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A Staggering Number of Minnesotans Took to the Streets Friday to Demand ICE Leave. The Next Day ICE Responded by Killing Another Resident. by @thomasbirm.bsky.social @inthesetimes.com
“How many more Americans need to die for this operation to end?” said Mayor Frey.
inthesetimes.com/article/minn...
Masked federal agents have executed another Minneapolis resident, this time 37-year-old nurse and union member Alex Pretti.
My latest for
@inthesetimes.com
inthesetimes.com/article/minn...
“American Landmark is … owned by Elco, one of Israel’s largest corporations… Elco … has done extensive business in Israeli settlements … considered illegal under international law. Elco has also maintained deep ties to the Israeli military, including during the genocide in Gaza.”
Wow.
"In August, I contacted the UN Human Rights Office to ask about the implications of a circumstance like this, in which a company they flagged for involvement in Israeli settlements has a large US subsidiary profiting off tenants like Kelly." Stunning new investigation from @thomasbirm.bsky.social
And all the while, American Landmark's Charlotte tenants' rent money is being funneled, in part, into a company linked to the displacement and genocide of Palestinians 6,000 miles away.
Read the full story here:
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
Diron Kelly, a 49-year-old truck driver, was one such tenant evicted from Conrad in 2024 after American Landmark saddled him with a $400 rent hike.
He spent the following months homeless, showering at rest stops, sleeping in his truck. "It's been a nightmare," he told me. (9/10)
In the first half of 2025, the six AL complexes in Charlotte for which we could obtain eviction data had an average filing rate of 51 percent—7 times the national average.
These filings targeted about 450 different people with eviction in just one city in just six months. (8/10)
@evictionlab.bsky.social at Princeton produces a national average eviction filing rate—in 2024, it was roughly 7%. The highest rate for any of the areas the group tracked was 24%.
That year, the filing rate at Conrad at Concord Mills was 68 percent, more than nine times the average. (7/10)
This displacement, per Lubeck, is immense: Based on AL’s “modeling,” only “55 percent of existing residents [are expected to] stay,” while the other 45 percent “move out.”
Court records show the eviction filing rate at Conrad has now more than quadrupled since AL took over. (6/10)
Lubeck confirmed to me that rent increases are part of the company’s strategy.
“When we take over a property, the first analysis we do is: How much is the rent going to go up? We typically raise the rent anywhere from $100 to $400, so some people are absolutely displaced." (5/10)
At the Conrad at Concord Mills complex, for example, tenants said that after American Landmark bought the property in 2022, they were hit with rent hikes up to $400/mo.
“Before they came, rent was manageable. When they took over, it became out of reach,” one tenant said. (4/10)
Of the 34,000 units American Landmark owns across the South, the company boasts some 2,400 in Charlotte, roughly one in every 85 units in the city.
I spoke with over two dozen tenants in Charlotte American Landmark had filed an eviction against. Their stories were telling. (3/10)
In a 2022 post in Forbes, American Landmark CEO Joseph Lubeck highlighted four of the South’s “hottest markets” where annual rent increases had reached anywhere from 15 to 24 percent and would be “likely to support continued rent growth.”
Charlotte was first on his list. (2/10)
Yesterday, @thenation.com ran my unprecedented investigation revealing a major U.S. landlord's links to West Bank settlements and the IDF.
To see how American Landmark's U.S. tenants are being victimized, let's look at AL's properties in Charlotte, NC. (1/10)
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
“Before they came, rent was manageable. I was never late. When they took over, it became out of reach.”
www.typeinvestigations.org/investigatio...
By @thomasbirm.bsky.social. Via @thenation.com @typeinvestigations.org
#housing+ #urbanism+ #urbanism
Excerpt from a recent article in The Nation magazine
Excerpt from a recent article in The Nation magazine
Excerpt from a recent article in The Nation magazine
Excerpt from a recent article in The Nation magazine
For @thenation.com, I dug into American Landmark, a major landlord unleashing rent hikes and eviction filings across the South, all while their parent company Electra has financial ties to West Bank settlements and the IDF.
See it in the company's own words:
www.thenation.com/article/soci...
our struggles are interconnected in ways we can't even imagine
Today's must-read by @thomasbirm.bsky.social: a major corporate landlord is fueling homelessness across the U.S. *and* the mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Israeli company owns tens of thousands of apartments in the South, filing evictions at nine times the national average.
Also if you read this story and went "omfg," please follow @thomasbirm.bsky.social, who worked on it for over a year and is brilliant in every way.
We have a stunning story from @thomasbirm.bsky.social in @thenation.com. It's about how one of Israel's biggest companies, with deep ties to the IDF and illegal settlements, is taking over huge swathes of US real estate—with tenants paying the price. A MUST-read. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
One of Israel’s biggest companies is taking over huge swaths of US real estate—and tenants are paying the price.
@thomasbirm.bsky.social reports in partnership with @thenation.com: www.typeinvestigations.org/investigatio...
This means that some 70,000 American tenants' rent money is being funneled, in part, into a company linked to the displacement and genocide of Palestinians 6,000 miles away, while facing rent hikes and eviction filings themselves. (10/10)
Read it all here: www.thenation.com/article/soci...
In 2024, the American Friends Service Committee put Electra on a list of companies contributing to "Israel’s prolonged military occupations, apartheid, and genocide.”
The same year, an Electra executive described American Landmark as a “big winning card” for the company. (9/10)
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights cites Electra in its database of over 150 companies doing business in the settlements. Research groups like Who Profits also have extensive profiles of Electra's business activities. (8/10)
www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...
On top of displacing these U.S. tenants, American Landmark is owned by Electra, an Israeli conglomerate.
Electra conducts extensive business in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which drive many thousands of Palestinians from their homes. (7/10)
He continued: “We typically raise the rent anywhere from $100 to $400, so some people are absolutely displaced."
Based on the company’s “modeling,” Lubeck said, only “55 percent of existing residents [are expected to] stay,” while the remaining 45 percent “move out.” (6/10)
When I spoke with Lubeck, he denied that American Landmark’s practices are predatory, but confirmed that rent increases and displacement are part of the company’s strategy.
"The first analysis we do is: How much is the rent going to go up, and how many can afford to stay” (5/10)
These tenants reported a wide array of issues they say led to their eviction cases—from steep rent increases to a blizzard of fees.
"I feel like they're predatory," one tenant told me. "You want to increase the homelessness rate because we’re short a couple of dollars?" (4/10)
Over the last year, I reviewed thousands of eviction records from dozens of American Landmark’s properties and interviewed 43 of their tenants who faced eviction cases in Charlotte, Summerville, and Jacksonville.
I even interviewed the company's CEO, Joseph Lubeck. (3/10)