PRESIDENT’S SON-IN-LAW FOUND TO BE A “SLUMLORD” IN BALTIMORE

…Son-in-law Kushner w/ wife, Ivanka Trump

Tenants of Kushner properties have reported rat infestations, mold problems and maggots.

I find it interesting, but not surprised, that the president has blasted the chairman of a committee that is subpoenaing evidence against the president.  This is a chairman whose district he represents is in the city that the president says is: “filthy and infested with rats and rodents”.

But one of the president closest advisers, that is also his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Kushner owns more than a dozen apartment complexes that have been cited for hundreds of code violations.  Kushner’s critics say, Kushner has provided serious substandard housing to hundreds of low-income tenants.

Yes, it was in a Trump tweet storm this last weekend that President Trump characterized Rep. Elijah Cummings’s Baltimore-based congressional district as a “rodent infested mess” where “no human” would want to live.  Many of Kushner’s apartments are in Cummings’ district.

In an interview, Baltimore County Executive John A. Olszewski Jr. condemned Trump’s comments as “an attack on basic decency.”

“It is certainly ironic that the president’s own son-in-law was complicit in contributing to some of the neglect that the president purports to be so concerned about,” Olszewski (D) added.

Speaking to reporters, the Baltimore Mayor, Bernard Young, slammed President Trump's tweets about his city and about Rep. Elijah Cummings.

The Kushner Company, which started operating in Maryland in 2013, has owned almost 9,000 rental units across 17 complexes, many of them in Baltimore County, the Baltimore Sun reported.

These properties generate at least $90 million in annual revenue.  Kushner stepped down as chief executive of the company in 2017, when he became the Senior White House adviser.

A company representative did not address questions about whether the group agreed with Trump’s characterization of the area, but they wrote: “Kushner Companies is proud to own thousands of apartments in the Baltimore area.”

Yeah, right!

In 2017, Baltimore County officials revealed that apartments owned by the Kushner firm were responsible for more than 200 code violations, all accrued in the span of that single calendar year.  Repairs were made only after the county threatened fines, local officials said, and even after warnings, violations on nine properties were not addressed, resulting in major monetary sanctions.

Here's how the news media dealt with Kushner's real estate business in Baltimore.

In an investigation by the New York Times and Pro Publica published that tenants of Kushner properties reported rat infestations, mold problems and maggots.  A private investigator who looked into Kushner’s property management company, Westminster Management, described Kushner’s apartment managers as “slumlords.”

Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Kushner firm, asserted at the time that the group was in compliance with all state and local laws, but she offered no proof of that claim.  Then-Baltimore County Executive, Kevin Kamenetz said that statement was a serious “stretch of the truth.”

“We expect all landlords to comply with the code requirements that protect the health and safety of their tenants, even if the landlord’s father-in-law is president of the United States,” added Kamenetz, who had passed away in 2018

Shannon Darrow, a program manager at the tenant advocacy group Fair Housing Action Center of Maryland, said that she was “appalled” by Trump’s comments about Cummings’s district, which includes about half of Baltimore City.  That includes most of the majority-black sections of Baltimore County. She added that she found Trump’s attacks ironic given the legacy of Kushner’s properties in the district.

“Basically, [Kushner] has been creating a race to the bottom in terms of poorly maintained properties,” she said. “He’s been very, very deeply implicated.”

In the past two years, the Kushner firm and its affiliated entities have been sued multiple times by Baltimore-area residents.  The residents allege that the company has charged them excessive fees and used the threat of eviction to pressure them into paying.’

From 2013 to 2017, corporate entities associated with Kushner apartments requested the civil arrest of 105 former tenants.  This is the highest number among all property managers in the state of Maryland during that period, the Baltimore Sun reported.

“It’s been our recent experience that working families have been preyed on at the benefit of Mr. Kushner and his company,” Olszewski said.

A group of tenants recently attempted to file a class-action lawsuit alleging unlawful rental practices by the Kushner company.  Of course, their request was denied by a Trump appointed conservative Baltimore Circuit Court Judge.

Why am I not surprised by the Kushner Company’s activity in Baltimore, and by the conservative Circuit Court Judge’s decision?

Copyright G. Ater 2019