Thread: IA-Raid shines a light on Postville housing

Raid shines a light on Postville housing
By TONY LEYS and NIGEL DUARA • tleys@dmreg.com • September 23, 2008

Read Comments(19) Postville, Ia. - The raid on the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant four months ago has brought attention to the conditions in which many of the Postville plant's workers live, including allegations of substandard rental housing and reports of workers being packed into apartments.

A Des Moines Register analysis of county real estate records found that two companies dominate the rental market in Postville. One is owned by the president of Agriprocessors; the other has its rent payments deducted from the paychecks of its tenants who work at Agriprocessors.


Postville city officials are now considering the unusual move in a small town of regulating rental properties. City Clerk Darcy Radloff said the claims of substandard living conditions have come to light since the northeast Iowa town was rocked by the immigration raid at Agriprocessors.

The rental-property inspection system would set rules on maintenance and building condition, and it would require that no more than two people sleep in each room. Inspections would be financed by fees paid by landlords.

"It's basic, common-sense stuff," Radloff said.

The town has been in the national spotlight since federal agents swooped in on Agriprocessors and arrested 389 workers accused of being in the United States illegally. Many of those workers lived in rental houses in Postville, and some of the workers' replacements have raised allegations of poor living conditions.

The Register analysis of county records found that two rental companies own nearly 14 percent of properties in Postville, located astride the border of Allamakee and Clayton counties.

Of Postville's 916 total parcels, Nevel Properties owns 67, worth about $4.7 million. The company's president is Sholom Rubashkin, an Agriprocessors executive who ran the packing plant for years. GAL Investments, whose president is Gabay Menahem, owns 59 properties, worth about $5.2 million.

Both companies' holdings are mainly modest-sized houses, though they also own several commercial buildings downtown.

No one else in Postville owns nearly as many properties, records show.

Menahem said he has no serious qualms with the proposed housing ordinance, including the idea of having an inspector who could order repairs. He questions the timing of the move, saying Postville should be helping struggling businesses survive. But he said other landlords would have more to fear.

"I support it 100 percent, 100 percent," he said. "I think it's very good, because it would help get the riffraff out."

Rubashkin did not respond to several requests for comment.

Lots of rentals

Most big cities have ordinances regulating rental housing and calling for regular inspections. But many small towns don't. "Usually, it's a question of resources," said Alan Kemp, executive director of the Iowa League of Cities. "Or you might not have a hue and cry from citizens that this is an issue."

Postville, which has about 2,300 residents, has an unusually large number of rental properties, Kemp said. Unless it passes a rental-housing ordinance, it can't easily step in to monitor conditions.

Mayor Robert Penrod said he expected the ordinance to pass and to be put in place early next year. He said he hoped other nearby towns would consider taking similar measures so they could share an inspector. "It's something every town ought to have, actually," he said.

The city is not looking to put anyone out of business, he said, but it wants properties to be in decent shape before they are rented.

Penrod said GAL's properties seem to draw the most complaints. The mayor said Menahem has worked to fix houses as money becomes available. "I think he's making an honest effort to stay on top of them," Penrod said.

County assessors' records appear to bear this out. The properties Menahem has owned for several years are more likely to be rated as "above normal" or "very good," while more recently acquired properties are more likely to be described as "below normal" or "poor."


More willing to talk

The Rev. Paul Ouderkirk, a Catholic priest who helps Agriprocessors workers, said concerns about living conditions remained quiet for years. That's because most of the tenants in the worst properties were illegal immigrants, who were afraid to speak up, he said. Most of the replacement workers are in the United States legally, so they have fewer compunctions about complaining, he said.

Mohamed Kamal and Mustafe Absiya are examples. The cousins entered the United States legally several years ago as refugees from their African homeland of Somalia. They came to Postville from other states last month after a friend told them about jobs at Agriprocessors. The friend, Mohammed Hassan, said he had rented a duplex they could share with him and another man.

The apartment has a large hole in the living-room wall, a broken storm door, stained linoleum and threadbare carpet. The only pieces of furniture in the main living area are two battered kitchen chairs, which the men scavenged from another Somalian who was leaving town. Three of the four men have no beds, so they have been sleeping with blankets on the floor. Outside, the concrete-block building has peeling paint and a decaying garage. A large tire lies in the yard.

"If we'd known it was like this, we never would have come here," said Absiya, 26, who previously lived in Kentucky.

The 1,400-square-foot, two-apartment building is owned by Menahem's company, GAL Investments. Records show the company bought it for $30,000 in August. The Allamakee County assessor's office rates its condition as "very poor."

