"Color Me Alarmed," JNS Blog Attempts To "Follow The Money" As Georgia-Based HavenBrook Homes Snaps Up 40 North Minneapolis Properties...

Stock photo of a now-demolished North Minneapolis house, does not depict a HavenBrook
Home, blog post by John Hoff

An article in the May 9 STrib discusses neighborhood concern as a Georgia-based entity called HavenBrook homes has snapped up some 40 homes, intending to turn these houses into rentals or, indeed, already at that point. 

The author of the article, Eric Roper, doesn't write fluff. I've checked his history of recent articles. So I'm rather confused by the fact Roper appeared to make no effort, while talking about this mighty 40-houses-snapping-up-entity, to flesh out the full picture of who is behind HavenBrook Homes...

Well, I'm not saying I have the full picture, either, but I'm not getting paid to find out unlike, say, a Star Tribune reporter. What I do have is Google. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I am saying the answers need to be unearthed and I thought I'd start digging and see where that leads.

"HavenBrook" is a unique enough term, and turns up an interesting article about an entity called "Sylvan Road" which is the moneybags behind HavenBrook, click here for article.

So Sylvan Road is founded by a guy named Oliver Chang, and has access to $300 million (!!!) "to back a new foreclosed home fund" operated by this same Chang, who resigned from Morgan Stanley to run this project. 

Who ponied up all that money? Well, that's the interesting part! IT IS A BIG SECRET. 

But if I had to guess, I'd say it's the CHINESE. Who else has $300 million to play with and snap up homes in tough neighborhoods? Oliver Chang has this to say about, well, AMERICA:

"America is moving toward a rentership society, and I believe the opportunity to purchase and professionally manage single-family, rental homes represents one of the most compelling investment opportunities across all asset classes." 

It was President George Bush (the second one) who talked about moving America toward an "ownership society," and along with the idea we should find Saddam Hussein in whatever spider hole where he was hiding and make him pay for what he did to Kuwait, the notion of an "ownership society" was one of my rare areas of total agreement with the Honorable George Bush. It has long been my position that I'd rather own a humble hovel than rent a luxurious mansion. 

But Oliver Chang wants to move America in the opposite direction; make us all serfs to mysterious investment portfolio masters, churning out wages to pay for time on a meter attached to the roof over our heads, with not a dime's bit of equity entering into the picture. And if this is the same HavenBrook, then this is who has been buying up the Northside 40 homes at a shot.

GOD HELP US. 

Click here for another article about Chang that paints a fuller picture, and makes it clear Sylvan Road isn't the only entity looking to buy up every house in every minority neighborhood in America, others are trying to gnaw into our housing stock and create a powerless "renter society."

There appears to be only one solution to what may be a growing and desperate emergency of home ownership versus an agenda by unknown elites of a "renter society."

CAP THE NUMBER OF SINGLE HOMES AND DUPLEXES ALLOWED TO BE RENTALS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS. IMMEDIATELY!!! 

And then, as a follow up, somebody get this blogger the addresses of every HavenBrook house in North Minneapolis, so the "311 Carpet Bombing Brigade" can keep an eye on those properties and provide some much-needed attention. 

When the Star Tribune won't dig deep and give us the full alarming picture of what's behind HavenBrook, (a mysterious $300 million from who-knows-who!) what are we left with but bloggers and Google? 

Do the CHINESE already own the Star Tribune? 

It makes you wonder.