There has been a moratorium on evictions in the US for much of this year. It didn't relieve people of the obligation to pay rent, it merely closed the courts to eviction proceedings. The bills have added up, for an estimated 1,000,000 families. The moratorium is due to end January 1st. The courts are bracing for an avalanche of filings.
There are calls to "cancel the rent," but doing that is beyond the power of the government, unless the rent is owed to the government. Most of it is owed to people. I know a couple of people who are dependent on collecting the rent to pay their bills. They have their life savings invested in rental property, the rent paid on that is their income. Forgiving the rent, would be taking away their income. Some of it is owed to corporations, and partnerships, and those are funded by private capital, in other words people's life savings. If Congress wants to deal with this, Congress needs to step up and make the landlords whole. As it is, much of the arrears will never be collected, resulting a meaningful loss of income for people who invested their life savings in owning rental property.
Well that ramble is a bit of a downer. I wish I had easy answers, sometimes there are no easy answers.
How do you respond to calls to "cancel the rent" or "cancel the student loan debt"?
honestly, IDK.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult
DeleteI don't have the knowledge to provide an answer. But, people need help, not banks and huge corporations.
ReplyDeleteExample after example is coming up of the help for businesses going to companies that didn't really need the money to make payroll.
DeleteIt is similar here but not to quite that extent. Having once owned a rental property, I completely understand what is like to depend on rent to pay your mortgage. Good income support over the year nearly past may have been a good thing to do by governments. Ultimately if people are dispossessed of their home and landlords are never paid is a loss loss situation. It would be unfair on many who have paid even though they have struggled but ultimately keeping people in their home is best on the whole, and if that means a negotiated loss of some income for landlords, then so be it.
ReplyDeleteThere is a risk in being in a business like owning rental property, but closing the courts to evictions has resulted in losses beyond the normal risk,
DeleteI don't either. It seems the pandemic just snowballed everything. I rent a small condo and my landlord is very good with me. When he heard I was laid off, he told me to pay what I can, which is very affordable already...one reason I have stayed so long , 20 years. Since going in to the pandemic I was pretty well set, specially since the three big trips were canceled. But I have several friends, on the reverse side.... on the verge of total collapse. One already lost his house.
ReplyDeleteRestaurants, bars, and retail are a long way from coming back - those are lot of front line jobs. 20 years is a long time to rent.
DeleteWe give billionaires and corporations HUGE tax breaks.
ReplyDeleteJared Kushner got PPE loan.
Tom Brady got PPE loan.
If we, as a country, through our leaders, are bailing out the rich, but forcing the poor into homelessness or lifelong debt, it's time to rethink this country.
And Countries in Europe replaced up to 80% of the lost income of restaurant and retail workers who were unable to work, if the workers get paid, the rent gets paid, the loans get paid. We are one of the few countries that finances higher education on student loans.
DeleteI agree with both of you. Something is seriously wrong with this county. Before long, it is going to be either very poor, or very rich. There will be no in between. Trump really help that along. Once my three remaining family members aren't with me anymore, my plan is to leave the US.
DeleteI have no answer for the rent problem. Some type of arbitration perhaps. The problem is so large it will be difficult to deal with it on an individual basis which is the only way it can be done fairly.
ReplyDeleteDC is offering to pay 80% of the rent for persons who have been unemployed, they are allowing landlords to apply and certify that their tenants have been unable to pay.
DeleteLike Sharon I too don't know what to do.
ReplyDeleteYou voted, you did your part.
DeleteThanks for saying this. I don't want to see anyone lose their home or be evicted. But there are also people who's incomes are from rent. They're jot monsters for trying to keep their incomes. I have friends who are landlords that have lost their income for months in NY - the government needs to help BOTH tenants and landlords. We can't keep sacrificing one group for another or pitting us against each other - we all need the help of our government. I think the best landlords and tenants are working together to get through this. We help ourselves when we help others. I am hoping (because I have to) that we will soon have a leader that will lead us out of this darkness (or give us the resources to find our way out.)
ReplyDeleteSassybear
www.idleeyesandadormy.com
*not*
DeleteWe are all in this together, a whole planet of us.
Delete