Ares Management’s Head in the Sand Response to its Company’s Evictions of Black Renters

Private equity, real estate, and debt firm Ares Management last year partnered with Pretium Partners to acquire home rental firm Front Yard Residential.

Months ago, we shared our report and data with Ares management documenting Front Yard Residential’s disproportionate filing of eviction actions in majority-Black counties.

The data is stark. Since the beginning of 2021, Front Yard Residential, owned by Ares Management and Pretium Partners, has filed to evict more than 500 residents, including at least 388 residents in majority-Black DeKalb and Clayton Counties in Georgia, around 20% of its residents in those counties.[1]

By comparison, during the same time period Front Yard Residential filed to evict around 5% of its residents in majority-white Polk County, Florida. 

Rather than trying to explain why they have filed to evict residents in the majority-Black counties at significantly higher rates and address the practice and its impacts on residents, both Ares Management and Front Yard Residential last week sought to ignore the problem, responding that the company “does not collect racial composition data.”

Meanwhile, the eviction filings have continued. Front Yard Residential filed over a hundred additional eviction actions in majority-Black DeKalb and Clayton Counties after the Private Equity Stakeholder Project shared its report in mid-April and Bloomberg wrote about it (Bloomberg, Apr 14: “Private Equity Landlord Seeking to Evict Renters Despite Ban”).

In addition, the company has continued to advance hundreds more eviction cases in those counties including evicting some residents.  Front Yard Residential has sought writs of possession to remove residents from their homes in around 100 cases in DeKalb and Clayton Counties in recent months and evicted at least five residents in those counties since the beginning of June (see below list).  A number of these residents have filed CDC hardship declarations[2] and/or sought to access rental assistance.[3] 

Earlier this month, National Public Radio (NPR) profiled the story of Katrina Chism, a single mother and Front Yard Residential resident in DeKalb County, Georgia who lost her customer service job during the pandemic and fell behind on rent (NPR, Jun 3: “Corporate Landlord Evicts Black Renters At Far Higher Rates Than Whites, Report Finds”).

Chism, working with Atlanta Legal Aid, in March sought to access rental assistance money through DeKalb County’s Tenant-Landlord Assistance Coalition, which is administering federal rental assistance.[4]

Rather than working with her to access rental assistance, Ares Management’s Front Yard Residential continued to advance its eviction case against her, seeking a writ of possession in mid-April and sending that writ to the marshal in mid-May.[5] Chism and her son were ultimately forced to move.[6]

Ares Management’s Front Yard Residential has also advanced residential eviction cases against residents elsewhere that have filed CDC hardship declarations.[7]

Given the pending expiration of the CDC eviction moratorium on June 30, the dozens or hundreds of writs of possession Front Yard Residential has obtained through its eviction actions, and the hundreds more eviction cases Front Yard Residential has pending, many more of the company’s residents could face eviction in the coming weeks.

The company’s disproportionate eviction filings in majority-Black counties mean that they could hit Black renters especially hard.

In addition to NPR and Bloomberg, the company’s eviction filings, and particularly its disproportionate filings against Black renters, have drawn media coverage by CBS News and Reuters and are clearly a substantial headline risk.

US Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown on June 10 sent a letter to Pretium Partners, Ares’ partner in acquiring Front Yard Residential, raising concern with the companies’ eviction actions and disproportionate filings in majority-Black counties.

Ares Management’s failure to address or even respond to questions about its company’s eviction actions represents a significant management failure on Ares’ part and appears to directly contradict Ares Management’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policy.

Recent Front Yard Residential Evictions and Writs of Possession, DeKalb and Clayton Counties

[1] See PESP Private Equity and Corporate Landlord Evictions Tracker.Pandemic Evictor: Don Mullen’s Pretium Partners Files to Evict Black Renters, Collects Billions From Investors, April 2021.

[2] See for example, Cases 21D00040, 21D00058, 20D10671, and 21D04743, DeKalb County Court.

[3] See for example, Cases 21D00040, 21D03316, and 20D10964 DeKalb County Court.

[4] Case 21D03316, DeKalb County Court.

[5] Case 21D03316, DeKalb County Court.

[6]NPR, Jun 3: “Corporate Landlord Evicts Black Renters At Far Higher Rates Than Whites, Report Finds”

[7] See for example, Cases 2021-CC-000107 and 2021-CC-000109, Palm Beach County, FL.