Trailer park residents receive a letter demanding their labor and banning their dogs. Rental tenants receive an email blaming the city for the rent hike. As times grow tougher, the powerful carry on.
This is a great article that really highlights a huge issue not just in Laramie, but throughout the State and nation. Thanks for focusing on the parties who are super affected by these actions - so often the focus is elsewhere.
Jeff's "reporting" (it's not responsible journalism at all, but rather opinionated blogging) is - in his own words - cynical at best and ABSOLUTELY dishonest. Rental property owners have been hit by massive cost increases in every aspect of their businesses, from interest rates to building materials, supplies, labor, taxes, fees, and unwarranted government mandates (including a recent mandate from the city government to use only a small group of expensive contractors, which lobbied it for a strict licensing ordinance early last year, for maintenance work). Insurance premiums on rental properties - which were already outrageous - have doubled this year. And it's particularly expensive to offer rentals in a college town, with high turnover and extensive damage by inexperienced tenants. Rental businesses are not charities, and many are currently losing money.
In an earlier posting to this site, I predicted that rents would rise at least 10% as a result of bad policy decisions and unwise actions by the city government. That estimate has turned out to be conservative. Add to that other cost increases, and rental property owners and managers may well have to hike rents by 15-20% just to stay afloat and keep their properties in good condition. My family, which owns a handful of units, has tried to keep increases down to that original 10% on as many units as we can, via the most clever cost cutting measures we can manage, and we're being deluged with calls from people who are telling us that they cannot find anything else that they can afford.
Bell Leasing, whom Jeff unfairly condemns here, has been fighting to keep rents down by filing a lawsuit to overturn the city's rent-hiking rental property ordinance (which was copied from a city where rents are double what they are here). The ordinance, which violates Wyoming state law and the Constitutional right to due process, threatens to reduce the available supply of rentals and saddle Laramie renters with at least a quarter million dollars' worth of illegal taxes per year. Bell Leasing are the good guys. They're acting on behalf of tenants. Yet Jeff claims they are "suing to stop the city’s new healthy [sic] and safety standards for rentals," falsely implying that they oppose health and safety when their properties ARE in fact healthy and safe. It's sad to see them libeled in this way.
It's discouraging to see that all Jeff can do, as we see above, is write slanted blog postings demonizing hard working rental property managers. This accomplishes nothing - and will certainly not lead to solutions to housing affordability issues.
Satish Atluri owns moblie home parks in 9 different states. I'm finding most are slummy and that they do not do right by their tenants!! He's making lots of money off screwing tenants over.
Very good in-depth reporting, shame on petty, vindictive landlords passing on cheap fees to already struggling tenants just to get back at the city
This is a great article that really highlights a huge issue not just in Laramie, but throughout the State and nation. Thanks for focusing on the parties who are super affected by these actions - so often the focus is elsewhere.
Jeff's "reporting" (it's not responsible journalism at all, but rather opinionated blogging) is - in his own words - cynical at best and ABSOLUTELY dishonest. Rental property owners have been hit by massive cost increases in every aspect of their businesses, from interest rates to building materials, supplies, labor, taxes, fees, and unwarranted government mandates (including a recent mandate from the city government to use only a small group of expensive contractors, which lobbied it for a strict licensing ordinance early last year, for maintenance work). Insurance premiums on rental properties - which were already outrageous - have doubled this year. And it's particularly expensive to offer rentals in a college town, with high turnover and extensive damage by inexperienced tenants. Rental businesses are not charities, and many are currently losing money.
In an earlier posting to this site, I predicted that rents would rise at least 10% as a result of bad policy decisions and unwise actions by the city government. That estimate has turned out to be conservative. Add to that other cost increases, and rental property owners and managers may well have to hike rents by 15-20% just to stay afloat and keep their properties in good condition. My family, which owns a handful of units, has tried to keep increases down to that original 10% on as many units as we can, via the most clever cost cutting measures we can manage, and we're being deluged with calls from people who are telling us that they cannot find anything else that they can afford.
Bell Leasing, whom Jeff unfairly condemns here, has been fighting to keep rents down by filing a lawsuit to overturn the city's rent-hiking rental property ordinance (which was copied from a city where rents are double what they are here). The ordinance, which violates Wyoming state law and the Constitutional right to due process, threatens to reduce the available supply of rentals and saddle Laramie renters with at least a quarter million dollars' worth of illegal taxes per year. Bell Leasing are the good guys. They're acting on behalf of tenants. Yet Jeff claims they are "suing to stop the city’s new healthy [sic] and safety standards for rentals," falsely implying that they oppose health and safety when their properties ARE in fact healthy and safe. It's sad to see them libeled in this way.
It's discouraging to see that all Jeff can do, as we see above, is write slanted blog postings demonizing hard working rental property managers. This accomplishes nothing - and will certainly not lead to solutions to housing affordability issues.
Satish Atluri owns moblie home parks in 9 different states. I'm finding most are slummy and that they do not do right by their tenants!! He's making lots of money off screwing tenants over.