Dallas, TX
Dallas landlord made record profits while evading eviction moratoriums, U.S. House committee says
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DALLAS — A Dallas-based company landlord skirted a federal ban on evictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic whereas making report earnings and mountaineering rents, in keeping with findings from a congressional investigation launched Thursday.
Invitation Houses, a Dallas agency that owns about 80,000 rental properties throughout the nation, sought to evict 1000’s of tenants throughout a federal moratorium on eviction filings, a report from the Choose Committee on the Coronavirus Disaster mentioned. The moratorium was meant to stop a wave of individuals from dropping their properties whereas struggling monetary hardship because the pandemic wracked the financial system.
Invitation filed evictions in opposition to tenants whilst they had been ready on assist from federally backed rental help packages and declined to take funds from such packages in the event that they deemed the quantity of help too small, the committee mentioned. In the meantime, Invitation downplayed the variety of tenants the corporate finally evicted to Fannie Mae, the federal housing establishment, which had backed the agency with a $1 billion mortgage in 2017.
In an emailed assertion to The Texas Tribune, a spokesperson for Invitation Houses mentioned the Dallas firm has labored to maintain tenants housed, serving to greater than 33,000 “who had been in want of additional time or monetary help, for a complete of almost $175 million.” The assertion mentioned the corporate helped 10,000 tenants safe rental help.
“In a time when the main target must be on including much-needed provide to the nation’s housing market, it’s disappointing that the committee selected as an alternative to pursue a fault-finding mission,” the Invitation spokesperson mentioned.
The Home committee’s findings, although, come after a yearlong probe into the eviction practices of Invitation and three different massive company landlords — Pretium Companions, Ventron Administration and The Siegel Group — whereas the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s moratorium on evictions was in place through the first 16 months of the pandemic.
All collectively, the landlords filed greater than 14,000 evictions throughout the nation in that interval whereas their corporations seemed to be doing simply fantastic, the committee discovered. Almost 2,000 of these eviction filings had been in Texas, in keeping with paperwork supplied to the committee that the Tribune reviewed.
“As numerous Individuals acted admirably to help their communities through the coronavirus disaster, the 4 landlord corporations investigated by the Choose Subcommittee evicted aggressively to pad their earnings,” mentioned Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who chaired the committee. “Whereas the abusive eviction practices documented on this report can be condemnable underneath any circumstances, they’re unconscionable throughout a once-in-a-century financial and public well being disaster.”
The CDC moratorium aimed to assist tenants struggling financially through the pandemic’s peak however didn’t apply to all evictions or uniformly cease them. Tenants needed to present they tried to pay hire or would haven’t any different place to go in the event that they had been evicted, amongst different necessities. However not all tenants knew in regards to the order or the right way to use it. On prime of that, the moratorium wasn’t enforced in all elements of Texas.
Investigators allege that the businesses used aggressive techniques to do away with tenants who fell behind on hire on the peak of the pandemic’s financial fallout — although it’s unclear whether or not the landlords broke the legislation.
In a single such occasion, a Siegel government despatched an electronic mail to managers overseeing a San Antonio property with an inventory of aggressive strategies to attempt to do away with a tenant behind on her hire.
The managers may attempt telling the tenant one Friday night they deliberate to evict her on Monday and see if she left over the weekend, the manager wrote in an electronic mail despatched in Might 2021. They may additionally attempt calling “Youngster Protecting Companies” or changing her functioning air conditioner with one which doesn’t work, the manager recommended.
On Thursday, Clyburn reached out to the Texas Division of Household and Protecting Companies to search out out whether or not Siegel workers made false claims of kid abuse — a state jail felony in Texas — to the company concerning one among their tenants.
