Landlords cannot directly participate in these programs; all of the assistance programs are aimed at tenants. However, we thought that we could help by providing information that you can provide to tenants on how to participate in the rental assistant programs included in federal legislation.

 

This document breaks out the funding and programs available and provides links and emails to the federal programs and the local offices. I think the best use is to get it into the hands of the tenants and encourage them to engage the local offices (listed) – they will get a better response from the local office rather than calling Washington, DC. Remember, there are no programs for rental assistance that recognize landlords so it must be the tenants that apply. 

 

One additional issue that we are looking at closely is the move to prevent evictions and forgive rents. From our perspective, this amounts to a government taking of private property. The law is pretty clear on this, which is to say that they may be able to pass such laws. However, the government must provide compensation at fair value for any taking. If the government does move forward I am sure it will end up in court - but the stays and injunctions will complicate the entire matter and potentially prevent evictions for longer periods of time. In a few words – they are creating a mess. I want to reassure all of our BOMA colleagues that we are following this closely at the federal level and will keep you up to date as concerns arise. As always, please reach out to us if we can be of assistance.