YWN has been in possession of a letter signed by Lakewood Rabbonim for the past month, but for various reasons chose not to publicize it. Unfortuanatly, a Yungerman was R”L stabbed in Lakewood – and last night the letter was resent to us – this time with the added signature of the Posek Hador, Maran Hagon Rav Elyashiv Shlita. (Link to letter in extended article)
YWN feels there is no better time to publicize this letter:
The issue of unsavory rental units in the midst of many prominent Lakewood neighborhoods has been at the forefront of many peoples minds. From the older areas to ones more recently populated by the frum community, residents have had to deal with homes that are unfortunately owned by frum people who rent them out to individuals that ruin the quality of life and general equilibrium of the neighborhood. Aside from the obvious issues that affect the immediate neighborhood, such as loud music, general unsightliness – and at times, unlawful behaviors, more serious issues that affect the tzibbur at large abound as well. Crimes committed by those who reside in such homes affect everybody throughout town. Indeed, the crime rate of Lakewood is higher than the national average, despite the fact that over 50% of its inhabitants belong to the frum community.
While the owners would never consider placing such tenants next door to their own homes, they don’t think twice before placing them next to someone else’s home. This basic lack of sensitivity is in clear violation of man desoni alach lechavrach lo sa’avid.
Rabbonim receive daily calls about these homes, with neighbors voicing their growing frustration at the intolerable situation, seeking to find out what they can demand al pi da’as Torah. In response, the Roshei Yeshivos and Rabbonim in town, together with Rav Dovid Feinstein and Rav Shlomo Miller, have issued a directive to these owners, apprising them of the appropriate course of action to take.
[PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT YWN NOTE AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE]
The directive states as follows: “In light of the many unfortunate episodes that have taken place in town, and in response to the continuous complaints that have come to our attention, we issue this urgent call to the bnei Torah of our kehilla kedosha of Lakewood in order to raise awareness of a pressing matter that has been causing emotional pain and physical damage to the tzibur of Lakewood for many years.
Many individuals have purchased homes in areas that over the years have been built up until the majority of the neighborhood has been converted to a yiddishe shechuna. Yet, these owners continue to rent out their units to unsavory individuals, and by doing so, cause damage and pain to the entire neighborhood in ways which need not be elaborated. Others have done worse, by purchasing units in areas that they know are quickly becoming an attractive location for bnei Torah families or even in areas that have already been firmly established as such. These opportunistic latecomers are certainly the direct cause of damage and unjustified hardship for the entire neighborhood, both physically and spiritually.
In many situations it is halachically incumbent upon these owners to promptly remove their obstacle from the public. Even in cases where perhaps there isn’t a clear halachic enforceable mandate, nevertheless, ain ruach chachomim nocheh heimenu. Regarding situations such as these, the Gemorrah states that Yerushalayim was destroyed because people insisted on not going beyond the enforceable letter of the law.
Such people should fear placing themselves in the category of mazikei harabim and should be wary of shouldering the awesome responsibility of such actions. It is well-known that one who, G-d forbid, brings pain to others causes the middas hadin to take hold. How can he remain indifferent in face of the pain he’s causing others? Even Yom Kippur won’t atone until he appeases the one who was wronged! Certainly among bnei Torah there is an added element of chillul Hashem involved. It is clear that no blessings can rest upon ventures of this nature.
Therefore, anybody who owns such dwellings should promptly rid themselves of these investments, even in place of a loss. In the interim, they are obligated to demand from their tenants to live up to neighborhood standards. Anyone with the ability to influence these owners in any way possible should do so and fulfill a mitzvah of zikui harabim in this pressing matter. Certainly, one should seek to be counted amongst the mezakai harabim rather than be amongst those who place fear and pain on the tzibur.
To those who abide by the above and fulfill the mitzvah of ve’ahavta leracha komocha, which forms the basis of the entire Torah, may Hashem bestow blessing and success in all of their financial and spiritual matters. May we see the fulfillment of the verse hinei mah tov umah na’im sheves achim gam yachad.”