A spokesperson for Pretium — which filed greater than 1,800 evictions in Texas whereas the CDC moratorium was in place — mentioned the corporate “all the time complied” with the federal moratorium and voluntarily prolonged its protections after the order expired in August 2021. No Pretium tenant was evicted for nonpayment of hire if they’d a “legitimate CDC declaration,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“We share the aim of housing stability and are dedicated to partnering with bipartisan policymakers on significant options that appropriately bridge the hole between the federal government’s position as the general public security internet and the personal sector’s position as a financially accountable supplier of protected, steady, and reasonably priced rental housing,” the Pretium spokesperson mentioned.
Invitation filed at the least 3,300 evictions from March 2020 to July 2021, firm insiders informed committee investigators. Greater than 140 of these had been in Texas, information supplied to the committee present. However that quantity might be larger on condition that Invitation didn’t hold correct information of evictions the corporate initiated, the report mentioned.
In the meantime, Invitation’s earnings grew to report highs through the pandemic — rising by greater than 30% to virtually $200 million in 2020 and one other 30% in 2021 to greater than $260 million. In that point, the typical month-to-month hire for its properties grew by almost 10% from the beginning of 2020 by way of the top of 2021.
However when requested by Fannie Mae about its eviction practices, Invitation minimized what number of of its tenants it had initiated eviction filings in opposition to who wound up ousted from their properties. An government informed a Fannie Mae consultant in March 2021 that solely 6% of households the corporate tried to evict throughout the earlier six months finally misplaced their properties.
However in keeping with the corporate’s information, that determine was extra like 27%. Over the course of the moratorium, about 29% of Invitation tenants who the corporate tried to evict finally misplaced their properties, the report discovered.
In a Thursday letter to Fannie Mae, Clyburn recommended that the federal company “take into account Invitation Houses’ conduct and representations about its pandemic eviction practices earlier than appearing as a big creditor to the corporate sooner or later.”
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Dallas, TX
Cowboys are 1.5-point underdogs to the Steelers in Week 5
The Dallas Cowboys got their win in Week 4 on Thursday night when they topped the New York Giants 20-15. That raised their record to an even 2-2 on the year. Their opponent in Week 5, the Pittsburgh Steelers, lost their first game of the year on Sunday, dropping to 3-1 after a defeat by the Indianapolis Colts.
The Cowboys will have to to go on the road to meet the Steelers, who have been riding a hot defense early in the year. They are using Justin Fields over Russel Wilson so far at quarterback, and the offense had its best day against the Colts, but came up short.
The Cowboys are likely to be without DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons when the two teams meet, putting a lot of pressure on the rest of the defense to try an compensate for their absences.
The game is on Sunday night, and the Cowboys are currently 1.5-point underdogs according to our partners at FanDuel.
How would you bet that line?
Dallas, TX
50 years of barbecue: Dallas restaurant sells 50-cent sandwiches to celebrate
In a topsy-turvy Dallas restaurant scene that seems to entertain a new food trend every week, Big Al’s Smokehouse BBQ “has barely changed” in 50 years, said owner Lauran Weiner.
Her father, Al Plaskoff, founded the barbecue restaurant near Dallas Love Field Airport 50 years ago.
No one in the family knows the exact date, so Weiner picked Sept. 30, 2024, as the day to celebrate her late father’s shop that sold brisket before brisket was cool.
Big Al was “somewhat of a folk hero,” Weiner said. If he could be in the restaurant today, he’d be wearing a Hawaiian shirt, working the room. His wife, Harriet, would be sitting cross-legged on a stool at the cash register, cigarette hanging out of her mouth.
“Hi, darlin’,” she’d say.
Big Al and Harriet died in 2018 and 2022, respectively, and Weiner is dedicated to making the family business thrive.
The restaurant is doing better than ever, she said, but still, the 50th anniversary feels like it should be counted in days, not years. Over the course of its more than 18,000 days, Big Al’s has sold the same smoked meat as Inwood Road grew up around it.
It’s one of the oldest barbecue joints in Dallas, with its 50th birthday moving it onto The Dallas Morning News’ list of D-FW’s oldest restaurants.
