To Pay Rent and Avoid Eviction, Tenants Cash In Their Dreams

On its face, the disconnect between upbeat landlords and anxious tenants seems to expose a glitch in the data or an example of the growing economic dissonance — like the stock market’s rise to new heights despite a 10.2 percent unemployment rate. What it actually shows is that for all of the government’s problems in containing the virus, financial rescue efforts were largely effective in keeping tenants in their homes.

The $2 trillion CARES Act, with its $1,200 stimulus payments and $600 a week in extended unemployment benefits, helped laid-off renters stay current, while federal, state and local eviction moratoriums guaranteed stability for those who could not. But those efforts have largely lapsed: The $600 payments ended in July, and about 20 states have eviction moratoriums, down from 43 in May.

President Trump signed an executive order telling federal agencies to help avoid evictions, but the provisions were vague. Congress has been at an impasse over new aid, and a stopgap $300 weekly unemployment supplement announced by Mr. Trump has reached few workers so far and will provide only a few weeks of relief.

In the meantime, mounting bills are prompting tenants to take ever more desperate measures, with potentially devastating long-term effects.

Lindsey Henderson, a laid-off retail bagging assistant from Round Rock, Texas, has been paying her rent with a Chase Freedom credit card so that she and her husband can preserve cash and accrue points that help save on food and gas. Olivia Meaders, a 24-year-old woman in Beaverton, Ore., was laid off twice — once in March, and again in July — from her job as a retail manager at a men’s apparel store. To make enough money to pay rent, she began making deliveries for Postmates. Randy Ping, a 49-year-old street performer in Manchester Township, N.J., received $3,000 in donations from friends and has paid his rent through September, but he expects to miss his payment for October and move out shortly after.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/business/economy/rent-tenants-evictions.html