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 "tenants" ...
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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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Out At First
The Chicago Housing Authority has one of the most punitive criminal activity eviction policies in the nation. The agency moves to evict tenants based on a single arrest -- even when the crime is committed by their children, anyone else living in the unit or even a guest. Tenants are also subject to eviction if they are arrested for a crime that occurred off CHA property, even if it's in another state.
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Bad loans, No penalties
The state of Ohio leads the nation in failed loans, which the federal government corrects while the communities suffer. One of the biggest stories, which led to the investigation and this series, was when “Columbus developers walked away from an apartment-renovation project and $26 million in government-insured loans”. Further, there wasn’t anything that held these developers liable to repay the money.
Tags: Federal Housing Administration (FHA); tenants; neighbors; local officials; foreclosure; taxpayers; property; Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
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"The Great Walls of Chinatown"
In November 2008, approximately three-dozen Chinese workers were evicted from their cramped living quarters in Manhattan's Chinatown. They were living in cubicles, cooking on hot plates and sharing one bathroom. Once evacuated, the tenants were sent to vastly improved temporary living quarters, however, the small community fought for a year to return to their cramped home in Chinatown.
Tags: Chinatown; Manhattan; Bronx; Bowery; Chinese laborers
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War of Values
The piece uncovers the mystery of the Lembi family and their expansion into the San Francisco real estate market. During a time period, they bought almost every apartment available on the market and tripled their real estate holdings by overbidding on properties. “The family’s expansion drove up rents citywide, chased out thousands of tenants and changed the face of San Francisco by driving out thousands of citizens.”
Tags: San Francisco; Real Estate; Wall Street; Lembi; Renting; Financial Crisis; Landlords
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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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Forced Out
This series from the Washington Post investigates the corrupt practices of landlords driving tenants from their homes under the guise of refusing repairs or forcing families to live without heat, hot water or electricity. This was in response to a law meant to give tenants a voice in the city's redevelopment. In recent years, tenants had fled more than 200 rent-controlled apartment complexes without the chance to vote on redevelopment. With empty buildings, landlords quickly reaped $328 million in condominium sales and avoided $16 million in conversion fees.
Tags: housing; tenant laws; redevelopment; housing-code violations; building inspections; negligent landlords; H.R. Crawford
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The Financial Collapse
Among the findings in this package are: In February, Morgenson warned that the arcane contracts known as credit-default swaps were so volatile and explosive that they would "set off a chain reaction of losses at financial institutions." In May, she examined the moves by private investment firms to buy up hundreds of New York apartment buildings, betting that they could evict tenants and raise rents. In July, she reported on the enormous increase in consumer debt and the changes in the lending system that encouraged risky loans. In September, she dissected the small London Investment unit that had bedazzled the insurance giant AIG with its profits but soon brought it to its knees and helped trigger a widespread collapse. In November, she profiled the reckless executives who gambled on subprime home mortgages and led Merrill Lynch to its demise. In December, she held the credit-rating agencies to sharp account, in particular Moody's, showing how they had minimized or overlooked the dangers to investors.
Tags: AIG; credit-default swaps; Wall Street; Merill Lynch; Federal Reserve; columnists
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Street of Broken Dreams
The authors investigated predatory lending on West Camile Street in Santa Ana, CA. They found that subprime lending had become so out of control, many residents of the area were being threatened with foreclosure after sales prices fell below the amounts they owed and monthly payments soared. The investigation reveals that most of the victims of subprime lenders are Latino; often the borrowers spoke little English and did not understand the terms of their mortgages. The story also examined the impact of the practice on the neighborhood; as homeowners packed tenants into their houses to pay mortgages, they caused crowding and parking problems. Furthermore, recently foreclosed houses are attracting squatters and gangs.
Tags: Philip Meyer Award; finance; class; poverty; mortgage; interest rates; lending; loan; loan sharks; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act; data analysis; CAR
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Stacked Deck
"'Stacked Deck' detailed how a well-intentioned federal program to provide affordable housing to the working poor created the type of political environment that resulted in an FBI investigation of Dallas City Hall. The program requires developers to garner political support from a range of office holders and neighborhood leaders or else lose the millions of dollars in federal funding. With those kinds of stakes, developers have an incentive to curry favor with local politicians in ways that are both legal and illegal."
Tags: housing; FBI; housing developers; politics; bribe; tenants;