Scene in online eviction court today: Landlord tells the judge,"She applied for the rent relief program. I haven't given the program the information they asked for.I don't want their money. Even if I got the money, I'd give it back." Judge granted landlord's request to evict her.
My story is from the South, but similar stories just like it are coming in from all over. Below are just a few. This is why #RentHelp must get directly to the tenants, and quickly. Have more stories? Drop them here.
1. "Here in LA, (major Corp) property managers for my elderly in-laws who lost their jobs due to COVID denied their request to use the city’s rent relief for the same reason.They just didn’t want to fill out the form and would rather the unit churn"
2. From Tennessee: "We heard "It's a voluntary program" from judges as they evicted regardless of application status."
3. In WV: "I've seen this happen in WV also. The non profit I work for was ready to pay rent for a family. The Landlord refused to answer our letters and calls. Get to court, he tells the judge he doesn't want the money. Judge gave the family 45 days to vacate."
4. "I filled out the paperwork for my friend. The people who run the program are still waiting for his landlord to supply his paperwork. It's been about three months. The landlords should be held accountable if they won't work with the program."
5. "Omg going through this right now, sounds like my landlord. I still don't know if they are going to withdraw the "5 day quit or pay rent" I am only this month and a water bill behind, wants late charge if paid after the first. Get their checks in 3 weeks."
6. "my family is apart of a program like this. they aren’t requiring landlords to participate in the program to get the funds bc of this. landlords don’t want to keep the tenants. they want to raise the rent and kick us out"
7. "I worked for a rent relief program in michigan and this was a constant issue. Landlords refused to take free money because it wasn’t coming from their (unemployed and often disabled) client."
8. "In 2016, I became homeless because our landlord refused to accept payment a few days late despite advanced notice and an allowance in our lease. The judge sided with the landlord."
9. "While I was doing rental assistance I had landlords reach out asking to return fund bc they no longer wanted to house their tenants.. even if we paid past/future months. All because they already had a list of ppl wanting their space.. gentrification is a bitch"
10. "No surprise here. I've asked why these landlords did not go after the states to process the rent payments.They seek to punish those they think have benefited from pandemic relief funding aka the poor. Same reason why TX is taking months to process new unemployment claims."
11. "I’ve had this problem with clients trying to request assistance and then their landlord denies to sign the paperwork. Just take the money!!!"
12. "The application in my town is 16 pages long, online, and requires the landlord to sign off on it and give tax ID and bank acct info. That isn't going to work with a lot of landlords because they don't want to wait when they have a tight market."
13. "Dang... I now of an instance that this happened in DC...the persons credit was RUINED... all bc of an uncoperative landlord...Directly into the hands of the tenants... ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!"
Here's what you can do:
Contact/tag your member of Congress: Tell them to make sure landlords can't block #RentHelp to tenants.
Tell judges in your community: don't allow evictions to proceed if the #RentHelp is available.
Need #RentHelp? Go here:
