FOLLOW THE JOURNAL SENTINEL: "The door was blocked by construction materials, and we had to knock on Ms. Young's window to announce our arrival," McClain wrote. Over the summer, the group targeted Youssef "Joe" Berrada, who owns more than 8,000 housing units, many in low-income neighborhoods. Before the eviction filing, the tenant has the right to cure the issue. ", RELATED:Poor? Becoming the face of a citys eviction crisis, after all, makes the price of doing business a lot steeper. You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. "Where am I going to go," he said, gesturing toward an area a couple blocks away on Wells Streetwhere boulders areon the lawns ofnine apartment buildings linked to Berradain a two-blockarea. News. Young had leg surgery in 2016 and suffers from several chronic conditionsincluding heart and lung disease, chronic pain andvascular disease, according to letters written byhealth care providers she provided to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Youssof. Berrada has long been synonymous with evictions in Milwaukee. TheBerradafilings in 2017included 265 so-called serial filings that is, suits filed against the same person on multiple occasions, the Journal Sentinel found. And when evicting Berrada always gets his money. He said he stopped charging late fees at those properties because he understands COVID and the struggle that many of his tenants are facing. MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Attorney General Josh Kaul today announced the filing of a civil law enforcement action against Youssef (Joe) Berrada and his property management company, Berrada Properties Management, Inc. "I was in the shower and they just walked into my apartment without knocking," Summit said. When she opened Facebook, she saw people posting about Berradas rampant evictions. When Does Dave Turin Lost Mine Start 2022, Loose Change Scratch-off Nj, What Are The Industrial Uses Of Gold, , Loose Change Scratch-off Nj, What Are The Industrial Uses Of Gold, Yosef. "There's a question of will we go back to what it was pre-pandemic when there was no money available?" Berrada companies routinely finetenants $100 when they are 10 dayslate on rent. . Both SDC and Community Advocates defended doling out millions of dollars to the controversial landlord. Over the past eight years, city building inspectors have citedBerradaproperties with more than 1,300 violations, ranging from the mundane to the serious. Form of Joseph. The rest were forced to eject their habitat due to unresponsiveness. He said tenants currently owe him about $5 million cumulatively. They liked the neighborhood, which gave the couple good access to transportation to get to their jobs. Jacqueline Clark was evicted by a Berrada company before the pandemic, in 2017, and now she organizes with the Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union for better renter protections. Soon after a Berrada LLC boughtYoung's building on the 5300 block of North 29th Street, the company began renovation work. SeanHargadon, a U.S. : Yousef. Login . It was obscene, said Colleen Foley, the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, a public interest law firm that provides free legal services, including to poor tenants facing an eviction. What does Youssef mean? Youssef Berrada. The birthplace of Michael Youssef is Egypt. In addition to Young, another tenant of a Berrada propertycomplainedto state regulators that workers screwed her front door shut last year while she was inside. Since 2015, Berrada companies have bought88 Milwaukee properties. Ouissam Youssef, a 2004 graduate from Montreal's Concordia University with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Engineering, has been creating and building businesses since the age of 15. All told the complaint suggests that Berrada and his company prey on the poor, turning the desperation of Milwaukees poor and struggling renters into cash. The Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union organized a protest outside of Berrada Properties demanding a halt to evictions. (Photo by Stephen Zenner/Getty Images) Milwaukee landlord, Youssef "Joe" Berrada, accused of violating . Meaning of Youssef. When 14 million Americans lost their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic, housing experts predicted an eviction apocalypse. In some states, like Wisconsin, the worst case scenario was kept at bay by a statewide moratorium. The restitution would be for tenants who suffered a financial loss and the state is seeking forfeitures, or fines, of up to $10,000 per violation. The complaint alleges that Mr. Berrada and Berrada Properties Management, Inc., violated Wisconsin landlord-tenant law by including . Jan 19, 2017. Everyone just wants a roof over their head, somewhere they can come inside and deal with life.. Need legal aid? Research by the Private Equity Stakeholders Project (PESP), a research and advocacy organization, has tracked nearly 50,000 evictions by corporate landlords in select counties in six states since the beginning of September, and found that corporate landlords are responsible for the majority, and sometimes overwhelming majority, of evictions in some counties. 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His18-room Mequon home sitson a 5.5-acre estate and is listed on state records as the principal office of his Berrada Properties Management Inc. Youssef Origin and Meaning. The agency has worked with Berrada to help tenants find new units if they could not afford their rent and has urged Berrada not to charge late fees, she said. Young said that during the rehab work, the front door of her apartment was barricaded for a day, trapping her inside. Here's the story of how corporate landlords helped drive the evictions crisis. Quick move-outs: When a Berrada company buys a building, it sometimes wants tenants who are on month-to-month leases to move out within 30 days, so the property can be rehabbed, according to tenants and state records. In 2018, according to the complaint, another tenant, who has paraplegia and uses a wheelchair, found the carpeting in the hallway