Bloomberg: Private Equity Landlord Seeking to Evict Renters Despite Ban

Bloomberg reported that corporate landlords controlled by Pretium Partners LLC have sought evictions for unpaid rent against 1,300 residents in seven states, seeking to evict thousands of cash-strapped tenants despite a federal moratorium.

Bloomberg, Apr 14, 2021: Private Equity Landlord Seeking to Evict Renters Despite Ban

Citing The Private Equity Stakeholder Project’s report, “PANDEMIC EVICTOR: Don Mullen’s Pretium Partners Files to Evict Black Renters, Collects Billions From Investors,” Bloomberg noted how Pretium rental companies Progress Residential and Front Yard Residential Corp. moved to oust tenants after the Centers for Disease Control issued a halt to evictions in September, with a disproportionate number of filings in majority Black areas, according to court filings.

Operating more than 55,000 rental units, Progress and Front Yard have filed nearly 500 eviction actions this year through March 12. Almost half of those were in two Georgia counties, DeKalb and Clayton, with majority Black populations.

The rental companies sought to evict more than 12% of their residents in DeKalb this year and 9.5% in Clayton. That compared with lower rates in majority-white Florida counties such as Polk, where the figure was 2.4%.

Pretium was founded in 2012 by Don Mullen, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. credit executive known for leading the firm’s bet against the subprime mortgage market, known as “The Big Short.” Pretium is now the second-largest U.S. owner and operator of single-family rentals, managing $12.7 billion in residential real estate across 15 markets.