Sean Hannity has made a big show of concern about the rate of foreclosures under President Barack Obama. But in the nearly four years since Hannity’s shell company purchased the Hampton Place apartments in Perry, Georgia, evictions have gone from 12 to 61.
In another deep dive into Hannity’s real estate empire, The Guardian found that the guy who complained about a “record number of foreclosures” under Obama, “ seems to have had no such concern about his own tenants being forced out of their homes.
From today's The Guardian:
County court records say that judgments approving the removal of 61 different residents of the Hampton Place apartments in Perry have been issued during the three years and 10 months since Hannity took over.
The previous owner of the 152-unit apartment complex obtained similar orders against 12 different tenants during the preceding three years and 10 months, according to the records, before selling it to Hannity for almost $8m.
[…]
Not all the tenants who received eviction orders were ultimately removed from the property. One who asked not to be identified said he was given a reprieve last year after agreeing to pay about $300 in extra fees in addition to a late $725 monthly rent payment for his two-bedroom apartment. “It seemed kind of harsh,” he said.
[…]
The records show that Hannity’s property managers have moved to evict several other tenants who challenged the court action and were instead ordered by the court to pay outstanding debts as low as $232.
As previously noted, Hannity’s purchase of the property was partly funded by mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (which he did not disclose when interviewing HUD Secretary Ben Carson). The Guardian now reports that Hannity may convert the complex into condominiums starting in June 2019. It’s not clear whether that means HUD granted Hannity that permission because he’s considering doing so or whether it was boilerplate language. If Hannity is interested in converting his property, that would give him every incentive to evict people.
Hannity’s attorney told The Guardian that the talk show host, who reportedly earned $36 million just last year, “is not involved in the management” of the property. But clearly multi-millionaire Hannity has no objections about aggressively evicting people, either.
In 2007, Media Matters reported that Hannity attacked then-presidential candidate John Edwards for investing and working for a company foreclosing on residents of New Orleans, even though Edwards had announced plans to divest from the company. In his zeal to attack Edwards' lack of compassion for the homeowners, Hannity failed to note that Edwards had also pledged to provide financial assistance to affected homeowners.
So where’s Hannity’s pledge of assistance to his evicted tenants? The Guardian spoke to two tenants evicted from Hampton Place. Neither mentioned having received any. A previous Guardian article noted that another Hannity company had purchased foreclosed homes from a fraudster who had rigged the bidding (with no evidence of Hannity involvement in the fraud). I didn't see anything about Hannity helping out those homeowners, either.
Hannity’s concern for people losing their homes seems to end when the cameras stop rolling.
(Hannity image via screen grab)
Rent? Check your property to see if Pie owns it. If he does own the property, try to move to another property. Don’t give this Long Island Omen your money. He has plenty of cash.
NOTE TO HANNITY
Greedy old pig. We hope you are evicted from your mansion straight to prison where you belong. May authorities seize all of your properties and leave you broke.