Storm Clouds Hover Over NYC Tenants In Predatory Equity-Owned Apt Buildings; Deteriorating Conditions, Looming Foreclosures Spell Trouble For Renters

In New York City, local media stories continue to report on, what could be, a looming disaster facing thousands tenants in rent-regulated apartment buildings in need of renovation bought by predatory equity real estate operators shortly before the market tanked. These investors banked on their now-failed plan to "ease out its mainly lower-income residents, rehabilitate the apartments and charge a new generation of younger, more affluent tenants substantially steeper rents," as one report put it. Unable to carry out their plans, the investors are now walking away, leaving the quickly-deteriorating buildings in foreclosure. Once intoxicated by their sophisticated financial projections of great profits, the investors have sobered up from their binge and are leaving the buildings' residents - and the mortgage lenders who financed these fiascos - holding the bag.

For the stories, see:

• Times Online: Rats and bedbugs take over where Dawnay, Day left off in Harlem,
• The New York Times: Tenants Struggle as a British Landlord Goes Bust,
• New York Magazine: As More Landlords Stagger Under Debts, Thousands of Tenants Face Abandonment,
• WNYC Radio 93.9 FM: Speculative Real Estate Deals Put Buildings at Risk,
• New York Daily News: A Christmas carol from an East Harlem group to keep their homes.