If you are a renter, and if you’re behind in paying rent, then this information could help you with a path forward…
Striving for Fair, Win-Win Resolution
Most efforts to help struggling renters focus on rent relief (giving money to renters so they can pay their landlords) or rent cancellation (which typically involves some financial compensation for the landlords). Given the severity of the crisis, we should all encourage the federal government to move forward with funding for either or both of those options—but there is more that local communities can do than just wait and hope.
Regardless of what the federal government does, communities should begin to take action. Many promising strategies to ease the burden of high rent costs and to help address the crisis of people who have fallen behind in rent require action by the community, not just by individuals or even individuals trying to negotiate a conflict with a landlord or property manager.
To maximize the positive, sustainable impact of any funding (and local resources), communities should strive to:
Create value;
Reduce waste and total cost;
Address as many housing system problems as possible (like reducing the number of “slumlords” and transitioning properties to Community Land Trusts);
Consider the needs and aspirations of all parties;
Be creative in looking for the best paths forward.
It is better to work towards a positive resolution rather than get in a win-lose struggle where the side with the most power wins, where the losing side experiences excessive losses, and the broader community (hospitals, health plans, social services, law enforcement, courts, and such) pays a high additional price that is ultimately paid by the community in various ways.
For example, when a landlord uses eviction as a primary tool for collecting rent from a renter who is generally responsible but is in a financial crisis, that effort may bring a small benefit to the landlord, but it creates an excessive burden on the renter who is evicted and the social systems that often end up supporting the evicted person—who now will find it much harder to find decent housing.
On the flip side, if the renters somehow use their power to simply deny paying rent and manage to continue to occupy the rental unit, this places an unfair burden on the property owner, and it could lead to a future reduction in the availability of lower-cost rental units (and higher barriers for those who want to rent a home or apartment). Rents will likely increase to cover the potential risk of a renter not paying. Landlords may increase the requirements for allowing someone to rent, making it more difficult for someone without cash for a larger deposit or a higher, more reliable income to get a place. Or, the building could by converted from a relatively affordable rental unit to a new, higher-end type of housing.
In contrast, if the community works together, adopts innovative approaches to address the problem, there could be a wider range of options to find a practical solution that minimize the negatives and bring as much value as practical to everyone involved.
By focusing on how to minimize the costs and losses while striving for ways to create more value, the dollars are available support renters (and landlords) will be less, allowing more people to be helped. By embracing strategy for positive system changes, the need for future rent support should be reduced.
Encourage Your Community To Support Expanded Opportunities For Win-Win Resolutions and Positive Changes to the Housing “System”
While much of this is uncharted territory, communities can expand the options for resolving these difficult situations. The recording of the July 23 webinar is available On-Demand. Rapid Responses For Communities To Address The Covid-19 “Housing Apocalypse” will introduce five responses that communities can take to expand the options for people like you—renters caught in a difficult spot where they don’t have the money to pay rent.
You can improve your personal options to move forward if you encourage your community leaders to participate in this webinar. Most community leaders are not aware of the webinar, so your efforts to send an E-mail to various city and county leaders can prompt them to take actions that will benefit you.
Rapid Responses For Communities To Address The Covid-19 “Housing Apocalypse”
On demand webinar >> FREE FOR EVERYONE WHO REGISTERS
Introducing Five Elements of a Rapid Response. (Described below)
Understanding How the Five Elements Work Together
Brief Overview of Potential Next Steps
Q & A
What the Webinar will Cover…
After spending months scanning the globe to find promising innovations to support increases in naturally affordable housing, the team working on the virtual summit identified five strategies that communities could embrace to greatly reduce the damage of navigating forward through the crisis.
These Five Elements are:
1. ESTABLISH A CRISIS RESOLUTION CENTER FOR RENTERS WHO ARE UNABLE TO PAY THEIR RENT (AND FOR THE LANDLORDS WHO ARE STRUGGLING TO COLLECT RENT).
This solution-oriented center would focus on “win-win” strategies for the renters and landlords that avoid evictions and help landlords not lose tons of money. We hope to create a shared, national resource kit that would include things like a rental addendum that would allow a lease to be temporarily modified to allow “emergency sub-leasing” so a renter could sub-lease and add a roommate to help get enough money to pay rent. It would also help people leverage other existing resources and new innovations that are part of the Rapid Response.
2. DEPLOY A COMMUNITY CARE COORDINATION PLATFORM TO MANAGE INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS PLANS AND CONNECTIONS TO RESOURCES.
An individual-centered technology platform and a process for helping people clarify their plans, leverage existing resources, manage referrals, and manage training materials can greatly streamline a more efficient and coordinated response to meet the various challenges for individuals facing difficult circumstances. This would be integrated with the local 211 system and other relevant systems for health, social services, transportation and social supports.
3. LAUNCH A COORDINATED HOME-SHARING AND ROOM RENTAL PROGRAM
This would be especially valuable for homeowners who had extra bedrooms—and perhaps have lost a job and need money to help pay their mortgage. It could also allow renters to add a sub-lease for a room (or couch) to earn extra money to help pay the rent. The program would have several elements to reduce the risk and make the process more convenient. This is not about expecting people to invite chronically homeless people to live with them, but rather to facilitate, enhance and reduce the risks of having people rent a room to someone who they might already know and/or who is a person who has hit a temporary hardship.
4. SUPPORT EFFICIENT BARTERING TO MAKE HOUSING IMPROVEMENTS
Since a lot of the people who need housing (or who may be unable to pay rent) will have time available (due to being unemployed or underemployed), they could use that time to earn hour-credits in a Time Exchange that could be used to pay rent. The homeowner (or landlord) could spend those hour-credits to either have that individual do home improvements or provide other services (running errands, etc.).
This could be enhanced by coordinating a “Tool Library” that would make it easy for people to borrow the tools that they need to be more productive. Here’s an example of a “Tool Library”.
5. SUPPORT AND ENABLE “INCREMENTAL ADU” DEVELOPMENT TO ADD ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS
Even an aggressive strategy to expand Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) would likely take several months to begin adding new housing units that could begin to address the needs of the housing apocalypse that will begin to erupt yet this year. In contrast, this program will move much faster—with a step-by-step approach that blends short-term home sharing (with added subsidies) as a first step to ADU rental while the permanent ones are being constructed or purchased from a company that manufactures ADUs off-site.
Action Center: Powerful Steps For Renters To Take
Action Plans For August:
If a large number of renters in a community work together to focus their effort on spurring some specific actions, they can have a great impact.
Email and call targeted people and encourage them to participate in the virtual summit on “Innovations in Naturally Affordable Housing” and the webinars on Rapid Responses for Communities to Address the COVID-19 “Housing Apocalypse”.
The virtual summit website lists “Who should attend” these events. Search to find people or organizations in those roles in your community, and find their contact information. Ask them to take this step to be part of the solution. The more community organizations that participate in these powerful events, the easier it will be for your community to take action.
Sign up and learn for yourself: The more you educate yourselves on the details of the practical strategies to address these complex issues, the better positioned you will be to be part of the solution - for your own situation and for those of the broader community. Take advantage of the Free Pass for the Virtual Summit and access the Video Library today!
Begin reading and subscribe to the eBook: “The Pandemic-Drvien Housing Crisis Can Save Our Cities. Here’s How…”
New or different actions will be added and updated every several weeks. Be sure to check back to learn what else you can do!