Star Tribune
Attorney General settles with landlord accused of neglecting Minneapolis homes
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has settled a consumer protection lawsuit it launched two years ago against a “hedge fund-owned mega landlord” that rents and manages more than 600 rental properties in Minnesota.
The AG’s office had accused HavenBrook Homes, its parent company Progress Residential and the “syndicate of corporations” behind them of extracting profits from low-income tenants by “severely under-maintaining” the homes. The Minnesota Supreme Court had denied the companies’ appeal earlier this year.
“No Minnesotan should have to live in a home that loses heat, lacks hot water, and is infested with pests and mold due to a landlord’s negligence,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison. “Landlords cannot use their legal and economic power over renters to take advantage of them.”
Under the settlement agreement, HavenBrook Homes will have to put $2.2 million into a restitution fund for current and former tenants who had delayed repairs, reported that a member of their household was diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels, or had been illegally forced to leave a HavenBrook home during the governor’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium. The companies have also agreed to forgive rental debt owed by all former tenants of their Minnesota properties up to $1.9 million.
“Enhancing the leasing and resident living experience and making a positive difference for our residents has been our top priority since taking over property management for Havenbrook in mid-2022,” said Progress Residential general counsel Ama Romaine. “We are pleased to have resolved this matter in a manner that is consistent with our commitment to making a positive impact on the communities we serve.”
Much of the legal wrangling in this case revolved around the state’s efforts to establish the relationship between HavenBrook Homes’ various holding companies.
In early 2021, the New York investment firm Pretium Partners acquired the once publicly-traded single family rental company Front Yard Residential, whose property management affiliate was HavenBrook Homes. Around the same time, Minnesota tenants of HavenBrook Homes began to protest a myriad of problems they said made their homes uninhabitable. The city of Minneapolis repeatedly sued HavenBrook Homes for repairs and launched a special inspection project for all its properties within the city. Columbia Heights revoked HavenBrook Homes’ rental licenses in 2022.
The companies’ lawyers claimed the state could not prove that they owned HavenBrook Homes — as opposed to merely investing in it through another corporate affiliate — and were therefore not responsible for the HavenBrook’s housing violations.
“What they’re trying to do is clump them all together and kind of create a bunch of dust, if you will, and say, look, there’s all this stuff going on, they’re in the single-family home rental industry,” argued the companies’ lawyer, Joseph Windler. “The bad acts are alleged way over here, and then they did this stuff over here … that might be related, so, therefore, all of them are connected.”
The courts declined to dismiss Pretium Partners from the lawsuit, finding that it had repeatedly held itself out as the owner of the Minnesota homes through communications with Minnesota tenants and housing advocates. Pretium employees had also facilitated third-party inspections of HavenBrook Homes and contacted Columbia Heights trying to get HavenBrook Homes’ licenses reinstated.
Crystal Progress Residential tenant Arianna Anderson said Friday that she was still trying to understand the settlement, but hoped it would provide an avenue for tenants to buy their homes. “For me, if we can get those 600 people that were affected by the malpractices of HavenBrook, Progress and whoever they are now, if we can get them into safe, dignified and affordable housing, that’s the real win.”
Progress Residential and Pretium Partners have announced plans to transfer their properties to affordable housing entities this spring.
The companies are not required to follow through, but the settlement ensures tenants can’t be displaced in the process and that any homes that are sold must comply with lead-paint hazard laws and city-ordered repairs. For any property that isn’t sold, existing tenants who owe at least two months’ rent will be able to end their lease early and get rent forgiveness, as well as $1,000 in relocation assistance.
Progress Residential is expected to make these offers to tenants directly, according to the Attorney General’s Office, while the state will reach out to tenants in the next few months to participate in the restitution plan.
Northern State 35, Concordia (St. Paul) 34: Wyatt Block’s 2-yard TD run and the PAT with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Wolves past the host Golden Bears. Block’s touchdown capped an 11-play, 72-yard drive by the Wolves, who trailed 24-7 in the second quarter. Jeff Isotalo-McGuire’s 34-yard field goal with three minutes, 32 seconds remaining gave the Golden Bears a 34-28 lead.
Winona State 31, Bemidji State 28: Cade Stenstrom rushed for two TDs and passed for 150 yards and a TD to help the host Warriors outlast the Beavers. Stenstrom’s 1-yard TD run and the PAT with two minutes, 10 seconds remaining gave the Warriors a 31-21 lead. The Beavers responded with an 11-play, 93-yard drive to pull within 31-28 with 18 seconds remaining but the Warriors recovered the ensuing kickoff.
