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 "landlords" ...
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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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Filling the void, Profiting from Colorado's Real Estate Avalanche
The state of Colorado has reached the historic highs of foreclosure numbers. With these numbers so high, fraud and confusion was created when the “real estate bubble finally burst”. As a result of the stories, US Marshalls arrested the subject of the investigation and the company was forced to shut down. Further, the stories prevented a number of people from becoming victims.
Tags: US Department of Justice; credit score; housing; market; landlord; Greg Castle; homeowner; Craigs list
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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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Charter School Investigation
Charter schools were created to bring educational innovation. Instead, some operators used the schools for private gain. Findings of this Philadelphia Inquirer series include high salaries that surpassed what was paid to district superintendents; operators collecting multiple salaries; operators hiring unqualified family members at high salaries; operators creating other entities to do business with the charter so they could collect additional funds; operators acting as charter school landlords and using the money to buy property for other businesses; operators running a charter through a for-profit company that gets all revenue and keeps the surplus.
Tags: charter schools; public education; school reform; charter school law; fraud; Philadelphia Academy; private gain
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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 Foreclosure Factory
"Using data analysis and interviews with those inside and outside the mortgage industry, Ron French and Mike Wilkinson revealed the roots of the housing meltdown in Detroit, where 260 homes a day receive foreclosure notices. Presumed to be merely a symptom of Michigan's dismal economy, the foreclosure crisis instead was being fueled by rampant fraud and poor policing of the mortgage industry."
Tags: housing; real estate; foreclosure; landlords; proprietory lending; HUD; state government
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Cashing in on Blight
This investigation exposed a development company that used vacant and neglected homes in low-income neighborhoods to make money by sellings them repeatedly at ever higher prices among a circle of investors, who took out larger loans each time. The company's stated goal of renovating the homes to rent them out was not accomplished.
Tags: real estate; housing; FBI; fraud; lending; CM Development; landlords; Section 8; CAR; FOIA
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Closed Doors: Housing Discrimination Complaints on Rise Across Country
The reporters looked at records of more than 44,000 housing discrimination complaints filed with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development between 2002 and 2006. The analysis revealed many trends about discrimination in housing, including that discrimination is more prevalent in less diverse neighborhoods, and that complaints about disabilities are just as common as complaints about race.
Tags: Philip Meyer Award; discrimination; HUD; housing; landlords; racism; disability; database analysis; Census data
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Lead's dangerous legacy
In March 2006 the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Cincinnati Department of Health make public its records on landlords who hadn't removed poisonous lead paint from their properties. The records showed that 300 homes and apartments were tainted. Since 2002, at least 570 kids had been poisoned and yet the health department had done "little to make landlords clean up the properties."
Tags: lead; lead paint; Department of Health; Ohio Supreme Court; homes; apartments; lead poisoning; landlord neglect