Dickey’s Barbecue, Sonny Bryan’s and Marshall’s Bar-B-Que are some of the only barbecue joints in Dallas that are older than Big Al’s.
The restaurant will mark its 50 years by selling chopped beef and pulled pork sliders for 50 cents on Sept. 30, 2024.
All in the family
Big Al’s remains owned by the family, but Pedro Garcia might as well be family. He has worked at the restaurant for 45 of its 50 years, starting as a busboy when he was a teenager.
Garcia is the first person customers see when they walk down the line and up to the cutting board, where he slices meat.
“This is his house,” Weiner said.
Garcia has a knack for remembering customers’ orders, and he’s become part of the welcoming culture of this long-time, steady restaurant. If Big Al can’t be there, it feels good that Garcia is, Weiner said.
Weiner and general manager Jonathan McZeal haven’t made very many changes to the menu. They want to, but Big Al wouldn’t like it, and customers wouldn’t either. So sides like creamed corn and pinto beans remain.
The restaurant specializes in an over-stuffed baked potato with meat.
As the story goes, Big Al watched an evening news special about “loose meat” on a baked potato, and he knew his restaurant needed it. A loaded barbecue baked potato was rare in Dallas at the time, and it remains a favorite among regulars.
Weiner said being a female owner of a barbecue business in Texas can be tough.
But it’s her dad’s name on the restaurant. It’s Garcia slicing the meat. It’s McZeal leading the staff.
She knows her dad would be proud of what Big Al’s has become, and it isn’t that much different from how he left it.
Big Al “talks” to his daughter in ways big and small.
“I can still hear his voice,” Weiner said.
His legacy lives on when customers talk about the larger-than-life Big Al. They do it “all the time,” his daughter said.
Big Al’s Smokehouse BBQ is at 3317 Inwood Road, Dallas. It’s closed Sundays.
The restaurant will sell 50-cent sandwiches chopped beef and pulled pork sliders on Sept. 30, 2024, the chosen date for the 50th anniversary. Limit two per person.
For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X at @sblaskovich.
Dallas, TX
Film of motorcade driving JFK to hospital after Dallas shooting sells at auction
Newly emerged film video of former President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade driving down a freeway in Dallas, Texas, toward a hospital after he was fatally shot on Nov. 22, 1963, sold on Saturday for $137,500 at an auction.
The home film was offered by RR Auction in Boston, Massachusetts, The Associated Press reported. The buyer wishes to remain anonymous, according to the auction house.
The auction house’s executive vice president, Bobby Livingston, said in a news release that the film offers “a gripping sense of urgency and heartbreak.”
The film has been held by the family of Dale Carpenter Sr., the man who recorded it, since the day of the assassination. Carpenter died in 1991 at the age of 77.
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In the footage, Carpenter just misses the limousine carrying the president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy but records other vehicles in the motorcade driving down Lemmon Avenue toward downtown Dallas. The video then shows that the president has been shot, and captures the motorcade as it races down Interstate 35 towards Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the president was pronounced dead.
The shots were fired as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in front of the Texas School Book Depository, where assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself on the sixth floor.
The assassination itself was captured on film by Abraham Zapruder.
Carpenter’s footage from I-35 lasts about 10 seconds and shows Secret Service Agent Clint Hill jumping onto the back of the limousine as the shots were fired, hovering in a standing position over the president and first lady.
According to Carpenter’s grandson, James Gates, it was known in his family that his grandfather had film from the day of the shooting, but it was not often discussed.
When the film, which had been stored along with other family films in a milk crate, was eventually passed on to him, Gates said he was unsure what his grandfather had captured.
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Gates was initially underwhelmed by the footage from Lemmon Avenue when he projected it onto his bedroom wall around 2010 until he observed the footage from I-35.
“That was shocking,” he said.
The auction house has released still photos from the portion of the film showing the motorcade speeding down I-35, but it is not making video of that part publicly available.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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