It’s high time there was an investigation into the exclusionary practices of neighborhood watch and block coordinator groups. This would include investigating the role these groups play in the systematic economic exclusion of tenants, home owners who rent, and perhaps any others who, in the mobbers’ parlance, “stay too long.” Women, in particular, may be considered easy targets for scams designed to cheat residents out of their legal contracts and compel the turnover of property. If such an investigation began with Seattle, Washington or Albany, California, it would likely finally resolve my own situation. However, an inquiry into the role of neighborhood watch and block coordinator groups in exclusionary practices is relevant anywhere these groups are established.
There is an established relationship between neighborhood watch and real estate that results in exclusionary practices in the neighborhoods, like watch captains and block coordinators working with speculative interests to turn tenants and landlords against each other and systematically expel or evict them. It’s time to end the scapegoating of tenants, minority groups, and people from other states for “blight” and the high cost of housing.
When you want to know who to blame for a lack of inventory, look at real estate “investors” who purchase houses as a business. Look for those whose business relies on forcing home owners to sell so investors can net an estimated 45% profit on a low-end “rehab” or rebuild. Look for those who use the resources of the city, including watch groups and block coordinators, to ensure the interests of speculators over the interests of residents. Look for investors willing to partner with hate groups, look for “investors” who use hate and fear to “acquire” properties. Look for investors who criminalize tenancies and damage their “neighbors’” homes to drive down prices for predatory sales. Look for “investors” who want to build their own “inventory” of rental properties that will be unaffordable to those who are forced out of their legal homes, whether they own them or rent. Look for the rise of online investment firms trading in single-family rental homes.
When you want to know who to blame for the unaffordability of housing, look at how we’ve constructed housing as another market for speculation. When you want to know who to blame, take a look at the growing hostility of a once friendly neighborhood, look for house flippers and development on every side, look across the street, or down the street, or next door—look for the neighborhood watch.
On being Mobbed 