outside his apartment ripped up, leaving a strip of tacks at his threshold. "I started getting sick.". Inspectors checked the building last week and all of the ordered repairs had been made, a DNS spokesperson said. The rent assistance funds flow from the federal government to the state to nonprofit organizations that distribute the money. They already allowed him to buy up all this property., Copyright 2021 Insider Inc. Todos los derechos reservados. Berradaoperations generally make repairs that are ordered by the city in a timely manner. Youssef Berrada Associate; France +33156435523. In the case of Pollard, the 26-year-old facing an eviction in June, the three entities worked together to buy her more time to move and then helped her move into a more affordable Berrada-owned apartment. The promising actor was discovered by Steven Spielberg in Munich, Germany. "I'd rather livein a cell," Toliver said. I don't think it is illegal; I think it's very unethical. Desiree Rodriguez, a school bus driver, was hit with an eviction suit last year by a Berrada company, but later won a $3,400 default judgment against a Berrada company,which she said did not return her security deposit. The complaint details a record of the company failing to inform tenants of upcoming work, illegally entering their apartments without notice and conducting renovations in a manner that creates inhospitable living conditions. All of this has helped rehabilitate Berradas reputation in Milwaukee. In Berradas case, for example, it took dogged local journalism to track the 75 different firms linked to him and then painstaking work to cross-reference them with local eviction filings. Announces Mary Ellen Stanek as Board Chairwoman and adds Dr. Joan Prince and Charles Harvey to Board of Directors, Tiffany Tardy Named New Executive Director of MPS Foundation, DWD Announces Appointments of Jeremy Simon as Assistant Deputy Secretary, Arielle Exner as Legislative Liaison. Youssef Kerkour is a most popular Moroccan Actor. When she told Berrada that renters of color and the very poor were disproportionately impacted, she said that Berrada, who is Moroccan and came to Wisconsin as a foreign exchange high school student in the 1980s, seemed to recoil. These court fees related to eviction, based upon the criminal complaint, are just one layer in a stew of penalties that keep a tenant indebted to Berrada, who then extracts even more money from the tenant on top of the monthly rent. Journal Sentinel reporter Cary Spivak has been covering the alleged tenant rights violations tied to Berrada Properties. Become a member for $9/month. | | : 12 - : 111 : 1,795 - : Joseph. Taxpayers paid Berrada Properties nearly $7 million as state DOJ prepared to sue the landlord giant. The tenant could not leave his apartment for four days because the conditions left would have punctured the tire on his wheelchair. DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more, with a 14-count civil enforcement complaint, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. "I'm staying here because I have no place else to go.". d More Business Details and See makerfield constituencymakerfield constituency When there was some mold in the ceiling workers simply painted it over basically guaranteeing the mold would return. BPM has always recognized the potentially adverse impact a filed eviction may have on a tenants ability to find suitable housing, they said over email. Berradacompanies paid property taxes of$3.3 millionlast year, andBerradapaid state income tax of $114,111 in 2016, up from $13,061 in 2015, records show. In April, the Wall Street Journal called it a Potential Bonanza in Distressed Sales., When the CEO of Blackstone Stephen A. Schwarzman was asked at the Goldman Sachs Conference at the beginning of December if the pandemic would be similar to the last financial crisis for investors, he gloated: Blackstone was a huge winner coming out of the global financial crisis and I think something similar is going to happen now. "The tenants who live in our properties deserve the same support as any other tenant in the pandemic, and to suggest that they dont because of the Department of Justices false and unfounded allegations is callous and disrespectful to the families who we serve," the statement said. Search our database of over 100 million company and executive profiles. On the west side, a 28-year-old man who asked to remain anonymous said that when he and his girlfriendfirst moved into a Berrada building on West Wisconsin Avenue near Marquette High School, everything was fine. In his early 20s, he turned a passion for technology-based businesses into a company that quickly grew to 300 employees. Raphael Ramos, an attorney for Legal Action of Wisconsin, notes that tenants hold foundational rights in Wisconsin. Berradatold the aldermenthere wereonly about 30 vacancies in the 8,000 rental units nationwide his operation owned. Top Result for Joe Berrada. He's not a big contributor to politicians, and he doesn't belong to thetrade group that represents Milwaukee area landlords. But like many Americans, Buckner is still unemployed and no more able to pay rent now than he was several months ago. Nov 17th, 2021 by Graham Kilmer. Berrada Properties would advertise units with appliances, then have tenants sign leases that stated there were no appliances in the unit. In 2002, Berrada owned just 16properties with a market value of about $5 million, accordingto documents he filed in his divorce case. When Young went to the basement to check her belongings kept in a locked storage area she was shocked to see just how aggressive the workers had been. Evictions are also a stark reflection of the countrys racial divide. The incident occurred when Bearden-Berrada was served with eviction papers seeking to throw her out of a Mequon house she was renting from aBerradacompany. Contact Us, Take the next step, become a member. The $50 late fees and the attending court fees billed for eviction filings amounted to a combined $2,422 in fees charged to the tenant. During the COVID-19 pandemic, tenants reported workers entering their units or working inside their building for renovations without taking precautions like mask wearing. February 15, 2022. in News. AddsMaudwellaKirkendoll, Community Advocates chief operating officer: "The tenants do have the option ofmoving"and the agency will help those tenants find new affordable housing. Mohammed Berrada's Net Worth: $1-5 Million. "I'm concerned, the mayor is concerned. 