Community members and local activists gathered at the Peoria City Council meeting Tuesday in solidarity to demand action from the council in the face of widescale evictions in the East Bluff.
Back in July, over two dozen residents received notice that their shared landlord had sold the properties to an outside company. Now, six months later, tenants say they were surprised by a 30-day eviction notice in the middle of winter. Many of them say they are struggling with the immense pressure of not having nearly enough time to figure out where to go next.
In late November, community members who are currently renting homes in the East Bluff received an email from property management company Darwin Homes stating they have until Dec. 30 to move out of their rental houses. According to tenants, the order provided no reason or explanation as to why they were being forced out.
Darwin does not actually own the properties where the tenants are being evicted — it instead acts as the middle man in communication between tenants and the new owners.
The company that now owns these properties is called SFR3, a “boutique real estate investment fund acquiring $3.5 billion plus in affordable single-family homes by 2024.”
Currently, it owns more than 11,500 homes in 20 different states across the country, and claims it is buying and building several hundred more every month.
Kristen Meierkord, president of both the East Bluff Neighborhood Association and the local chapter of the ACLU, said the already pervasive homeless crisis in Peoria continues to sky rocket, and that efforts by companies like Darwin and SFR3 only further exacerbate the issue.
“I am disgusted by what’s going on in the East Bluff…many of the residents that are affected by Darwin’s actions have been living in the community for some time, and now they are in crisis,” Meierkord said.
She urged the council to provide assistance to those impacted by the evictions.
“This is like a fire that just hit them during the holidays,” said local activist and Peoria City Council candidate Lawrence Maushard, who is also Meierkord's partner. “We have a homeless crisis in Peoria. All the shelters are full. When you dump…literally, dump…dozens of people into that situation, what do you think is going to happen?”
Maushard asked the council to use "some kind of emergency powers" to prevent the evictions.
Darwin Homes Property Management is a real estate technology startup founded by former DoorDash executives Ryan Broderick and Zachary Kinloch. The property management company allows property owners and landlords to manage single-family rental homes entirely virtually, from anywhere.
Darwin Homes states on its website that it is “incorporating new proprietary property management software that allows owners and managers to take control over and scale their portfolios across different markets nationwide, eliminating the inefficiencies that limit profits and expansion.”
In other words, Darwin makes it not only possible, but simple, for non-local property owners to purchase and manage housing in any community, including in Peoria.