Neither service found apartments for us that met our specifications. And the daily lists they gave us repeatedly showed apartments that were already rented...."
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT Better Business Bureau BBB fraud housing LA Home Rentals LA Valley Management
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"Life in the projects is my start, not my finish."
The "warehousing" of the poor in high-rise housing projects like Darst-Webbe is becoming a thing of the past. If the federal governemnt accepts a proposal by the city od St. Louis, Darst-Webbe -- now largely abandoned -- will go the way of so many public housing projects projects across the country. The high-rises will be demolished to make room for a new experiemnt in public housing, a neighborhood approach to attract low and middle income renters as well as home owners.