Small Landlords Feel the Effects of Lost Rental Income
While eviction moratoriums helped keep many tenants in their homes during the pandemic, the nation s renters have amassed a collective debt of over $52 billion, and many mom-and-pop landlords are struggling to hold on. April 12, 2021, 6am PDT | Diana Ionescu |
A year after governments across the country implemented eviction moratoriums, some landlords are struggling to pay their own bills as back rent piles up. Many said they or their clients are dipping into savings to keep properties afloat and delaying maintenance or repairs because they can’t afford them. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Andrew Khouri reports on the growing crisis.
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As COVID-19 took root and jobs vanished, officials sought to avoid a wave of evictions, homelessness and the spread of deadly disease that could result. Governments from federal to local enacted rules allowing people whose finances have been affected by the pandemic to keep their housing if they don’t pay rent.
The policies have been a lifesaver for many during a crisis when staying home meant staying healthy, but a year later landlords say the rules are heaping an increasingly unfair burden on them.
In interviews with The Times, property owners and managers said that they understood the unprecedented nature of the crisis but that they are absorbing too much of the cost. Many said they or their clients are dipping into savings to keep properties afloat and delaying maintenance or repairs because they can’t afford them. Some said they probably can’t or won’t hold on much longer under these circumstances.
Landlords are waiting for rent payments — and some can t hold on much longer stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LA West Valley Animal Shelter to Reopen, but Pets and Strays Need Appointments Details
ANIMAL WATCH-On February 18, 2021, Los Angeles Animal Services General Manager Brenda Barnette (photo above) submitted a brief two-page letter to Councilman Paul Koretz and the City Council, abruptly revising her recent reconstitution proposal, Long Term Plan for the West Valley Animal Shelter, and reinstating the shelter s original purpose of serving and protecting the lost, abandoned and unwanted dogs, cats and other animals in West Valley communities.
This was announced after months of GM Barnette s bully tactics to deprive the West Valley communities of a critical municipal animal shelter for which they pay taxes, and it would have left 40% (260 square miles) of the city of Los Angeles and over 1.77 million residents and their pets with only one animal shelter, the smaller East Valley Animal Shelter in Van Nuys.
“Rent debt” is the amount Goode and hundreds of thousands of others in LA County still owe their landlords.
It never goes away and just continues to grow, even if you’re protected from being evicted by temporary restrictions.
A moratorium on evictions has prevented people like Goode from being kicked out on the street, but that expires at the end of February.
Larry Gross with LA’s Coalition for Economic Survival points to a recent UCLA study, which says 365,000 LA County households are currently at risk for eviction.
“They have good reason to be scared,” Gross said. “Eviction moratoriums, which are still being planned are great, but they don’t address rent debt at all.