2023, Urban Milwaukee, Inc. All rights reserved. Theres also the possibility of informal evictions, such as when tenants leave because of unattended repairs or unsafe conditions. Youcef separated from his wife in 2019 before they later filed for divorce in January 2020. By Michelle Conlin (Reuters) - As freezing temperatures settled over Kansas City, Missouri, on Jan. 28, Judge Jack Grate opened his online courtroom. Goyke pointed to the allegation in the DOJ suit that Berrada would not repair appliances in their rental units. "It's amazing how hard they fight over relatively small amounts of money. Berrada declined, repeatedly, to be interviewed for this story. Youssef Kerkour's net worth, height, age, weight, affair, relationship, family, movie update, and more are highlighted below. Attorney General Josh Kaul announces a lawsuit against Milwaukee landlord Youssef Berrada, and his property management company. It took her an entire year of applying to new apartment buildings before she found someone willing to rent to her. The Cleaning Specialists. Landlords have filed 272,612 evictions since March-and thats just in the 27 cities that the Eviction Lab at Princeton University tracks. Tiny part of landlord law could make lawyers wary of helping out. When moves are necessary, he said, Berrada officials work with the tenants to ensure a smooth transition. Youssef Kerkour. Requiring tenants to pay legal costs in eviction cases "was a part of the standard lease even though it is prohibited," said Raphael Ramos, director of theEviction Defense Project in Milwaukee. I couldnt talk to nobody, theres no one to connect with. Meanwhile, housing the poor is a prosperous business, given that poor and relatively wealthy renters pay similar amounts of rent. "When Ms. Young's family member answered the door, the construction materials had to be moved aside and the door could only be opened a small degree to allow entry into apartment building. In Milwaukee, informal evictions are twice as likely as a formal one. La marihuana puede permanecer en tu sistema durante das o meses. Others have raised complaints. youssef joe'' berrada net worthhttps www law cornell edu uscode text 26 501 youssef joe'' berrada net worth. Berrada: Just a businessman. There was a lot of things going through my head: where will we go? Share . "I got out of the shower and he was sitting on the couch.". "A lot of landlords will deny housing to anyone who has been sued for eviction, regardless of the outcome of the case," said Eric Dunn, litigation director for the National Housing Law Project. About half of the firms earnings are from a real estate business, just to give you some idea how this breaks: We picked the good neighborhoods, if you will.. "He just seems to be going around buying a ton of stuff and a ton of boulders," Rodriguez said. The date of birth of Michael Youssef is 25th september 1948. Rape and Sexual Assault are No Laughing Matter, Unless Your Name is Donald Trump Berrada's impact on the Milwaukee rental marketcontinues to grow as Berradacompaniespurchased more than 70 properties this year, according to the Milwaukee County Register of Deeds records. Housing experts say that many cases have been decided in the landlords favor when a tenant doesnt show up due to a technical glitch with video conferencing software. Even if a tenant agrees to a payment plan and follows it, the original eviction lawsuitalmost alwaysremains on the tenant's public record. 1/5. "I just sat on the stairs and cried," Young said. The properties have an assessed value of$137.6 million, according to city records. In court, Toliverargued he never got the notice to pay his rent or face eviction because several mailboxes in the building, including his,had been vandalized and were unusable. These COVID stimulus subsidies could have covered the nine months of rent due since the beginning of the pandemic for 24,394 families, Jobs with Justice calculated. For example, if an agreed-upon payment plan which often includes the client paying late feesand Berrada's court costsis not followed,it can result in additional evictions. Since corporate landlords are often an umbrella for multiple limited liability companies and shell companies (often to take advantage of tax benefits), their names rarely appear directly on eviction filings. Clarks eviction came when she was in between jobs. At first conditions were good, Toliver said. These fees are sometimes charged to a tenant before an eviction has even been filed, and for more than the actual cost of processing the eviction. Phoenix and Houston are the cities with the second and third highest numbers of evictions during the pandemic, according to Princetons Eviction Lab. Some city officials praiseBerrada, saying he oversees a well-run operation that buys and rehabs neighborhood eyesores. kia sorento folding cargo tray; the marriage lie ending explained; sea life sunshine coast discount tickets; (A Real Glass Company). As state investigators wereprobing claims that Youssef "Joe" Berrada'srental empire was violating the rights of tenants,the landlord giant was collecting nearly $7 million in state and federal rent assistance. Some of Berrada's tactics are raising red flags with advocacy groups and attorneys who work with low-income renters. ", In a statement issued through a Madison public relations firm, a Berrada attorneycalled the DOJ investigation a "fishing expedition" that makes itmore difficult for "Mr. Berrada to provide high-quality, affordable housing.". While not all evictions result in a forcible removal, filings can trigger job loss, increased poverty, and serious mental health issues that include depression and suicidal ideation.
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