Signed,
Rav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler
Rav Yeruchom Olshin
Rav Dovid Schustal
Rav Yisroel Neumann
Rav Yaakov Forscheimer
Rav Mattisyahu Salamon
Rav Dovid Feinstein
Rav Gavriel Finkel
Rav Avrohom Spitzer
Rav Osher Chaim Lieberman
Rav Shlomo Gissinger
Rav Shmuel Blech
Rav Shlomo Miller
Rav Yissocher Dov Kahan
Added note from Hagon Rav Elyashiv Shlita:
“BSD: Due to the Hachlata of Gedolei Yisroel in Golah (outside of Eretz Yisroel) regarding the city Lakewood, to prevent the renting of homes to individuals who are causing damage and pain to the Tzibur (community) – both physically & spirtually – I too join with them, Bnei Yisroel should not do “an avlah”, and should listen to words of Rabonim and in turn be blessed.”
Click HERE to read view the actual letter.
It s interesting to note, that the day following the brutal baseball-bat beating of Rabbi Moskowitz in October 2007, YWN ran an article titled “UPDATED: Lakewood Askan: What Needs To Be Done With The Crime (UPDATE On Lakewood Assault)” [Click HERE to read it]
YWN now prints excerpts of that article:
Yeshivaworld has just interviewed a prominent Lakewood Askan, who has vented his frustration at last night’s brutal, unprovoked bias attack by an African American male on a Lakewood Cheder Rebbe.
According to him, and practically every single Rosh Yeshiva, Rov, Askan, and Lakewood resident, the root of the problem is that Lakewood is filled with slum-housing that is occupied by violent gang members. Many (95%) of these properties are owned by members of our own community.
He feels that not enough is being done to correct this dangerous problem.
“Perhaps it is time to get the public records of every criminal arrested in the last 5 years in Lakewood, and see what their address is. Close to 100% of these addresses are owned by Frum landlords/slumlords. The names of these slumlords should then be publicized. Let the community see what the real reason for the crime in Lakewood is.
The most crime-infested properties in the town of Lakewood are owned by prominent members of our community. Downtown is a fearful mess.
Criminals from the High Point neighborhood prey on the adjacent neighborhoods. One frum landlord owns some 40 units in High Point alone. Thugs from Woodlake can cruise through Lakewood at will, looking for victims. Raintree is filled with homes of dealers of all sorts. Shootings take place on Seventh Street by people who live on Seventh Street, and if not on Seventh then on another block nearby. The abductor of the frum girl from Trim Gym lived in the home of a frum person.
Last nights brutal assault was another wake-up call! We need to get the community to stand up and force these landlords to evict these vile creatures.
Everyone knows that if you invite 500 terrorists to live in Lakewood they will plant a bomb in one of our Shuls. This is no different. Bring 500 violent thugs – all gang members – into the heart of our community and we then have incidents such as last night.
Steps were taken to stop this in the past by Rabbonim and Poskim, which failed in the face of strong landlord opposition.
Just last year the slumlords were outraged when a law was passed requiring that properties be kept in decent condition. Their reaction? They staged a demonstration outside the home of Mayor Lichtenstein!
They are now fighting a law that would require a yearly inspection of rental properties. What is wrong with a yearly inspection? What are they afraid of? Is it the countless violations that will definitely be found in the properties?
Enough is enough! It is time to stand up!”
[The letter has been uploaded at http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/]
(Moshe Altusky – YWN)
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48 Responses
They could try to discriminate to whom they rent and then be sued a few million bucks. I mean “there’s also a flip side to that coin”. Try seeing it.
Very disturbing letter.
1) There are alot of jewish businesses around town who hire these people. If you want to drive them out of town, don’t give them jobs. Period. There are plenty jewish people looking for jobs. Just like they banned the arab tazi drivers in Israel.
2) It’s easy for these people (who went crying to the rabbonim) to say. Because they wouldn’t be losing 50-$75,000 per property if they sold now.
Well you know what, If it bothers them so much, let it bother them also that hundreds of frum yidden would lose millions of dollars.
Besides, there’s a legal system. If you have a problem with a tenant or neighbor, go to the township and complain.
i want to see the lakewood vaad permit names to be published when thay themself own a large amount of these houses
And one more thing, I would have no problem with a yearly inspection which would help keep lakewood safe.I have CO’s on my properties and don’t stick in 7 families. If there’s a problem with tenants, they should absolutely be evicted. It’s in the lease agreement.
Can someone explain why forcing the current landlord to sell his property will solve the problem. Why wouldn’t the new owner keep the same tenants? Thanks.
Feif UN, what’s better, to live in crime infested area and pay a little less rent, or to pay a little bit more and be able to live in peace and security?
