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Investment firms figure out how to profit on apartments owned by non-profits; some South End residents at risk
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Just another example of why
Just another example of why you shouldn’t trust big banks ! They will
Always sell you out to the highest bidder
“ But the game has changed in recent years, as some project funders began selling off their partnership interests to investment firms with more aggressive profit motives. And those firms are demanding bigger payouts to exit the deals”
Small banks are no different
I refinanced this year with a small local bank. My loan was sold the day of closing to US Bank. Which for me at least, has worked out well. No complaints.
Don't trust the politians
Don't look at the banks, look at the people writing the laws. Instead of providing direct cash to community groups, the Feds are providing some sleazily tax credits to banks who then offer up less cash to the community groups but get to make money on both sides of the deal. (They get the tax credit plus interest/fees from the groups.) And all these loopholes are written into the laws.
So who do you think wrote these laws? Answers: Lobbyists who knew exactly how things would play out. The politicians got to take credit for "helping" low income groups except what they were really doing was helping corporate interests and limiting the power of tenant groups.
To speculate, while this game has plenty of players but it stinks of the GOP way of doing things. (Which is to say, finding ways of helping powerful investors instead of low income minority residents. And who do you think is trying to prevent urban and low-income people from voting for people who might change things?)
Shame on TDC
Nothing here is illegal, and the investors are are trying to extract a profit based upon the terms and conditions included in the contract signed by Tenants' Development Corp.
Shame on TDC for entering into a contract without reading it or understanding its limits, obligations, and options of both parties. They took the money thinking it was free, but there is no free lunch. There were strings attached, and they have failed their own tenants via poor management. Not saying the investors are 100% in the right, but TDC deserves a large amount of blame here as well.
This makes me so intensely
This makes me so intensely angry.
This is unfortunate, but not
This is unfortunate, but not surprising. The program was set up so the tax credits end after 15 years, and the affordable housing protection ends after 30 years. And the nonprofits don't own the properties free and clear before then. People have an expectation that the affordability will continue past that, but there's no guarantee that it has to.
Utterly despicable behavior!!
I’m not terribly surprised to see Bank of America’s involvement in this.
“ Logan, a former mayor and Florida state representative, blames the bank, in part, for selling to HallKeen. He likened the tax-credit exit battle to sharecropping. “You’re promised something at the end, but you're just chasing your tail, because they found a way to manipulate, steal, cheat and take it from you,” he said.”
I don't get how BOA deserves
I don't get how BOA deserves any blame, unless they actively marketed these depleted assets to firms like Alden. I think it's more likely Alden adopted the mindset of a patent troll, and sought out BOA and made them an offer for these properties, with their strategy of contesting the exit clauses in bad faith using teams of lawyers.
It makes more sense to blame Congress for a) not legislatively firming up the rules a couple of years ago after these problems started and b) coming up with a complicated scheme in the first place to bypass the free market.