POCATELLO — Landlords in the Gate City say the reason they ask foreign students from the Middle East for higher deposits and advance rent is because they have a tendency to cause serious damage and an ability to not pay their last month’s rent because they leave the country.
Landlord Jerry Hodge has 60 apartments in Pocatello, and he’s had some real issues with Idaho State University students from Saudi Arabia or Kuwait when it comes to trashing his rentals.
“In 45 years in the rental business, I’ve never been to court and have been able to work with renters, but they are a problem,” he said about the foreign students.
Hodge had photos to show how the Middle Eastern men he has rented to in the past have trashed kitchens and destroyed carpets.
“They’ll tell you they don’t smoke, but they do,” Hodge said.
Dave Packer, president of the Pocatello Landlords Association and former Bannock County Assessor, said damage and the inability to recover damages or unpaid rent is a real problem for landlords who rent to ISU students from the Middle East.
“They’re all going to tell the same story,” Packer said about Pocatello landlords.
Packer said there are some cultural issues at play. He said males from Saudi Arabia don’t do domestic chores and consequently don’t know how to clean up after themselves.
Packer also said student renters from the Middle East tend to set up hookahs in the middle of living areas in apartments so they can smoke, and the devices burn holes in the carpet.
The landlord said another issue is if you rent to one male Saudi student, dozens of others will show up at the apartment in expensive cars and take up all the available parking spaces, especially at four-plexes that are the main rental properties Packer owns.
“It crowds out everyone else,” Packer said.
Packer said local landlords charge higher deposits and ask for additional rent in advance to protect themselves.
Because the students from the Middle East come here with no letters of recommendation from previous landlords and no credit reports, Packer said landlords are taking a risk. And once the school year ends, the students are no longer in the U.S.
“Once they’re gone, they’re gone,” Packer said.
Packer said the Islamic Society of Southeast Idaho’s leadership has never approached his organization about making sure any damage to rentals would be covered by the Saudi government.
Saudi students attending ISU have their tuition and living expenses covered by the Saudi government.
(21) comments
Don
What I see when I look in the mirror in someone that tries to be fair to everyone. I see someone that tries hard not to be judgmental.
Yes, I mentioned white and state employee... I was speaking of only one family from within the state of Idaho. The point of my article was to remind Mr. O'Donnell, that tenants of any race can leave a place in shambles.
Why isn't there a single quote or paraphrased perspective from a middle eastern person or group in this article?
Don___,
Sorry; but, by what other word do you describe someone who takes a couple of bad apples and defines an entire group of people?
Do some students trash rental properties? Probably. Do all of one perceived group trash rental properties? Probably not.
Too many bad things have happened in this world because some people insist on believing stereotypes (religious, racial, economic and sexual). Quite frankly, I don't want to be defined by what many of my fellow "Anglo-Saxon Protestants" do (or, do not do).
"All (fill-in-the-blank) are (fill-in-the-blank)" says very little about the group one is trying to denigrate; but, it does say a lot about the person speaking. Name one group of people in this country that hasn't felt the sting of bigotry at one time or another. You can't, We've all been victims. We've all been part of a "minority" sometime in our nation's history.
Unfortunately, that "past" is still the present for too many people.
OutOfPoky, of course you are defending all "Middle Easterners", by gratuitously calling the landlord racist.
Landlords in this town have found through experience that young men from two countries, with no work or credit history in the United States, with no job or other roots in this area, are more likely than other residents to increase the landlords' cost of doing business. The landlords have found through experience that that particular subset of renters is more likely than other subsets to damage the landlords' properly and to leave suddenly without clearing the apartment or paying the rent.
Last week a local religious leader said the landlords were religious bigots. This week you are calling them racists. Yet there is no evidence that landlords are increasing the deposit for middle-aged Saudi Arabian family men, or for Kuwaitis working in Pocatello. Nor is there any evidence that they are denying housing to Muslims.
You are claiming that the landlord is generalizing the behavior of a subset of young, jobless, and rootless renters in a small town in Idaho to an entire race of people. There is no evidence to support that assumption by you or the others in this forum.
Don____,
Correction: I did not say Pocatello was full of bigots. I said that Idaho had earned the reputation of being "the bigot's capital of America" and that the story printed Sunday did much to solidify that belief.
By the way, I have no problem looking in the mirror. What I see is a man looking back that is far from perfect; but, what I also see is a man who believes in equal treatment for all of God's children.
This may shock you: Many of us in this community worship a man from the "Middle East," who spoke a language - Aramaic - still spoken in parts of Iran and Iraq.
Would you deny Him a place to live because of His place of birth?
DC NYLA,
First of all the landlords aren't talking about a "couple" of bad apples. They are talking about " ISU students from the Middle East".
These students are unmarried young men, with no work history in this area, with no credit history in the United States, who rent apartments in this city.
When I was an unmarried young man, with little work history in this area, with very little credit history, renting apartments in this city, I was charged more for security deposits and was required to pay first and last month rent.
DC NYLA, you did not say Idaho had a well deserved reputation, you wrote this: " I still have friends from the city I left behind who won't visit here because of our reputation as the bigots' capital of America".
You said the city had a well-deserved reputation because your bigoted friends say we are the bigots' capital of America. That is an ugly lie with no basis in fact.
The landlords are simply stating that their experience with "ISU students from the Middle East" is that, in general, ISU students from the Middle East cause problems. They are saying about young unmarried men from of foreign country with no jobs or credit history or roots in this area are problem renters.
And they are only responding to unfounded accusations by a prominent Muslim that the landlords are discriminating only because of the country of origin and presumed religion of those students. That is another ugly lie that O'Donnell exploited in order to put an opinion piece on the front page last week.