Hassan said he paid a $700 deposit, plus $450 per month for one of the apartments. The money has been taken out of his check, leaving him with little to live on, he said. The apartment isn't the best, he said, but "I can't complain."

Menahem acknowledged that the house needed work. But he said there was overwhelming demand for Postville housing from new Agriprocessors workers.

"What am I supposed to do - tell them to go sleep on the street?" he asked.

The landlord said his employees quickly repair any problems that tenants report. He said he works to improve his properties, and he pointed out some that appeared to be well cared for. But he said he lacked the resources to refurbish several that he bought during the past year. He still is struggling to recover financially from the aftereffects of the raid, he said.

Menahem defended his treatment of tenants. He acknowledged that some might be sleeping on floors, but he said it normally isn't a landlord's responsibility to provide mattresses or other furniture. He said he sometimes provides mattresses as a goodwill gesture, but he can't afford to give them to everyone.


Rival businessmen

Menahem said that he had no direct ties to Agriprocessors and that he and Sholom Rubashkin are competitors. He said some people in town think they are linked because they both belong to the Lubavitch branch of Orthodox Judaism. But he said he came to town as an independent businessman who was partially attracted by the presence of a synagogue where he could worship.

He acknowledged that the staffing company now filling jobs at the plant had been withholding rent and security deposits from some of his tenants' paychecks. He said he arranged that so he could afford to rent to people who arrived in Postville penniless. But he said he was getting away from that practice, because it has produced confusion and hard feelings. He said he has resumed requiring security deposits upfront.

Postville City Councilman Jeff Reinhardt expressed sympathy for workers whose rent is withheld from their checks. "It's kind of like the old factory towns in Pennsylvania with the coal mines," said Reinhardt, who also owns a mobile-home park that can house 30 trailers he rents out in Postville.

Reinhardt said he wasn't bothered by the amount of property owned by Rubashkin and Menahem. "Competition is healthy," he said.

But he said the number of properties owned by the two men could be a concern if they continued to buy them unabated. He said he would worry about price-fixing on rent.

Reinhardt said he would support a new housing ordinance, depending on the details. He's especially interested in limits on the number of people staying in each unit.

"I think we have had a lot of overcrowding," he said.

University of California-Riverside economics professor Mason Gaffney, who studies land-use issues, said price controls are a major concern when the land of the many lies in the hands of the few.

"Every small town is a potential monopoly," Gaffney said. "They have more of the control over rents than they would in a purely competitive market, so it gives them a possible leverage for raising rents above a market level."

Ouderkirk, the priest, said rental problems are compounded by the fact that many new workers lack cars, so they can't commute from apartments in other towns, all of which are at least six miles away.

Kace Wedo, a longtime resident, said many people in town would welcome a rental-housing ordinance.

Wedo, a nursing home worker who owns her home but lives in an area dotted with rental houses, worries about property values being harmed by run-down houses. But she said she's more concerned about living conditions for Agriprocessors' employees. "They're all working so hard - at least they should have a decent place to stay," she said.



http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... E_ICE_RAID

More corporate greed shows itself......

The apartment has a large hole in the living-room wall, a broken storm door, stained linoleum and threadbare carpet. The only pieces of furniture in the main living area are two battered kitchen chairs, which the men scavenged from another Somalian who was leaving town. Three of the four men have no beds, so they have been sleeping with blankets on the floor. Outside, the concrete-block building has peeling paint and a decaying garage. A large tire lies in the yard.

Ya think the previous tenants had nothing to do with the condition of this apartment? Illegal aliens DO overcrowd homes/apartments all over the country. They do it deliberately, further straining resources.

Postville City Councilman Jeff Reinhardt expressed sympathy for workers whose rent is withheld from their checks. "It's kind of like the old factory towns in Pennsylvania with the coal mines," said Reinhardt, who also owns a mobile-home park that can house 30 trailers he rents out in Postville.


Postville is not "kind of like" anything. I've had to do quite a bit of research into old company towns, as part of another research field I'm interested in, and have said all along that if Postville was not a company town I'd eat my hat.

Everything....and everyone....in Postville knew exactly what was going on. The illegal aliens working at the plant, the working and living conditions, etc......not one bit of it is the big surprise and shock all of these people would like us to believe it has been to them.

They all knew about it.....including that joke of a church......and not a one of them was going to say a damned word because they were/are all bought, paid for, and owned by Agriprocessors.

I hope the media keeps digging......Postville needs to be fully exposed for what it is and so do the people involved.