Div. I-AA
North Dakota State 59, Murray State 6: The top-ranked Bison built a 42-3 lead in the first half and went on to defeat the host Racers in Murray, Ken. CharMar Brown ran for 97 yards and three TDs for the Bison.
South Dakota State 20, South Dakota 17 (OT): Amar Johnson’s 3-yard TD run in overtime lifted the host Jackrabbits to the victory. The Coyotes opened the OT with a 40-yard field goal.
Youngstown State 41, North Dakota 40 (OT): The host Penguins went first in OT and scored and then stopped North Dakota’s two-point conversion to hold on for the victory. The Penguins sent the game into OT on a 35-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.
Div. III
Augsburg 35, St. Olaf 34 (OT): The host Auggies stopped a two-point conversion in overtime to outlast the Oles. The Auggies went first in the overtime and scored on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Harvey to Tyrone Wilson. It was Harvey’s fifth TD pass — the fourth to Wilson. After the Auggies’ PAT, the Oles scored on a 25-yard TD pass from Theo Doran to Braden Menz. But the Oles’ pass attempt for the conversion failed.
After splitting their two-game West Coast trip to begin the season, the Wolves improved to 2-1 with a 112-101 win over Toronto in their home opener. It was a wire-to-wire win that featured some strong bursts of play from the Wolves and other times when their decision-making was suspect. But those moments when they were on, specifically the start of the game and most of the third quarter, were enough to carry them against a shorthanded Raptors team that was without RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Immanuel Quickley.
Julius Randle had 24 points while Anthony Edwards had 24 on 21 shot attempts. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 off the bench. Nickeil Alexander-Walker left the game in the fourth quarter and did not return, though he was in the bench area for the final minutes after going to the locker room briefly.
The Wolves’ starting lineup had its best stretch of basketball on the season after that unit started off sluggish in the first two games. Mike Conley, who was 3-for-16 to open the year, hit two early threes to set the tone, though Conley would finish 2-for-8.
Donte DiVincenzo replaced him at point guard halfway through the quarter and continued the hot shooting from the point guard slot with three threes of his own. The Wolves forced five Toronto turnovers and had a 32-18 lead after one.
Coach Chris Finch toyed with some different lineup combinations in the first half as he had Conley and DiVincenzo begin the quarter together while having Joe Ingles run the point later in the quarter. It led to an uneven second, and the Wolves led 56-44 at halftime.
But the Wolves played inspired coming out of the break. Jaden McDaniels, who didn’t take a shot in the first half, had nine points in the opening minutes of the third. Edwards hit a pair of threes as they pushed their lead to 22. The Wolves weren’t sharp closing the night, and the Raptors had the game within right inside of two minutes, but the Wolves had built enough of a cushion.
Rudy Gobert. Gobert had 15 points and 13 rebounds and was the beneficiary of some lobs from his teammates like Edwards, Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Joe Ingles. Gobert also finished with four blocks.
Gobert had two blocks on one possession in the fourth quarter that got the crowd off its feet and Gobert pounding his chest. Gobert blocked D.J. Carton and Jamison Battle.
Star Tribune
Trump denigrates Detroit while appealing for votes in a suburb of Michigan’s largest city
NOVI, Mich. — Donald Trump further denigrated Detroit while appealing for votes Saturday in a suburb of the largest city in swing state Michigan.
”I think Detroit and some of our areas makes us a developing nation,” the former president told supporters in Novi. He said people want him to say Detroit is ”great,” but he thinks it ”needs help.”
The Republican nominee for the White House had told an economic group in Detroit earlier this month that the ”whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Democrat Kamala Harris wins the presidency. That comment drew harsh criticism from Democrats who praised the city for its recent drop in crime and growing population.
Trump’s stop in Novi, after an event Friday night in Traverse City, is a sign of Michigan’s importance in the tight race. Harris is scheduled for a rally in Kalamazoo later Saturday with former first lady Michelle Obama on the first day that early in-person voting becomes available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters. Trump won the state in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden carried it four years later.
Michigan is home to major car companies and the nation’s largest concentration of members of the United Auto Workers. It also has a significant Arab American population, and many have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza after the attack by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
During his rally, Trump spotlighted local Muslim and Arab American leaders who joined him on stage. These voters ”could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said, adding that he was banking on ”overwhelming support” from those voters in Michigan.
“When President Trump was president, it was peace,” said one of those leaders, Mayor Bill Bazzi of Dearborn Heights. ”We didn’t have any issues. There was no wars.”
While Trump is trying to capitalize on the community’s frustration with the Democratic administration, he has a history of policies hostile to this group, including a travel ban targeting Muslim countries while in office and a pledge to expand it to include refugees from Gaza if he wins on Nov. 5.
