In the conversation around housing affordability, small landlords often catch the heat. To be clear – the rising rents, evictions, and disappearing neighborhoods plaguing New Orleans aren’t being driven by the woman renting out her shotgun double. They’re being driven by Wall Street.
Corporate landlords—not small, local ones—are the real force hollowing out the city’s housing market. And if we want to get serious about affordable housing, we need to start by targeting the investors who treat homes as profit engines, not places for people.
The Corporate Takeover of Housing in New Orleans
In the years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans became a prime target for real estate investors. Hedge funds, real estate trusts, and national property management firms swooped in to buy up foreclosed and blighted properties—often at rock-bottom prices.
Today, that trend hasn’t just continued—it’s accelerated. Across the U.S., corporate landlords like Invitation Homes, Progress Residential, and others have bought hundreds of thousands of single-family homes, and New Orleans hasn’t been spared. These firms often:
• Buy homes in bulk through shell LLCs,
• Outbid local buyers by offering cash,
• Automate rent collection and evictions through apps, and
• Invest in short-term gains over long-term community building.
Unlike small landlords who live in the communities they rent in, corporate landlords are absentee owners who extract wealth without reinvesting in neighborhoods.
Small Landlords Are Struggling—Not Profiting
Small, local landlords—especially Black and working-class property owners—are facing rising insurance premiums, property taxes, and maintenance costs. Many rent out part of their own home to make ends meet. Others maintain multi-family units they inherited, manage alone, and upkeep without a property management company.
These landlords:
• Are more likely to offer below-market rent,
• Often work with tenants during tough times,
• Invest in their own neighborhoods, and
• Don’t have the scale to absorb massive cost increases without passing them on.
The recent surge in insurance premiums across Louisiana has hit them the hardest. While corporate landlords can write off costs and lobby for tax breaks, small owners are forced to raise rent—or sell to those very same corporate buyers.
Who’s Behind the Rent Hikes and Evictions?
According to a 2022 report by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, corporate landlords are more likely to raise rents aggressively, impose hidden fees, and pursue evictions without just cause. After acquiring properties, they often:
• Raise rents by significant margins: The report found instances where corporate landlords increased rents substantially, sometimes by 10% or more, even during the pandemic.
• Impose hidden fees: Tenants faced additional charges for services like trash collection and online payment processing, which were not always clearly disclosed upfront.
• File evictions at higher rates: Despite federal eviction moratoriums, some corporate landlords filed eviction notices at alarming rates. For example, the report highlights that certain companies filed to evict tenants who were only one month behind on rent, sometimes while they were awaiting emergency rental assistance.
These practices prioritize profit over tenant stability, with corporate landlords operating extensive housing portfolios that can span hundreds or even thousands of properties in a single city.
Policy Needs to Target the Right Culprit
If we want to stabilize New Orleans neighborhoods and stop the hemorrhaging of affordable housing, we need policy that distinguishes between local ownership and corporate control. That includes:
• Regulating bulk home purchases by investment firms,
• Incentivizing owner-occupant purchases,
• Creating protections for long-term tenants, and
• Taxing vacant corporate-owned units to discourage speculation.
We also need to rethink who’s invited to the table when housing decisions are made. Because for too long, the voices of small landlords and lifelong renters have been drowned out by lobbyists and LLCs.
Don’t Blame the Landlord Next Door
The next time your rent goes up or your neighbor gets evicted, ask who owns the house.
If it’s a hedge fund in Atlanta or a REIT in New York, that’s not a coincidence—it’s a business model. And it’s one that’s turning our homes into commodities, our neighborhoods into spreadsheets, and our city into a playground for profit.
Small landlords aren’t the enemy—they’re often the last line of defense against total corporate takeover.
The real threat to New Orleans housing isn’t your neighbor renting out a duplex. It’s the investor flipping 40 homes from 800 miles away.