It is terrible that there are gangs in Lakewood, but can you say that the 1,000 rentals are all gang members, this is insane. Yidden purchased the houses off the blacks that were violent in the community and most of them are gone, most of these houses were replaced with renters a lot of them being Mexican, but saying they are all gangs that’s absurd, they are 99% cleaning ladies and 1% gangs, if there is an issue with your tenant go to the authority.
Another issue is that the town does nothing about taxes so instead of fixing the problem the VAAD makes a big to do with the taxes going up because of the Mexicans in the school system and blame the yidden who own houses and rent them out, there are about 5,000 kids in public school the same amount there was eight years ago. Everyone should stop shifting blame, and do what has to be done, and leave the gedolim alone with all your one sided stories.
PS: I don’t have homes that are rented to Mexicans.
I’d be interested in what the ‘various reasons’ YWN choose not to publish earlier? Editor lease from one of these slumlords? YWN own some of these properties?
not really like YWN to shy away from something, and it surprising that the American raboninm’s signatures wouldn’t be enough fro them to print.
it is illegal to discriminate when renting your property. din d’malchusa dina
Golus is imperfect no matter how perfect we try to make it.
I believe that the Rabbonim were made to believe that these tennants are the ones responsible for the Moskowitz beating and for the stabbing this week and all other crimes that Lakewood has endured. NOT TRUE! This is a grave error that was unfortunately misrepresented. The gangs can afford to own their own homes and the crimes are primarily done by them. Does anyone have proof that any Yiddishe owners have tennants that are dangerous criminals to be able to make such a statement? It’s a known thing that Jews are easy targets for crime anyways-and therefore bad people don’t have to live next door and in the midst of a frum community to commit a crime-they can drive to our neighborhoods. Get Real.
I understand the issue but there are many legal discrimination issues with not renting to certain groups. I cant even begin to start listing all the legal issues that could result from massive rental discrimination.
Plus its a free market and if all the jews divest of those properties others will rent to the people they want to be rid of.
I dont like to be kneged chachomim but I strongly disagree with this letter.
They should compile a list of all the landlords that have these properties within a certain vicinty of Lakewood and publish them, force them to remove their tenants. Theres a married guy that learns in BMG and who owns a nice amount of homes in Coventry(Tudor court etc.) all filled with bad people there have been countless very nice phone calls made to his home asking nicely to remove these tenants and he blows everyone off. There have been signs hanging in Yeshiva and he dosnt care . His money comes first.Maybe now through the Vaad and through our pressure he will remove these people from his units or at least stop pretending to be a choshuva Yungerman learning in our yeshiva and leave.
Furthermore,
If they want people to take losses on their investments then they should raise the funds to cover it. I assume the people who own the real estate are also the major community supporters and it can have a snowball effect on the local economy if those people start losing a lot of money.
We are in gullus. Moshiach should come now…. I find a few problems with what is going on. If not for the “article” to explain what the “PROBLEM” is in Lakewood I have no idea what this letter is talking about. Just a demand to Jews to sell their homes/investments. Ok they are renting to gang members? Still not sure I understand. It is really hard to get a tenant out this we know. If you want to live in America then you might have “unsavories” as neighbors. No one can really demand that you sell your house. That to me is not really a Kidush Hashem. Especially when people dont really know the whole reason it is being requested. The Rabeim should think about how this looks. People in Kiryas Yoel went and made themselves a shtetl there are no unsavories there. We shouldnt supply the rocks being thrown at us. Be careful with your words even more so the ones you write down.
The Rabbanin Must come together and tackle the real problems Facing the Frum Community. These problems being Orthodox Jews at Risk-Going Off Derech, The Shidduch Crisis,(Intermarriage)
These are not investment properties,if they were they would rent to yidden who pay normal amounts. I was looking for a home in raintree and the real estate sales person said you can rent this home to illegals and get $2500.00 a month as opposed to $1500.00 if you rent to yidden. That is because the illegals stuff 12 families into a 4 bedroom home. Greed is what is driving these so called investment purchases and nothing more.
There was one rule i learned a long time ago. Never do *dirty* business in your own back yard.
Downtown is also being bought up by frum owners and the stores are being rented out to Mexicans because they pay more. We are being sold out by our own.
