The coronavirus pandemic has caused millions of workers to either lose their jobs or stay at home and wait until the conditions are safe to go back to work. A significant percentage of those people were dependent on their job, and the only thing that kept them stable was their job. Even if some of them have the finances and can buy essentials that they need at home, it is still a risk to walk around in the markets.
Since this started in the US, landlords realized that many of their renters will have trouble paying rent. No one knows how long this is going to last, so some landlords have decided to lower the rent. Some have even completely stopped charging the renters for the following couple of months.
A South Portland landlord is not collecting rent from his tenants for the month of April due to the coronavirus. He posted his decision on Facebook in hopes other landlords think about doing the same thing. His post has more than 20,000 shares @newscentermaine pic.twitter.com/A3xnftpz0L
— Roslyn Flaherty (@roslyn_flaherty) March 18, 2020
One of those landlords is Nathen Nichols, who decided that all of his renters won’t need to pay him rent for the following couple of months. He has also urged other landlords to do the same thing he did by saying that this pandemic has put a lot of people and families in financial hardship. The hourly workers have been hit hard, and they need a break. He said that all of his renters, who by the way all fall in the category of hourly workers, won’t need to pay rent for the next couple of months.
He added that he is fortunate enough to afford everything he needs during these hard times, it is fair to relief his renters from rent. He wrote on his social media and urged other people who are in the same position as him to do the same.
Landlords themselves have bills to pay, and some rely on their renters in order to get the money. Recently there have been many programs popping up, giving solutions to landlords and how they and their renters can get through these times.
One landlord, who we only know that his name is Alan, decided that not charging rent is just one thing he can do for the family rents his place. He went out of his way in order to make sure they had food at home. We know about Alan through the family that rents his place in Saginaw, Michigan. Cristina Marie posted on her social media telling the story about her landlord.
She said that one day she got a call from Alan, her landlord, and he said that he won’t be collecting rent for the month of April and that they will figure out what to do after the pandemic stops. She was relieved and thanked Alan, but the conversation didn’t stop there. Alan also asked Cristina if she had enough food to feed all of her four children, she told him that she only had 3 packs of meat left, but she was going to go to the supermarket to get some more. The conversation ended, and Cristina was happy that she didn’t have to worry about rent this month. Later that day, Cristina got a text from Alan saying to come to her front porch. When Cristina opened the door, she saw bags full of groceries that Alan had bought for her and her kids. She told him that she was so grateful and that the milk, potatoes, and some dippers were going to help them a lot.
