Rent Payment Assistance Vs. Eviction Bans: What’s Ahead For U.S. Renters And Landlords

As the economy continues to wobble due to the coronavirus pandemic, while policy proposals diverge on how to prop it back up, July could be a watershed month for U.S. renters and their landlords. A key government stimulus is to lapse later this month, while the merits of emergency rent payment programs and new eviction moratoriums are still debated.

Despite early doomsday predictions, many of the roughly 43 million renter households in the country have made at least incremental rent payments in the four months of the Covid-19 outbreak. The National Multifamily Housing Council’s rent payment tracker shows that 94.2% of households in market-rate apartments covered their rent either in full or in part last month, a tally that is slightly higher than its May reading and largely on par with the June 2019 figure.

Eviction bans do not solve the underlying financial problem

A push toward a prolonged federal eviction ban is forming in the U.S. Senate too. In late June, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) proposed a bill enforcing a year-long halt on renter displacements to last through March 2021. The current policy covers only multifamily properties with government-secured mortgages. Sen. Warren’s plan encompasses most renter households impacted by Covid-19.

Full article from Forbes -> Here