Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/30/single-family-rental-securitie.html
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Just a question @doctorow the post hero image has a pic of a spider in it. Exactly how is having a spider in your home/apartment somewhere exactly “slumlord” evidence?
Everyone has a spider(s) in their home. Even if you don’t see them, they are there. Additionally there are many types of bugs and rodents that will in some acceptable fashion be in and out of your home without it meaning you are a slumlord.
I am not defending Blackstone, nor suggesting they are not in fact slumlords…much of what is detailed does bear that conclusion out. Just not sure seeing a spider in one’s home is a piece of the evidence to support that.
That’s a Black Widow.
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Imagine what it takes to be so goddamned horrible of a person that you exist only to take advantage of others. Not to run a business, but to profit off the misery of others.
This is an example where at some point if the landlords don’t get their shit together, local government should be able to swipe these properties straight away from these companies. For zero money in return. Just take them.
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It does not matter what kind of spider it is (and I knew that it was a BW).
The header image comes from directly from the Reuters article, which is called, “Spiders, sewage and a flurry of fees – the other side of renting a house from Wall Street”.
ETA: Third paragraph in the article: First, she noticed water leaking through the bathroom and kitchen ceilings. Then she found a furry black mold spreading across the walls and raw sewage sluicing through the crawl space. Worst, to her, were the black widow spiders swarming her kitchen cupboards and linen closets. “Those spiders were so big you could hear them,” Ferreira said. “They sounded like fingernails scraping a table.”
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What? That’s insanity. You can’t have black widow’s inside a house. If I rented a place and they did, I would demand that they send an exterminator.
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@anon61833566: If you read the Reuters article, tenants are complaining that their homes are infested with Black Widow spiders. One woman says the spiders are living in her kids’ toys. The Blackstone rep said it was a housekeeping problem & tenants should “clean the place up.” This is not just spider-bashing…it’s one among many systemic health problems that the landlord refuses to take responsibility for.
Edit to add: I sent a link to the article to the East Bay Express, an independent local paper that covers landlord-tenant issues.
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Complaint entered.
…wait…
…wait…
Complaint cleared.
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I was not previously aware that was a thing black widow spiders could do. Then again, I can’t say I’m at all informed about the subject.
Is there a video of this sort of thing…?
Clearly I’m thinking in terms of if I had a landlord that was at least human… 
I haven’t been a renter since 1993, so I consider myself lucky. And when I was younger and rented places, sometime you’d have issues. But these assholes take it to another level…
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You’ve clearly never been bitten by a Black Widow and likely don’t live in a region where they are present. You seriously don’t want black widow spiders living IN your home, especially if you have small children.
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Part of the issue is the bulk of the recently built houses that were sucked into the original crisis were built like crap to begin with. Without a homeowner occupied house to bring self-interested maintenance these houses they’ll probably start to fall apart in a few years of tenant use.
In case you did not realize a property conceived of and built for rental occupation is made much more durable than a new home sale with a 1 yr state imposed warrantee.
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That’s a different matter and certainly a more salient point. an infestation is different than “I found a spider in my apartment”.
@sdmikev my area does not have black widow spiders so they are not something we deal with. We have other “bad” bugs and rodents to contend with. A single or isolated one is not necessarily time to call an exterminator. An infestation or repeated finding of said creatures would be. There is a difference.
Again…just to be very clear…the question I had was the image BB used, I did not and am not saying that the article or points made were wrong.
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Like many kinds of bugs, if you see one in your home, you may already have an infestation.
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They think managing a stock portfolio is the same as running a bricks and mortar business.
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Blackstone should really be touting that as evidence of its “state-of-the-art organic pest control system.” Given the way they view their tenants the fact that it’s a black widow spider would only make the statement more heartfelt.
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I smell a class action suit from several State Attorney General’s offices. Whether Wall Street likes it or not, tenants have rights, building codes have a purpose, and health departments can condemn uninhabitable abodes.
I’m currently wondering how many of these properties don’t even have a valid Certificate of Occupancy.
Sorry, @anon61833566, one black widow spider in your home is too many.
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It described the problem with the second house as an “odor” resulting from dry traps in the sink, floor and laundry drains, all of which were “serviced.”
Traps take months to dry out, and the “service” is to run the sink or pour some water in the drain.
Bologna baffles brains.
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If you had read the article, you’d have seen why they used that black widow photo.
And again, you do NOT want them in any number living in your house. If you see one, there are more. Depending on the person, they can be very dangerous.
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