It's officially summer in Oklahoma, which means local news reporters are hurrying to file their seasonal round of "renters stuck living in sweltering summer squalor thanks to shitty landlords" news stories.
News 9's Barry Mangold hopped on the beat last week with this report about some down-on-their-luck folks stuck living in a south OKC apartment complex.
It's owned by a California company that allegedly won't repair broken AC units, fix plumbing problems or provide other amenities people should expect to have in the year 2022, like heat in the winter:
Multiple residents of Creekside Apartments, a complex in South Oklahoma City, say their utilities have broken down repeatedly, including an ongoing outage of the central air system.
“One of them has been off at all times,” said Rebecca Stevenson, a resident since 2020. “Either gas, electric, water, A-C, heat. I haven't had heat in the Winter. I haven't had A-C in the Summer. Most of the time I've lived here, I haven't had plumbing or water.”
“Sometimes I'll take a cold shower and try to cool off and hope for the best,” said resident Michael Milligan.
Five other residents, who declined an interview for this story, told News 9 their units have been without air conditioning for months.
In these types of stories, out-of-state property owners rarely if ever talk to the media. What's the point? It's not like they're going to send "In Your Corner" out to sunny California for a sneak attack interview.
For some reason, though, Jose Belman, CEO of Capital Homes Investments, did. He blamed vindictive renters who don't like to be bothered about rent.
The complex has been owned by Capital Homes Investments, based in Salinas, California, since 2019. CEO Jose Belman said in a phone call with News 9 that the building does not have any open work orders regarding the air conditioning.
“You got to understand, when you’re bothering tenants to pay their rent, it bothers them,” Belman said. “So, what happens? They’ll find a reason how to – how to send a little more pain to me. So that’s really what’s going on.”
Wow. Belman should move to Oklahoma and run for public office. The local GOP will love him!
Let's be honest here – just like how some landlords give other landlords a bad name, there are some renters out there that give other renters a bad name – and I'm sure Jose has had to deal with his fair share of them at Creekside Apartments.
That being said, you can't really blame the renters for being mad about paying rent when their A/C isn't working during a summer heatwave, especially when the landlord teaches "Faith-Driven Entrepreneurship:
Well, I guess it all makes sense now. Who could forget that passage in Luke where Jesus said "and thou shall turneth off the AC and taketh a cold shower to cool off, letting God's cold love reign over you like wool on a virgin lamb."
Seriously, though, I know I'm not one of those "Christian when it's convenient for me" types that populate the global landscape, but if you want to practice "faith-based entrepreneurship" you should probably start by being a good shepherd, and making sure the people who rent property from you live in humane conditions.
Anyway, I guess we'll begrudgingly follow News 9 to see if they have any updates to this story. You can watch the full report below, and see what people like State Rep. Mickey Dollens are trying to do to combat out-of-state slumlords.