No one is denying anyone a place to live. That is another ugly insinuation you are using to smear the reputation of the landlords in this city.
Don___, I am not
"Defending Middle Easterners". I am expressing my extreme disappointment that anyone feels it is okay to generalize members of a minority as a "problem". It is not as if these students are rodents in need of controlling, but that is the way the quotes in this article make it seem. I know this is tough to believe, but this argument is not divided between supporting the landlords or supporting the Middle Easterners.
To be clear, I do believe that anyone who runs a business should do their best to protect their investments - within the parameters of what is legal, that is. I am also not defending anyone who does not care for another person's property. More than any of that, I am staunchly appalled at the discrimination.
My problem is with the idea that simply being Middle Eastern means they will not care for the property. The picture of the stove and the anecdotal evidence presented by the landlord expresses a spurious relationship between the fact that the tenants were Middle Eastern and that the apartment was trashed. It does not prove that Middle Easterners alone destroy apartments, and it does not warrant a racist generalization about the way people will behave because of their background. Regardless of his experience, charging a certain group of people a higher rate because people with similarities have, in the past, behaved a certain way is discriminatory. That is the very definition of discrimination. I don't care how valid he feels his argument is. He is openly and proudly discriminating against a minority group of people.
Surprisingly, and untouched by this article (though addressed in the comments), many people have loaned things to people of several diverse backgrounds and gotten them back in worse condition than they began. Are we to believe (as this article suggests) that all renters who do not care for their temporary homes are from the Middle East?
You are right, though. I would love to see this man lose his business. The natural consequence to his outdated, disturbing opinions and behaviors should be that people who are not like minded not give him their business. Ideally, that would mean no one would support his racist and unfounded business practices, and he would suffer at the cold intersection of politics and capitalism.
This is the accusation you a making: that the landlords believe " simply being Middle Eastern means they will not care for the property"
The landlords have not said that. They said that "ISU students from the Middle East" are problem renters. You are the bigot generalizing that they are talking about all people from the Middle East.
So, in order to defend the Middle Easterners who last week were saying the landlords in this town are bigots and thieves,
Rose21 denigrates white people and state employees as deadbeats,
DC NYLA says Pocatello is full of bigots,
usnvet claims landlords are conspiring to make the students look bad,
OutOfPoky gratuitously calls the landlord racist and calls for him to be driven out of business,
maggie6 gratuitously calls him a slumlord with no evidence whatsoever,
Pokymon calls him a thief for never returning any deposits, again with no evidence whatsoever.
One has to wonder what these people see when they look in a mirror.
Oh My, Mike O'Donnel this does not look good for anyone!!
I rented my rental to a white family with good references. They both had good jobs with the State of Idaho. The rent was paid on time, but oh what a surprise when they moved. The place was trashed to the tune of several thousand dollars.
Off to court we go, she quit her job and it ended up taking almost four years to garnish his wages. Even with pictures the judge showed sympathy towards them. Only a small portion of the damages were ever reimbursed by garnishment
If you want pictures Mr. O'Donnel, just let me know. I am guessing you have never been a landlord. Your article FAILS in so many ways.
Mike O'Donnell, you should know better (and, be ashamed). A "fair and balanced" reporter would have interviewed other local landlords who have had similar problems with good ole American kids renting their apartments. I'm sure they wouldn't have been that hard to find.
I've lived here almost 25 years and I still have friends from the city I left behind who won't visit here because of our reputation as the bigots' capital of America. Articles like this don't help the situation.
If this is how we view the children of one of our "Staunchest Middle East Allies," no wonder we're hated in that region.
The opinions expressed in the ISJ do not reflect that of the community as a whole.
Generalizations are unfair and dangerous. The story managed to make everyone look bad, the students, the ISJ, the landlord and our community.
Most landlords do background checks and require first and last month rent with a security deposit,so why the need for more than that.If you know the person has a history from prior landlords of trashing a place than just say cant help ya but don't assume all people are bad with out knowing them and if they do leave the last month that is what the deposit is for they lose it and don't get it back if they do trash it send them to collections for the damages they should not be hard to track done they got here left and will be back for another place all landlords ask for references I don't see the need for this extreme measures to say all from this country are bad tenants.
How has poor Mr. Hodges, the owner of 60 (I am sure idealic) apartments managed to hire the ISJ as his advocate? He shows one photo of a trashed stove top and labels an entire country and the journal helps him.
What kind of vacation is the good judgment department of the ISJ on right now that this kind of smut actually made it to publication?
It is never okay to make generalizations and to blame a culture or group of people for an individual problem. Come on, who really decided this was a worthy story?
I am just glad the name of the racist landlord was included in the article so all the prospective tenants of Pocatello can boycott his properties. Don't rent from this man. And don't patronize the ISJ if they are going to encourage this kind of "opinion".
I am so happy to be out of Pocatello if this is the direction it is going.
My heart just palpitates peanut butter for Mr. Hodge. Poor guy owns 60 apartments, probably charging $400 a month for each, and raking in about $24,000 per month. I would be curious to know how many cleaning deposits he's actually returned over the years to the vast majority of students who leave his apartments in good shape. My guess...is none.
These type of articles make the city look so bad. It's really quite shameful to print something like this that trashes an entire culture just from one person s opinion.
slum lords looking for scapegoats. A junk stove from the landfill. Take it back where you got it
This article is full of unfair generalizations and is incredibly unprofessional and, frankly, appalling. I am embarrassed by the Idaho State Journal as a resident of Pocatello and the ISJ should be ashamed to have published this.
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