Some renters and homeowners are getting financial assistance during the economic disruption from the coronavirus pandemic. What about landlords?
Over the weekend, a landlord in Dayton, Ohio, found himself caught in the blazing Klieg light of an angry internet. A Twitter user posted an image of a text message purportedly written by the landlord, Gary Whitaker, to one of his tenants. In effect, the message said that, coronavirus pandemic or no, the rent was due on April 1.
That note didn’t go over well on social media. “Landlords should forfeit all of their property,” the original poster tweeted. That sentiment (and subsequent tweets) have since been shared tens of thousands of times.
Whitaker says that he can explain it: His phone was hacked. He didn’t send the text attributed to him, he says. At the same time, he also says that rent for his properties — 365 units across eight cities in Ohio and Florida — really is due on April 1, pandemic or no.
“There’s all kinds of trolls out there telling me that I’m the worst landlord in the world,” says Whitaker, the owner-manager of Dayton-based Whitaker Properties. “It didn’t really get to my tenants, because my tenants are not calling me abusive names. They’re paying the rent next month.”
Whitaker’s time in the hot seat illustrates one threat that coronavirus poses to the economy. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that 3 million Americans will lose their jobs by the summer; an even larger number has already applied for unemployment benefits as a wave of pink slips engulfs workers in industries affected by the global pandemic and the shutdowns it has triggered. A small-business apocalypse is looming, and many informal workers in the gig economy — plus artists, musicians, freelancers, and independent contractors — have seen their hours and opportunities dry up. Yet the rent, ever unrelenting, is still due on time every month.
In the face of mounting hardship, many leaders have stepped up with ideas for relief. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a moratorium on evictions from public housing and foreclosures on federally backed mortgages. City and state leaders have implemented a range of protections for renters, particularly in California and New York. The $2 trillion federal stimulus package that Congress is working on includes checks for low- and middle-income families as well as a jolt to unemployment insurance, plus billions in funds for housing and community development.
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