Lutheran Social Services, Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota, LSS I lost over fifteen thousand dollars due to damage caused by an LSS tenant. Minneapolis MN Minnesota

I have been a landlord for over seven years and never have I had such a devastation from a tenant moving out. Lutheran Social Services is an entity that pays for all or a portion of the rent for low-income families as long as they meet certain criteria and supposed continual agreements such as an annual inspection and "taking care of the unit" as stated on their website: lssmn.org/services/housing-and-assistance/landlords/rental-assistance

But as I quickly learned once their tenant left me with a destroyed property and over fifteen thousand dollars worth of bills to get it back in rent able condition- Their verbal promises and everything they pretend to stand for is all a lie. LSS does not care about landlords whatsoever.

When their tenant named Tina Thunderhawk whom had been renting from myself for about two years moved out, she and her children left me with a disaster. My garage was filled to the brim with garbage bags, mattresses, old televisions, couches, and a decomposing freezer full of maggot filled food. The house was obnoxiously sabotaged and there were destroyed closet handles, doors, towel bars, toilets, stained curtains, cut cable wires, filthy showers and bathtubs, shattered tile- pretty much everything that could possibly be broken was. Nothing was ever cleaned while her family lived there. There were thick layers of dust, grime, dirt etc. throughout the house especially evident on the slimy carpet which needed to get replaced. I was stressed out and in over my head with this situation and LSS offered no assistance. I called and complained to LSS and was advised to take account of my bills and that"we'll be in touch". Nothing was salvageable- All of which I have had to reach into my own pocket and replace.

As listed on LSS's own website, the tenants and landlords must set up a yearly inspection of the property to continue subsidizing the property for rent. LSS never did their inspection on this tenant and had told me at one point that she was uncooperative and an inspector showed up to the property but she did not allow them in. If the inspectors did not inspect the property, why was I not informed. This is a huge red flag. Meanwhile, multiple leaks were missed and rotting my kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well as multiple lease violations would have been caught such as unauthorized pets, unauthorized extra tenants, etc.

LSS is an entity that slides away with pretending that their tenants and the landlords that rent to their tenants are in a partnership, but walk away and claim no liability when **** hits the fan. LSS employees showed up to my property after she moved out and saw the condition. I wouldn't start cleaning and fixing up the property until they looked at it. They also took pictures and it was obvious there were multiple thousands of dollars of damage. I was vaguely told at the beginning of this process to keep track of my bills and finally I provided a finished list of bills of everything it took in the month to get the property back in rentable condition and the bill was over 13 thousand dollars. She moved out end of July and LSS offered to pay me 2 thousand as retribution (which I STILL DO NOT HAVE), advised me to keep her security deposit (obviously?), and they paid August's rent as the property took a full month to fix- and they advised me the bills are tax deductible. That was their offer- What a joke. $2,000.00 is chump change. That doesn't even pay for just the new carpet. They were short about 10 grand in their offer of assistance.

LSS makes landlords sign an addendum to rental subsidy contract that indicates LSS's role in damages as well as indemnification which holds LSS harmless of claims of liability and they made that clear to me when I was fighting for more retribution with the housing services director Jaime Stampley. This is the first thing they brought up to me. Why waste my time and pretned that you're going to help and ultimately only OFFER to provide a small amount of assistance on an astronomically large bill that your tenant created. I am just trying to get MY OWN HARD EARNED MONEY BACK.

So, in short, it is okay for them to subsidize someone who completely destroyed my house- pretending to be a pillar of support for the community but they DO NOT stand up for landlords whatsoever and they walked away from me almost falling into bankruptcy, and I still don't have the $2,000.00 they offered weeks ago. LSS is full of lies, broken promises, and inconsistencies.