Agents with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture raided the Ohio home of Millennia Companies chief executive Frank Sinito, whose company owns the notorious Forest Cove Section 8 apartment complex in Atlanta.
The agents executed a search warrant Wednesday, arriving at Sinito’s shortly before 7 a.m., according to ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland, or WEWS. Sinito is a real estate developer and CEO of one of the nation’s largest owners of multifamily properties.
It’s not clear exactly what agents were looking for at Sinito’s estate in the Lake County village of Waite Hill, about 25 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio. But the outlet observed about a dozen cars at Sinito’s home and saw agents carrying out boxes.
The Millennia Companies’ lawyer, Marisa T. Darden of Cleveland law firm Benesch Law, confirmed the raid. She said the company was cooperating with investigators. The firm declined to comment on the nature or status of the government probe.
“It’s important to remember that an investigation is just that. There have been no arrests and no charges filed,” Darden wrote in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Neither HUD nor the USDA responded to requests for comment.
Millennia Housing Management, through an entity called Phoenix Ridge, owns Forest Cove, according to court records filed Oct. 3. In March, the city began demolishing the complex. For years, residents had lived in homes plagued by rodents, mold, and insects.
Phoenix Ridge took control of the property in 2021. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in previous statements to the AJC, it suggested it was a scapegoat for the city and the previous owners’ management of the troubled complex.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined Forest Cove as part of its “Dangerous Dwellings” investigation into metro Atlanta complexes and the impact of violent crime on residents. On the back of that investigation, state legislators proposed and passed the Safe at Home Act, which provides some modest protections for renters.
In April, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law.
Alison Johnson, executive director of the Atlanta housing advocacy group Housing Justice League, hoped the raid would bring attention to the plight of people who had lived at Forest Cove, many of whom are still struggling to get into safe and affordable housing.
Credit: Daniel Varnado
Credit: Daniel Varnado
“It doesn’t really move the needle in terms of how tenants will be treated because there’s no federal policies, no state policies or local policies to acknowledge the fact that these people have been hurt. No damages have been awarded,” Johnson said.
Last year, the city announced a lawsuit against Millennia over its handling of Forest Cove. In an interview with the AJC’s editorial board in February, Mayor Andre Dickens said the lawsuit had not yet been filed but expected it to reach the courts by the end of this year.
“We applaud the Biden-Harris administration for holding this landlord accountable for all of the families living in their distressed and neglected properties,” Dickens’ chief policy officer and senior adviser Courtney English said in a statement. “We will continue our efforts to ensure safe and secure housing for all residents in the city of Atlanta and hope that these actions send a chill down the spine of any property manager who refuses to do right by their tenants.”
Millennia manages thousands of apartment units in the U.S.
Tenants in other states, including Mississippi and Arkansas, have complained of deplorable living conditions. The company said earlier this year it plans to exit the business of managing Section 8 housing and will sell the majority of its multifamily housing properties.
The corporate landlord had previously received federal subsidies from HUD. But the agency has said it would ban the company from entering into any new Section 8 rental voucher contracts.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
In a letter addressed to Sinito and Millennia Housing Management, HUD issued a notice of suspension and proposed disbarment to the company over “unauthorized transfers and underfunded security deposit accounts.” The letter, sent in December, said the company had either direct or indirect control of more than 200 multifamily properties subject to regulatory oversight.
“Nearly $4.9 million is missing or was improperly taken from 19 HUD-insured or HUD-subsidized properties,” the letter states. “Violation of these requirements jeopardizes the financial health of the properties, jeopardizes the housing stability of tenant families, and increases the risk of default to HUD.”
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