With student landlord out of the way, City Council to cast eye on other large landlords

City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) wants to take a look at the role large landlords are playing in forcing longtime residents out of the city.

On Wednesday, Jackson will ask fellow councilors for a hearing to consider "displacement, community stability and neighborhood preservation."

In his hearing request, Jackson writes:

The foreclosure crisis and the surge of residential housing conversion by corporate landlords backed by investors are causing displacement and community instability.

Corporate landlords and investors have a great interest in making tremendous profit from buying bank-owned housing stock and being absentee owners.

In effect, these absentee owners - such as City Realty - who are disconnected from the community, force neighboring long-term homeowners out of their homes, raise rent prices to unreasonable amounts, and ignore their duty to repair uninhabitable conditions