Landlord that booted immigrants near OSU also displacing dozens of Northwest Columbus families
When Sheryl Brown read a recent article in The Columbus Dispatch about a new landlord booting hundreds of immigrant tenants near Ohio State University, she thought: “That’s just like what’s happening on my street!”
Brown, a project manager, has lived with her family for 18 years in a townhouse on Griggsview Court — a quiet, middle-class cul-de-sac a stone’s throw from the Scioto River and Griggs Reservoir Park, on Columbus’ Northwest Side. In late January, a new owner took over her building and eight others on the street, a total of 36 units, and almost immediately began issuing notices to tenants to vacate.
The owner, Peak Property Group, is the same landlord that is kicking out the families near OSU.
Brown said she would have been willing to pay Peak’s new rental rate — $1,850, a nearly 50% increase — but she was not given the option. Instead, she was told to move out to make way for renovations and then reapply, but with no guarantee of getting her home back, she said.
The forced move comes in the middle of the school year for her daughter, who is in 6th grade.
“It was affordable for me to live here, to have my daughter in a better school district,” she said.
Brown and other residents told The Dispatch that around a dozen families have had to move so far, while others have been given dates in the coming months. Some received 60-day notices as stipulated in their contracts, while others received just a month — the legal minimum for people on month-to-month agreements.
Tenants also complained about hefty fees for damages they dispute, and said Peak was not communicative during the transition.
“I was just floored by how they treated everyone,” said Amy Wildermuth, another former resident who recently moved out. “They treat you like you're not even human when you ask questions, and they won't answer you. You know you're nothing to them.”
Peak is a subsidiary of Coastal Ridge Real Estate, a Columbus-based firm that promotes social goals and says it believes “in strengthening our bonds and building meaningful relationships with the communities we serve” on its website.
An attorney for Peak and Coastal Ridge declined to comment on the issues raised by tenants on Griggsview Court.
Residents loved the community
The townhomes along Griggsview Court, which were owned by a family-run business until earlier this year, have wide lawns and mature honey locust trees out front.
“Living here, if I needed something, I could go knock on anyone’s door and say, ‘Hey, I’m Kathy from down the street, can you help me? Can I borrow that cup of sugar, or whatever it is?” said Kathy Bird, who has to move out by the end of June.
Her former neighbor Beth Russell said her experience with Peak has taught her that displacement can happen to any renter — not just people on the margins of society.
“People are thinking, ‘That's not going to happen to me.’… But it's not like that. On Griggsview Court we had police officers, we had nurses, we had people who've worked for law firms, … for medical equipment companies and school districts,” she said.
Peak property purchased townhomes in January, documents show
Documents from the Franklin County Recorder’s and Auditor’s offices indicate that the 36 Griggsview Court townhouses are owned by LTJ Management, a company that shares an address with Coastal Ridge at 80 E Rich St. in Downtown Columbus. Coastal Ridge President Ben Texler signed a mortgage for the properties for $5.2 million on Jan. 23.
Russell said that, before the deal went through, a team came to inspect the townhomes, including her unit. She talked with one of the men, whom she later recognized as Coastal Ridge co-CEO Andrew Lallathin based on his headshot online. She asked the man if he was the potential buyer, because she wanted to know about the plans for her home, but she recalled the man said he was just “with the inspection company.”
Russell’s neighbor Brown said she also saw Lallathin on the street during the inspections.
Coastal Ridge did not respond to the suggestion that Lallathin misrepresented himself during the inspection.
Residents would like to see changes to law
Former resident Todd Lawson said Peak gave him one month’s notice to leave by the end of February. He said he struggled to find a new place to live in Hilliard School District where his son goes to school.
Lawson paid Peak for damages to his townhouse, including $125 for a dirty fridge and stove, according to an invoice he provided. He said the charges were unfair, given that the apartment was filthy when he moved in and Peak has been replacing the old stoves and fridges, anyway.
Bird said she thinks her and her neighbors’ complaints are reasonable.
“I think we're just wanting to be respected and treated appropriately, and given the time to get out and take care of our families, kids that are in school, and things like that,” she said.
“It makes me wonder, who am I going to vote for next time around? Because we’ve heard a lot of blah, blah, blah, about affordable rent and affordable housing,” she added.
Some experts say more legal protections for tenants are needed.
“In this incredibly tight housing market, tenants need more than 30-days notice to be able to find new housing,” said Zachary Eckles, a senior policy advocate at the Ohio Poverty Law Center.
Many states, including Ohio, require landlords to provide 30-day notices for tenants on month-to-month leases, which have become more common since COVID-19. But some cities, such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, New York, Atlanta and elsewhere, require 60 or more days, according to the national nonprofit Legal Services Corporation.
Shannon Isom, president and CEO of the Community Shelter Board, said she supports requiring a 60- or 90-day notice period.
“But even further, Community Shelter Board, along with other housing advocates, are keenly aware that other policies are needed that prioritize housing security, stabilize our communities, and ensure equitable solutions for all parties,” she said.
For now, former Griggsview Court resident Russell said her son, a 4th grader in Hilliard City Schools, has been struggling to accept that he will have to attend a different school next year.
“The hardest thing about it is that there's been no compassion from (Peak),” she said. “I understand that it's a business and businesses are allowed to do what they want with their properties. But these are families you're impacting here. And it would be nice if they just acknowledged that what they're doing is completely turning our worlds upside down.”
Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion for the Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Peak Property, Coastal Ridge kicking families from Columbus homes
