(Boston, MA) NACA, the largest non-profit HUD approved counseling organization, is working with thousands of Invitation Home tenants.  They have responded to the mailing NACA did to over 80,000 Invitation Home tenants.  The tenants input  their information into the website www.invitationtenants.com and attended NACA sponsored webinars identifying the following major issues: very high rents, rent increases, high fees, refusal to make repairs, and other issues. 

Not only is it unconscionable to require rents and increase rents on tenants who have been impacted by the pandemic crisis, but it is often illegal and in violation of government policy. Invitation Homes obtained $1 Billion in funding from FannieMae that was funded through Wells Fargo.  Government policy is not to raise rents or evict any tenant in buildings receiving government assistance.  

Bruce Marks, NACA CEO, explains “Invitation Homes is a Wall Street predator where everyone of their 80,000 homes was owner occupied prior to the 2008 mortgage crisis.  They are now using their mortgage power in their 16 markets to exploit their tenants and raise housing prices for homebuyers.”   

“Every one of the houses now owned and rented out by Invitation Homes were previously owner-occupied often by a low-to-moderate income families”, states Bruce Marks, NACA CEO. “They purchased many of these homes from lenders and investors who foreclosed on homeowners that were subject to predatory lending practices without the opportunity to save their homes”.

Thousands of tenants are reaching out to other Invitation Home tenants to organize.  If FannieMae refused to hold Invitation Homes accountable for their predatory practices, then the tenants need to hold Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo and the Invitation Homes investors accountable.  These investors thought they could generate massive returns through a dominant Wall Street slumlord.  Now the tenants have the power to withhold rent and work with political and community leaders to hold them accountable.