#16 kicking out tenants because you don’t like them??? do you see how they live? do you think they are taking care of the investers home? do you think they are planting flower gardens? The homes are churbons. Wouldn’t you think an invester wants his home in a somewhat decent condition? I know when i rented a place i couldn’t even put pictures up with nails for fear of making holes. Everyone face yourselves and deal with the emmes and stop making excuses.
sorry it was to #22
In my opinion, the community is looking to put blame on someone for the crime of our neighborhood and the frum landlords have become the easy target. Just reread the letters above and all the distorted examples that are cited: “The abductor from Trim Gym lived in the home of a frum person.” NOTE: THE ABDUCTER LIVED IN JACKSON NOT IN LAKEWOOD. Another example: the horrific Moskowitz beating. NOTE: HE DID NOT RENT FROM ANYONE. Shootings in the neighborhood. NOTE: ALL GANG RELATED AND THEY TOO OWN THEIR OWN HOMES.
We have two separate issues in Lakewood and the differentiation should be made; one being the illegals that live in our community and the other are the Gangs/Criminals.
The crimes in Crown Heights are not blamed on the yidden, the bombing in E”Y are not blamed on the Yidden, yet when a crime occurs in Lakewood all fingers are pointed to the frum Landlords (regardless of whether there is a connection or not to their tennants)???
Frankly, generalizing doesn’t help as alot of non frum tenants are hard working and do take pride in their homes and not all frum tenants are such great renters either.
However, I have seen neiberhoods that take pictures of real eyesores and publish their owners names, home addresses and phone numbers.
Even NYC publishes an annual list of the worst slumlords. Just from the names you can tell some of them are frum.
Of course other neighberhoods use other tactics as I have a client who wasn’t maintaining his investment in bay ridge brooklyn and he got a not so freindly visit from their version of neighberhood askin.
Re 5 and similar: I’m not at all familiar with the system so admit to being confused.
Are you saying that illegals are eligible for benefits such as HUD? If they are, does the gov’t do any inspections of the property? Could a person who can prove that an unsavory tenant is illegal evict the tenant based on that status? And would the renter get in trouble for renting to an illegal? Very confusing.
To #’s 1, 10, 14, and 15. I’m not an attorney so I can’t say this definitively, but a landlord is not required to rent a unit to a criminal .In fact if he did. His neighbors could sue him and cause him serious legal problems. Without question, these landlords are running other background checks on prospective residents such as credit histories and eviction histories. And they would never rent a unit to some one who did not meet they’re criteria. So why would they not run a criminal history background check?
I’m not painting all landlords with the same brush but those of you know who you are, and little by little we know who you are.
( People will not stand for it. Eventually people will start to do what ever is in they’re power to correct these wrongs. (The same goes for all of the issues here in Lakewood. The Vaad, The Yeshiva and other Askanim, the power they wield and how and for whom its put to use. People will take action. Let’s do the right thing now, so as to prevent machlokis and rift in the community later)
“Negligent Leasing is a real concern today as properties can avoid theft, violence and damages by running a criminal history check on applicants before accepting them and signing a lease. It is coined “negligent leasing” because the threat/risk can be avoided by running a simple background check, which would reveal past criminal convictions, and prevent such a criminal applicant from being accepted into the community. Repeat offenders are out there, but can be caught if a criminal check is done prior to leasing. Taking a minute to run a criminal background check after running a credit check reduces your exposure to the real risks associated with new tenants and repeat offenders.”
As a landlord, property owner, apartment manager or leasing agent it is your responsibility to run a profitable operation, but it is equally your responsibility to provide a safe community for your residents to live in. The important piece to understand here is that running a profitable apartment rental business and keeping your community safe are not conflicting strategies.
Years ago running a criminal background check took several days to weeks to complete, and apartment leasing agents couldn’t wait that long to get their results back. The reason behind this is that most renters would apply to several properties and didn’t have the patience to wait weeks to get an answer on whether or not they would be approved, so they would move on to another property that would give them a decision same day or within a couple days. This is the main reason why many property managers excluded criminal history checks as part of their screening criteria. Credit reports on the other hand have been available same day for a long time now and it is just within recent history that criminal reports can be obtained within that same time frame as well. With criminal reports available as quickly as credit reports, they now can both be performed without extending current existing approval/denial decision times.
