A recent Reno subreddit post which got over 239 up arrows and nearly 300 comments was called “It's time to fight back against rent prices and all the ridiculous add ons.”
“I’m no longer entertaining rentals which require fees, deposits etc. This includes pet fees, background check fees, credit score fees, application fees, processing fees, membership fees, HOA fees, holding fees,” the poster davanzomichael wrote.
“All anyone should have to pay for is the rent. And it should be affordable. Stop expecting renters to pay off your mortgage or help you immediately make your investment back.”
In the comments, bromego710 wrote “some of these places are just scams, too. I forget where I saw it, but basically, they had apartments listed for like $1500/month, but we're changing $25 for an application fee. so they would get 100+ applications every month, so they were making $2500+ buy keeping it empty and just continuing to let people ‘apply’”
Theghostofamagpie chimed in “to extend this conversation to Mobile Home parks, as someone living in one, (the nicest one in Reno called The Riverwalk) our space rent is inching up to around actual apartment rental pricing, at around $800 for just the space, most people are also adding in an extra mobile home rent cost/mortgage of $1000 ($1,800 total) or more. These parks are supposed to be the last bastion of affordable housing. Not only are space rents going up, but we are in a particular position of NEVER feeling secure in our housing even if we own our homes because we can be kicked out for lot rent, or private equity firms are buying these lots to raise rent as much as possible.”
Other recent social media posts have zeroed in on FPI Management, such as a Reno_Sparks subreddit entry called “FPI Management’s Unacceptable Treatment of Tenants – Enough is Enough.”
It describes a leak from a bathtub, which kept worsening, and which after more than eight months, resulted in a maintenance worker deciding to put thick tape to cover the crack as a sufficient solution.
“Enough is enough. We deserve better as tenants. If this company expects us to uphold our end of the lease, they should do the same,” the post by Previous-Spare6986 concluded.
Another Reno subreddit post from a few weeks ago titled “Stuck on the 5th floor” was accompanied by a photo of an enormous hole in an apartment front door.
“I am a 72 yr old disabled (amputee) woman,” sactokat wrote. “For 3+ years I have lived at Vintage at Citi Vista, managed by FPI management. I live on the 5th floor. November 1st I gave my 30 day notice to move. On Sunday November 17, my neighbor texted me while I was at work that the Fire Department had kicked in my front door. I left work and took a cab home to discover that my a sprinkler had malfunctioned and water was soaking my 2nd bedroom. The end result was huge holes in the ceiling, insulation on all my belongings and boxes soaked that I had already packed for the move. The next day it happened again. This put a halt to my packing and I couldn’t enter the room because of huge fans that were left to dry it out. I was panicked because I had hired movers for November 26. I have no family or friends to help me, recently diagnosed with leukemia, it all seemed insurmountable. I thought it couldn’t get any worse but it did… 2 days later the elevators (2) in our building stopped working. They come on occasionally but not for long…”
“Ahhhh good old FPI management,” No-Emphasis7309 commented. “Crappy company all around. My apartment complex was just taken over by them and it has been nothing but problems…. I hate FPI and unfortunately they manage most income based apartments and rip them all off. Get in for a low rate and the[n] raise it after a year to crazy amounts.”
We have repeatedly contacted the Folsom-based company which coordinates residential property management services in over 20 states, but have not heard back.
Their management has come under scrutiny here repeatedly, by both media and officials, most recently for subpar conditions at the Vintage at the Crossings for residents 55 and over.
Reno City Housing Manager Cori Fisher and Reno staff even held meetings with FPI Management representatives to go over complaints there, from clogged vents to broken door knobs and trash buildup.
With efforts for decent and sufficient housing affordability coming up short here and elsewhere, there was an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez led attempt before the election for a massive social housing bill, the establishment of a new HUD division and a repeal of the Faircloth Amendment. The amendment which was a provision of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 has since limited the number of public housing units that federal authorities can build.
According to the Housing Wire website, “the bill would have also given local communities more power to finance real estate acquisitions or convey property to existing public housing authorities or ‘mission-driven nonprofits, tenant- or resident-owned cooperatives, state or local governments, and community land trusts.’”
As Democratic candidate Kamala Harris tacked to the center in her campaign efforts, and former Republican President Donald Trump defeated her, any AOC type idea on a federal push for affordable housing seems like a pipe dream. The Trump team has echoed Reno’s Mayor Hillary Schieve in saying looser regulations on housing construction should be tried.
Maybe Nevada’s legislature can get to work in that direction and others, but with Governor Joe Lombardo’s veto tendencies, it seems anything sweeping and transformational will yet again go by the wayside.
Our Town Reno, Citizen’s Forum, December 2024
