There are numerous media hit pieces claiming Jared Kushner is a slumlord and has been cited numerous times for infractions on rental properties managed by his company Westminster. On the surface these allegations appear legitimate, but digging deeper, pulling back the layers upon layers of literal goop the liberal media has attempted to redefine a much more profound problem and it’s source.
Kushner is by far not the largest rental and real estate owner in New York City. In fact it appears he doesn’t even make the top 20 tier, but he is the only one garnering any attention at all. Why? Simply because he is President Trump’s son-in-law and dirt is dirt for the Democrat Party.
New York City has had a housing problem for decades! Over 65% of the city’s resident’s rent. One million are in rent controlled or stabilized units. Each mayor says they will fix the problem. Each mayor fails. Buildings are old, hundreds condemned sitting vacant except for squatters, the city has a massive rat problem that has never been addressed, and it isn’t confined to the rent controlled, they are literally everywhere. Why? NYC has a garbage problem. Heaps and mounds of garbage sit on street corners awaiting pickup… not in cans, in plastic bags that are torn as fodder for the hungry varmints that live uptown and downtown. Garbage disposals are not allowed in highrise apartments, not even in the Ritchie-riche. So food waste is carefully package in plastic and tossed on the curb.
Additionally, NYC has ‘stabilized rental apartments’ and ‘rent-controlled apartments’. Up until June last year, a stabilized rent might adjust to market rate when the income of the tenant $200,000 for two consecutive years. DeBlasio removed that provision meaning landlords cannot raise the rent even if the tenant is making $1 million per year. In fact, even if the tenant moves, the landlord may no longer increase the rent by 20% as was previously provided by tenant law.
If a landlord wants to make capital improvements to the building, rent hikes are limited to 2% of rent – down from 6%. Individual unit hikes for improvements have been lowered to $89 vs. $1000.
Oh but it doesn’t stop there. If a landlord wants to evict a nonpaying tenant, the courts will determine if such eviction will affect the tenant’s ‘well-being, health, and school attendance’. And an unlawful eviction is subject to a fine and a misdemeanor claim. Refusing to rent to a tenant who has a history of nonpayment and/or lease infractions is prohibited. Application/background checks are capped at $20. And a tenant has 30 days grace period to pay their rent.
At the time the media was targeting Kushner he had charges of infractions on buildings he had recently purchased through his father’s real estate company.
The City then went after Kushner for violations with respect to building purchases claiming the improvements being made were not always properly employed. At one point the city temporarily withheld $3400 in HUD rental subsidies, and in another instance the city charged Kushner $200,000 in fines on a $60million sale.
In NYC A&E Management is the second largest, has a slew of tenant complaints, including racism alleged by a black woman against an Hispanic employee for not welcoming her immediately when she entered the management’s office.
At the same time the media targeted Jared Kushner, a NYC group, Stabilizing New York City, which advocates on behalf of tenants, listed ten of the worst predatory landlord management companies; All Year Management, Icon realty, Madison Realty, Silverstone Property, Coney Realty, INK Property, R.A. Cohen, David David, ZARA Realty, and Ved Parkash. Interestingly, there is no mention of Jared Kushner’s company, Westminster.
Why? Because he was targeted by the media – simply because of his name. Were the infractions real? Difficult to say – perhaps a few were and a few were not. But given that the Google pages go on ad nauseam regarding the same story on Kushner, and give no mention to these ten highlighted as the worst, is enlightening to say the least. The media is relentless in its design to vilify all things President Trump while ignoring all other news.
The case against Kushner in Baltimore was basically a vengeance ploy by Representative Elijah Cummings in 2017. The claim was that Kushner used ‘aggressive tactics’ to collect rent. Tenants argued that their rents were ‘padded with mysterious fees’ like late fees. Dastardly! Tenants routinely complained about rats. Like NYC the infestation is a city problem, not a landlord problem. Rats don’t care what neighborhood they infest they go where the food is available.
Other tenants complained about cigarette smoke, or children running free in parking lots – demanding the landlord intervene.
In Baltimore, Kushner had apartments housing roughly 20,000. A class action suit was attempted which garnered five residents from five different buildings making completely different claims. Ultimately the liberal judge threw out the lawsuit claiming it did not constitute a viable action.
Perspective: Five people out of 20,000 represents .025% of tenant complaints.
DISMISSED!