"I followed the laws that allowed me to do this," said the Landlord, “But someone had died..."

“Hi Steve, I like your work. I recently came across your story about the rise in homelessness,” said the message. “I strongly support homelessness being declared a State emergency. I also support a pause on evictions during the winter. Rhode Island did this during Covid, so it’s been done before. As a former landlord, I have a story to share.”

The story the Landlord told me brought a tear to my eye:

“Over the years, I followed the laws that allowed me to raise rents and evict tenants when they couldn’t pay. One tenant, Miguel, was late with the rent. I always took my property manager’s advice about what to charge for rentals. We had recently raised Miguel’s rent with proper notice, but he couldn’t afford the increase and was late with his rent. I took my property manager’s advice, and an eviction process was begun.

“In Rhode Island, it’s easy to raise the rent on a tenant without much notice and then evict a tenant for non-payment. So, as I had done before, I agreed to this eviction, and my property manager did the rest.

“It was a simple, quick process. I didn’t have to go to court, talk with a lawyer, or even go to the apartment. The eviction was served, and the tenant was forced out on a snowy, bitterly cold day in February.

“Done. Easy and quick. And I had that unit re-rented in a week or two.

“I didn’t think much more about it. I figured my former tenant had a place to go.

“A week later, Miguel died in an unheated garage. He had nowhere to go.”

“The realization of this hit me hard. I felt terrible guilt. I tried to justify my actions. A tenant didn’t pay his rent, so I followed the laws that allowed me to do this.

“But someone had died, and I have to live with the realization that my actions - my completely legal actions – had this consequence.”

I spoke with the Landlord by phone:

Steve Ahlquist: When I first saw your message, it brought a tear to my eye. It’s brave of you to step forward with this story, and I just wanted to thank you for this.

The Landlord: Unfortunately, there’s nothing praiseworthy about it, but thank you.

We all have to live with our actions in life, and this is one I have to live with. I’ve been trying for years to do things that make amends for the things that happened. My goal here is to do anything I can to rectify this horrible situation.

The amazing thing is I was a good landlord. I had a few properties. I always gave my tenants money off around the holidays to buy turkeys and everything, and my tenants loved me. They did. I was a good landlord, but it shows that one misstep can change everything. I was one of the first landlords in the State to be lead-certified. I made sure all my properties were safe. I had kids living in my properties. I was responsible. I’m not your typical ass hat slumlord...

There’s more to the story. The downstairs tenant complained that people were coming in and out, and I found out later that Miguel was letting other homeless people stay with him, whether they were friends of his or not. I thought he was harming the building with all these people coming in and out. But in the end, Miguel was trying to help people get a place to stay. He let them stay in the basement, and the other tenants complained.

Steve Ahlquist: I understand. We all want to feel secure, and I don’t want random people living in my basement.

If we meet somebody in need, we want to be able to bring them somewhere to get proper shelter and care. I’m not a nurse, and I’m not an expert in mental health, disability, substance use, or any of that, so I wouldn’t necessarily know how to help a person in need. We must have systems to help people, and we expect our taxes to do that.

The Landlord: After it all played out, I learned how easy it is to do what I do. When I was younger, I would do all the work on the properties myself. As I got older and busier at work—I have a full-time job—I hired a property manager, and I became more hands-off. During that hands-off process, you lose connectivity with your tenants and let the property manager do what needs to be done without questioning it.

When it was all over - the epiphany - when I realized that he had died - it just hit me right between the eyes. And it’s one of those times where, oh my God if I could only turn the clock back. If I had only reached out...

I was amazed at how easy it is to put someone out onto the street in Rhode Island at any time of the year. In Massachusetts, laws are a little stricter.

I remember I had some terrible tenants. They were just awful. My property manager said, “Just raise the rent 200 bucks. They’ll be out in a month. All you need is 30 days. Raise the rent 200 bucks, and they’ll move.”

And they did. That was an example of how easy it is to get rid of tenants you don’t want. The downside is that, in Miguel’s case, he couldn’t pay the rent. So we filed for eviction and got it. On a bitterly cold day in February, he moved out again. I thought, “Okay, good. I got rid of that problem—no more people sleeping in the basement. Problem solved. Re-rent this place now and keep the money flowing.”

And that’s just what we did.

I just assumed he had a place to go. I didn’t think for a minute I was putting him on the street. I didn’t think for a minute that this guy would have to go live in an unheated garage somewhere. I just assumed there were shelters around.

I did some research afterward. There’s not one shelter in Central Falls, where my property was. This was eight years ago; maybe that’s changed.

We all think they’ve got places to go. They don’t.

There are far more homeless people than there are beds, and it’s getting a lot worse.

I do a lot of work with the Rhode Island Coalition to End Homelessness and the George Wiley Center, but I don’t want any visibility from this. I don’t.

Steve Ahlquist: You spoke about how having a property manager removed you from getting to know your tenants, but this is happening now on a corporate level. We have slumlords coming into the State, buying up houses, and kicking out the people who've lived there for years to jack up rents. I know of people who died after being evicted by these corporate landlords. You can’t even point to a person and say, “That’s the owner,” because the owner is a faceless corporation.

The Landlord: That’s exactly right. A few years ago, a colleague said, “I’m investing $3,000 in rental property in Chicago.” He’s in Rhode Island, and I’m like, “How can you do that?” He said, “There’s this new thing. You can invest in this company that owns thousands and thousands of units in Chicago. It’s just like the stock market.”

These for-profit, very aggressive companies are buying homes and hiring local property managers to run them. Everyone’s profiting except the tenants.

As you and I are talking here, people live in abandoned garages in Central Falls and other cities everywhere. When they’re that goddamn cold, they can’t think about anything else. It’s absolute survival.

Steve Ahlquist: A couple of weeks ago, a man in Providence crawled into the back of a U-Haul truck and died. He died alone in the back of a truck. These deaths haunt me. They should haunt us all.

The Landlord: Sometimes laws are unjust. It is unjust to leave people out in the cold with nowhere to go. Something needs to be changed.

Every day since Miguel died, I wish I had done more for him instead of treating him as another tenant late with the rent. I was following the law…

I live with Miguel’s death every day. It especially haunts me during the winter.

And right now, as we talk, people are hiding in unheated garages, in silence, and out of sight.

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Note: I decided to withhold the Landlord’s name to protect him during this time of record evictions, housing costs, and homelessness.