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Wal-Mart shoppers. On top of that, one of the highest categories of non-paying tenants were those that could afford the more expensive single-family rentals and where Beacon Economics surmised that many have not paid rent for nearly are year and have been able to save enough money to fund a down payment for a property of their own. The entire concept of self-certification imposed by the government is fraught with fraud and entirely unfair to housing providers who have made these substantial investments of capital and time to own and manage rental properties to house members of our community. Free income and rent – these are entitlements, I fear, will be hard to ever go back on.
The rental housing business has been the one and only business in California that has been forced to provide its services for free, and housing is, of course, a service – an important and critical service. You did not hear about supermarkets, doctors, gas stations, clothing stores or any other provider of goods and services forced to forgo collecting money – collecting the revenues they are entitled to. I am not sure how much longer the rental housing industry in California can survive with this monkey on our collective backs. While the government promises to pay past due rental debt, which will be helpful provided it actually makes it to the right
place, it is coming far too late and too slow for many, and will not cover the debts of enough of the landlords who have been left “holding the bag” at the hands of non-paying tenants, and who is to say California is even capable of distributing the funds without funding billions of dollars in fraudulent claims at the same time. Remember the EDD!
Throughout this entire time, never once has any eviction moratorium give us landlords a break on our mortgages, income and property taxes, utilities, trash hauling fees, insurance costs, nor any of the costs of landscaping or anything else. For the most of us, we have never been provided with any protections from bank foreclosures nor have our late fees on property tax payments been forgiven despite property taxes being under the control of our state government. As this situation likely continues, this government intervention can only result in a major loss of affordable units throughout the state. And we may also end up with a renter population that has been groomed to expect government’s “free lunch” for housing and supplemental income payments.
As the national radio talk show host, Dennis Prager, has described them, entitlements are: “The Most Dangerous Addiction Of Them All.” I rest my case.
reynoldsrealty
APARTMENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE - AUGUST 2021 CS-33