Criminal record reports can be purchased online today for reasonable fees that won’t even be noticed on most apartment complex expense sheets. Statewide and county criminal checks cost between $15 – $50 depending on the state being searched and the public records provider being used. Example: Let’s say that over the course of a year an apartment complex of 100 units processes 100 applications {this ratio is usually one to one for established apartments (not new lease ups) meaning that a 100 unit apartment will run roughly 100 applications in a given year}. Let’s say the rent amount per month for one unit is $1,000. So, by running 100 criminal checks (lets say at a value of $30 each) you are spending an additional $3,000/year on your resident screening portion of your business. To a 100 unit property that takes in over $1million/year in revenue, spending $3,000 to protect their community residents and their property owners investment by avoiding potential threats, damages, evictions and lawsuits is not much (it is only .0025 or ¼% of revenue). Spending a ¼ % of your revenue to thwart damages, avoid lawsuits and to prevent any harm to other residents in your community is a great deal and should be an easy decision to make. No one should have to lose money if you did the right thing in the first place. Hatzlocha to all.
#2, they may be losing money now, but they should have sold their properties a long time ago, in which case they wouldn’t be losing money. Besides, they don’t have to sell their properties – all they have to do is rent them to the frummer olam. There is a very severe shortage of rental appartments available, and the frummer would be more than happy to take them.
As for the suggestion of complaining to the township about the neighbors’ behavior, that would backfire and is probably assur because it is loshon hora about the property owners.
This cannot be enforced.It is morally wrong for Yidden to rent to unpleasant undesirables but the rabbonim cannot force the landlords to obey. The government will sue since it is discriminatory.We do not own the town we live in.This kind of behavior will cause more anti semitism,chas v’sholom. USA,NY,NJ laws must be obeyed.You can put a sort of cherem on the frum landlords perhaps.
We can start in Lakewood with ##### ##### of 000 00st in Lakewood. He can be reached at 732 000 0000.He owns many properties in Lakewood and specifically in Coventry.If we can work on one landlord at a time then maybe something good will come out of all the brutal assaults in our city.
Moderators Note: Names will not be permitted……
To whom should the landlords sell their properties –
even at a loss? Many of these homes would not be of
interest to frum people.
Furthermore, if these properties were bought before
the neighborhoods became frum, how can one now blame landlords for properties they bought many years ago?
The commentor who said not to do “dirty business” in
your own backyard….is it alright to make ANYONE
miserable? What if the “backyard” became frum after the fact?
Considering the above, and the anti-discrimination
rules, the best we can ask is that landlords maintain their properties (and so make them of interest to decent people)and evict tenants who are non-complying(overcrowding, non-paying, damaging).
Over time this should resolve the worst of the problems.
#2 said,
, they may be losing money now, but they should have sold their properties a long time ago, in which case they wouldn’t be losing money. Besides, they don’t have to sell their properties – all they have to do is rent them to the frummer olam. There is a very severe shortage of rental appartments available, and the frummer would be more than happy to take them.
As for the suggestion of complaining to the township about the neighbors’ behavior, that would backfire and is probably assur because it is loshon hora about the property owners.
2 problems with what you wrote.
First, I actually own a couple properties. On one specific property i actually put a for rent sign and NOT ONE person out of the approximately 30 phone calls i got, were yidden. I even put an ad in the local jewish paper and did not even get a single jewish phone call either. I had even written negotiable. I was willing to rent it out for a few hundred dollars less just to be able to rent it out to a yid-but nobody was interested. And yes, the asking price was in range with the market. Now ask yourself what YOU would do then.
2nd problem,
It’s not assur to complain if your neighbor goyim are causing you problems. But it IS an issur to call up the township and lie (which people have done) and say that they are illegals and there are 20 people living in the house when in fact there are exactly as many as were permitted by the CO .
So get your facts staright BEFORE you speak. That goes to all you out there too who are just looking to blame the landlords.
We have a similar problem in Boro-Park West.
Shaina Yidden come in from Flatbush outside of our community, and ask for a lower price from someone selling a home on the basis that they will be strengthening the Yiddishe neighborhood.
After they are given a special concession, they turn around and flip the house to outsiders for a quick profit at the expense of the seller and the neighborhood.–Disgusting!
Is it legal to rent to illegal aliens??
Not sure if I should say this but I want to clarify something here. Not all Yehudim are renting to non Yehudim by choice. I know this for a fact.
I agree with 34. People are always looking to make problems but have no solutions.
The reason Harav Elyashiv signed was because some people were claiming that he said once could rent homes to troublesome people.
The letter is clear and people need to know how their investments are hurting the neighboors.
We had a problem in our neighborhood for 5 years with a few homes. Many pitbulls, loud music and being thretaned.
