Support needed for landlords after tenants stop paying rent

Celebrating NAHREP familia, cultura, politics, and grassroots action

Que onda mi gente?!

I don’t know about you, but I’m determined to make facemasks fashionable. This week, I received several masks with beautiful Mexican embroidery from a small business in New York called Sololi. I’m kind of excited to sport these over the next few months! I’ve also been leaving the house a lot more lately and interacting with people, with facemasks on, of course. All of it is just so strange. I feel like you don’t get a full sense of a person if you can’t see their full face, you know? Given how relationship driven real estate is, what do you guys do to establish “confianza”? Do you briefly let them see your full face and smile at them at the beginning or the end of an interaction? Are you all used to it now? I don’t think I’m there yet. It all feels like a scene from The Handmaids Tale when the handmaids from D.C. wore facemasks. But, it’s the new normal and absolutely necessary. Como dicen los Españoles, “Vale y venga tios.” Let’s make the best of it and make it fashion.

It’s time to support small landlords during the pandemic

For years, at NAHREP we’ve been encouraging our members to invest in real estate and rental properties as a means to build wealth. Lately, a lot of policy conversations have revolved around rental assistance, but with little regard for landlords, who happen to also be struggling small businesses during this pandemic. According to the Washington Post, for every dollar a rental property owner gets from rent, only 9 cents go to the owner in the form of profits. The vast majority of rental income goes to mortgages, property taxes, payroll and repairs. I’m not sure policy makers and the overall public completely understands that. NAHREP Director, Nora Aguirre, offered a story that paints a picture of what folks are going through right now.

Many of you have reported that some renters receiving unemployment insurance or stimulus checks have been able to make their rental payments without a problem. However, not everyone has access to benefits and for some, it’s just not enough to get by. For example, many immigrants do not qualify for any assistance, and many Latino small business owners still have not applied for the Paycheck Protection Program.

That is why we’ve teamed up with the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation to advocate on behalf of small landlords, like many of you. The following proposal is one that we’re pitching to Congress. If you have a relationship with your Member of Congress, please reach out to them to talk about this issue.

PROPOSAL: Congressional program for small landlords to receive funding in order to cover rental losses caused by the pandemic during the national emergency.

• Small landlords would be able to tap into existing lending programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program or a new funding source to cover lost rent payments.
• Loan limits would be equal to the difference between rents collected now versus before the pandemic, functioning like a line of credit as a long term, low interest loan.
• Smaller property owners would be prioritized under this program rather than large scale investors.

Please keep reaching out to your U.S. Senators urging them to take this issue on. This is one of the issues we included in our NAHREP Call to Action. If you are a landlord and are facing similar hardship, reach out to me at nlimon@nahrep.org and tell me your story. This is how we get things done.

Hasta la proxima familia. Los quiero mucho.