Here we are in May with summer around the corner, and the international impacts of COVID-19 are still with us. The hardships created are ominous, and solutions are coming slower than we would like. But the world is addressing these straight on and making progress daily. The threat has fallen on renters and their landlords, as well.
Congress has acted with many alternative channels to push unprecedented amounts of funds to individuals and businesses. The necessary speed required to make these funds available soon enough to matter have certainly left many without.
Among those without are renters who have lost their jobs or have otherwise been directly impacted by COVID-19. The recent protests that occurred in some major cities in an outcry for wholesale bans on rent expose the frustration, but do not solve the problem. Landlords should be, and are, restructuring rent payments to accommodate those impacted by the virus. Shelter is essential, and keeping properties open, safe, and well-maintained won’t occur if property owners do not collect rent. Their financial obligations do not stop, even though the rent to pay them would.
Furthermore, to date, renters in housing that are nonfederally insured have been left behind. The good news is Congress is now entertaining bills that would provide rental assistance, which is critical for those impacted by the virus outbreak. It will take time for these bills to find final form and come to a vote. Even though this assistance may be late, it will still be needed going forward, as we wait for ultimate solutions to the pandemic and we are all able to return to work.
It is critical that renters—those impacted and those who are not—and their landlords direct their efforts by reaching out to their congressmen and women to implore them to support federal rent assistance bills that do not place further burden on rental property owners that are already suffering record high delinquencies.
It is only through this collaborative effort that inequities can be corrected, and we can arrive at real solutions.