We finaly called the landlord several times.
One landlord did clean shop by threatning to evict the occupants if they did not get rid of the pit dogs, stolen BMW and stop their noisey parties. This landlord still claimed his occupants were civilized but he did something. Anytime we have a problem we call him.
The other landlord has not changed anything and his home is a unsupervised teenage hangouts (gangs) and the police now about it as the teenagers picked up request to be dropped off there. The indiviuals have thrown knives, rocks and even tried to run down us a few times. With psak from harav forcheimer we went to the quaity of life police and the code enforcement to see what can be done. This was only done after many calls to the landlord for several months and even hanging up signs with the landlords name in shuls as per a psak.
I know of a landlord who sold over 8 investment properties 5 years ago when yidden moved into the neighborhood so he should not cause harm to anyone. So to all the critics this individual is also part of the group of people who worked tirelessly to develop this letter. You have no excuse.
According to the quality police nusanse is a crime and its the landlords responsobility. Clean shop take responsibility on your properties by warning your teneats to be civilized and take action if not. The neighboors don’t have to live in fear day and night and not have menuchas hanefesh from being able to have the peace and quiet. Men, women and children deserve to live in peace. If you live in Brookhil and live in peace so to your investment homes neighboors also deserve to live in peace.
I don’t think it states immedite eviction. It states take resposobilty and if the situation does not get better then evict even at a loss.and if such sell it at a loss.
Everyone jumped to the reasoning its illegal. Its not if the tenents are creating non stop noise and trouble including drugs,verbal threats and physical damage..
I liked the comment that we could sue the landlord for creating an unsafe enviroment based on the threats we have recived by the tenent.
Note that the letter from the rabonim is very different from the askan. The rabonim are talking about yidish areas. The askan talks about areas where there are no jews. If you get rid of those tenants you have noone to fill or buy the house. The rabonim have again shown why things would be much better if the askonim consulted them at every turn, rather than vise versa.
Hey if they have probable cause for these evictions, then by all means, they should be kicked out. My mom lives on a block, which has some houses rented out to people who are doing drugs right in their front yard, they’re loud with their music in the wee hours of the night, screaming obscenities all the time at each other, and the cops have had to come down to these houses numerous times (sometimes with their guns drawn)- this is a classic example of the kind of people who should not have the privilege to live on a nice wholesome neighborhood.
I’m very curious to see how this will all pan out…
Why dont we find out from the Rabbanim about posting names of these landlords? This guy learns in BMG and he has loads of properties in Coventry, There were signs in Yeshiva put up against him and he failed to budge. Lets find out if the Rabbanim and R Elyashiv will allow us to post names because that is the only way this will get done.These guys dont care about the Klal they only care about their personal finances. If their names are posted and their kids not allowed into our schools maybe they will bend towards the requests of our leaders
how can a person remove a section 8 (HUD) tenant?
being involved with the people who consulted with the rabbonim and poskim, I must let you know that was not involved and neither the VAAD.
just proves that a lot of people are using this forum for their assumptions.
this letter took several months to develop and was initiated by the beating on rosh hashana night of a yungerman which was the straw that broke the camels back. Most of the troublesome homes are rented not by the Mexicans (although they are extremely loud with their music and no sense of keeping the base down).
the low lives that live in these homes draws others from throughout the area.
Problem is the economy is down and the Mexican day laborers have no money to rent these homes, so the landlords are willing to rent to the worst of the worst of the “Shchorim”.
if someone really thinks that all the gang homes are owned and not rented he must be a landlord himself
-please come and visit 5 Westood off ridge avenue over the weekend especially at night. its rented.
Just take a walk down the street at night. good luck
IF YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING – LOOK UP THE OWNERS OF THESE HOMES AND START CALLING THEM DAY & NIGHT UNTIL THEY HAVE A CONTROL ON THEIR PROPERTIES OR EVICT THEM IF THEY DON’T ACT CIVILIZED.
WE DONT HAVE TO SUFFER FOR THEM TO MAKE MONEY.
IF YOU NEED TO SELL YOUR INVESTMENT HOUSE AND YOU WILL LOSE HUD IF YOU DO. TO BAD> READ THE LETTER.
Shalom,
I used to live in Lakewood & purchased a home there before the price Serge. Then I sold it for a nice profit which enabled me to move to Eretz Yisrael, now in Tzfat. I know many of these Rabbanim personally & I am friends with many who bought homes & rent them out.
While living in my Lakewood home, a fellow Jew purchased a home next door to me. Knowing he wouldn’t get full rental price from a Jew as easily, he put in government placed people. There were about a half dozen adults living in this home. They drank beer late into the night & had pool parties. It was not modest & a few were recovering drug addicts. Certainly, we did not feel safe & asked the owner to rent to Jews. He said, he wouldn’t even try, he can do what he wants.
Now lets flip the coin.
It was now time for me to sell my Lakewood home. Buyers came for months with PG’s help but deals kept falling through. I always asked every buyer their intentions with the home as I didn’t want to hurt my holy neighbors I had grown to love. The last minute, mamish when my moving truck was in the driveway, a man came by who would later purchase my home. Now he was an investor of sorts. I told him, if you are doing to rent this to just anyone, I would rather loose 30grand on my house. I asked him to even sign this on a paper but instead, he gave me his word he would do everything he could to put in Jews unless he had no choice. Only since I was desperate at this point since we had to leave immediately, did I agree on just his word of month. Now if you only knew the fear in the hearts of my neighbors that I sold to an investor. My own heart was quite shaky & I repeatedly insisted his word would be kept throughout the closure. It is my understanding that 6 years later, the investor still owns my home. Almost always there was a Jew but I heard at short intervals there were some non-Jews. They didn’t make noise but the property lost its beauty. I feel I did my best to help my neighbors & only after multiple contract failings, mamish no time left to sell it as my wife was expecting, did I sell to an investor.
Part of what built up Lakewood today was these investors who rented to non-Jews. It would have been too hard to rent many of these homes as things took time to fill up with Jews. At this time though & the time of my home sale, it was also time to hear the cries of the people who day in and day out have to live next to immodest neighbors. The Rabbanim are putting their foot down because Lakewood has since grown & people are really suffering. They are 100% right on track & certainly did not act without considering the ramifications. This isn’t Kansas, majority of non-Jews living in Lakewood are not typical US citizens.
The fears of discrimination mentioned by posters are true but nobody would go to jail for this & if a situation arose, for sure the Rabbanim would say to sell to a non-Jew if you were stuck & could make a chillil Hashem. Everyone who rents homes in lakewood knows there are 1000 ways around this and you can publish your rental in the Jewish newsletters instead of goyish paper & if you want to rent to a Jew, you certainly can but the investor bought this to make $$$$’s & renting out to 5 Mexican families is more $$$ so we must feel for them as well, they also have 9 kids to marry off. But the bottom line is, if you think in anyway you will harm or cause fear to your neighbors, it is not permitted to do this. People are consciously buying homes & putting in known drug addicts or sellers. They are leaving in renters who drink & party all Shabbos. This isn’t right. This psak is simply requesting investors to think a little, care a little, put other people first when they should & to think a little with their minds instead of their wallet. At the same time, I appreciate the investor who purchased my home & helped me get on that plane to EY. I think it is great many kollel men have been able to continue to learn from renting these homes, even if sometimes to goyim in situations which were not harmful to others. Let us not forget we are Am Kidoshecha, a holy nation which must surround ourselves with Kedusha. This the first time I have ever posted on something but it is terrible for people to bash publicly the Rabbanim or make light of their wisdom in reaching a decition, thinking they did not factor in all matters. Not to mention, if you don’t live in Lakewood, you really can’t understand any of this to comment. It has always been a very complicated situation as Lakewood has grown leaps quickly. I can say that Lakewood will always have a special place in my heart even now living in EY. This place is special because of these Rabbanim & their historical Torah work in Lakewood. Two of these stated Rabbanim loaned me 20grand for a few months simply because of the pressing situation to leave right away for our Aliyah to be successful. This alone should prove their ability to understand the needs of their people & stand up to help them. The pain of the neighbors at this time, is simply too great & more important then the investors getting fast easy rentals.
I love all the yeshivishe grubber fingers used by all the landlords why they are right.
I went to see a house in the middle of Raintree that was owned by a yeshiva maan for investment so that he could sit and learn. All the frum neighbors have begged him to sell the house or get rid of the tenants. Just walking into the house scared the living daylights out of me.It looked like 20 people lived in the 3 bedroom house. Each room was trashed with huge barrels for the empty beer bottles and cans. The dogs scratched up all the walls and the house is a total wreck. This investment is worthless only for the fact that they are paying huge rentthat no frum person would dare match. I would like to hear the conversation that takes place with the vaad when this yunger maan will plead his case that he won’t be able to learn if he has to sell his investment. Countless yungerlite have made the same deals and once one will be excused the rest will follow.It goes without say that the askonim and choshiva yungerlite will also be exempt from the takona and nothing will be solved.
Al shloshu d’vorim haolam omaid, al hagelt al hagelt v’al hagelt and as long as that is the case most landlords will not have the ability to see this subject objectivly because they have too much at stake. I would just like to see a list published to insure that none of these landlords are not leaders in our community.
Put your money where your mouth is! Buy the houses and evict the tenants.
p.s you would probably do the same thing if you were in the landlord’s situation.
p.p.s. I live in Raintree and have NO problems with the renters in my neighborhood. I find them to be quite courteous and friendly.
If you moved into an area knowing full well that your neighbors are not the element that you want, then you have a lot of nerve asking the Landlord to remove them. Do not initially move into an area expecting to pay less, on the back of someone else’s expense. Its that simple.
The comments expressed here all have value. Of course, there are two sides to each coin. Clearly, anyone can see the side of the landlord, and the side of the tenant. I have no problem with my landlord, I am a tenant, and have been for nearly 11 years now, here in Lakewood. I have watched as my neighborhood has changed, for the worse. But with that change has come further changes. It has forced me to become involved in the affairs of the Inspection Department, and the township committee. I have had some positive experiences with the committee members, the police department and the new landlords. I have not been so lucky with the tenants. I don’t need to share my horror stories. But I do hope that perhaps together, as a community, we can work out these problems. Its tragic, to me, to see anyone attacked, stabbed, hurt, etc. I believe there should be a civil patrol allowed here in Lakewood. I believe it would help, along with some very well placed cameras. We need to work together to try and make Lakewood a nice place to live; a place where everyone’s quality of life is afforded them; peace and quiet for all our holidays; noise ordinances that are enforced; homes that are maintained, not just by the landlords, but by the tenants as well. And we need to try and make Lakewood safe for all its members. I think we all wish the same things. The economy is very hard right now; gas is ridiculous; and things are tight. Legally, you just can’t evict someone because you don’t like some of the things they do. But, if you follow the letter of the law, you can evict them if you make sure to take the proper steps. Or, you can try to convince them to better themselves, making it better on all neighbors concerned. After all, don’t we all want to be able to lay our heads down in a clean, quiet, safe home after a long day or night’s work? I do. Its a shame that many of us just don’t have that luxury here in Lakewood.
attention #45 this letter was specifically because of cases you mentioned including yungerlight crying that they would not be able to learn if they have to sell their investment units. An it was also for another case of a Bala Bus who claimed he will also lose and claims he was in the area first- which we reviewed the transactions and he was not. But that does not make a diffrence as the poskim state. A lanlord must be in charge of his investments and overse them. He must manage them and be sure they are civilized and law abiing citizins not creating a nusance for others.
Att: 48 The poskim disagree with you and Daas Torah prevails. It makes no diffrence who was first. Be a menche and sell your investment or fix up the situation. BE a landlord, manage your property and take action. If it means eviction then so let it be. If they are making a ruckus and there are police reports from the neighboors to back it up as well as you logging all the complaints your received – you should not have a problem with eviction.
The landlords must stop renting to the illegal mexicans.
Shop owners must stop hiring illegal mexicans.
99% of Lakewood must stop hiring illegal mexican cleaning ladies.
It’s easy to blame others until you realize that you are guilty yourself.
Apparently we’ve failed to imbue the message that yashrus is as important as kashrus. (surprised??)
The great financial burden of a large family/kollel lifestyle, the simultaneous emphasis placed on economic status/success, and the disdain for pursuing parnassah through secular education/employment leave heads-of-households DESPERATE for alternative/creative forms of parnassah.
Nebach! what a situation we have created!
to #43, HUD section 8 tenants, can be evicted by violating the terms of their lease (a HUD approved document) … proof of illegal behavior, even clearly documented property damage and/or a history of disturbance calls to the police can do it. It will be a court battle and if the lease-holder is “clear” then it may be that only the violator will be required to leave the premises. It’s not easy, for the very good reason that HUD wants to keep poor people in decent housing. Therefore the idea of “undesirable” is not enough to get evicted.