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The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

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Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#11

Post by testfoobar »

daniel-thompson wrote: post #7

Clearly some landlords are getting hurt due to some tenants taking unethical advantage of the situation. But I think we need to wait to draw broad conclusions until this can be systematically analyzed at the macro level, rather than doing so from the one-off anecdotes in the article.

Landlords are part of the financial system. Deciding landlords must take the loss on rent so that their tenants can be safe is sensible health and social policy during the acute uncertain phase of the pandemic last year. That uncertainty is now gone.

If the government wants to house people in rental properties indefinitely, then the government can pay to do so at the prevailing market rates.

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#12

Post by pasabagi »

bigmattystyles wrote: post #5

I feel the same way about rent control. It's not fair for society at large to make property owners eat the cost or the lost potential income alone. I am aggressively pro rent control and pro eviction moratorium during the pandemic, but I am for a (progressive) tax to fund these programs. It's just unfair to make yourself feel good by supporting these programs when you don't have any skin in the game. I'm not naïve th…

What is the moral basis of rent? Rent is by definition differentiated from service provision in that it is simply the use of a legal right to extract an income.

I don't see a moral basis, so I don't see how anything that impacts the interests of renters can be unfair. Bad on pragmatic level, perhaps, but not a moral one.

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#13

Post by rob74 »

bigmattystyles wrote: post #8
heavyset_go wrote: post #4

I find it hard to be sympathetic with people who chose to overleverage themselves with their investments.

You could make the exact same point towards the renters who were banking on their job to pay the rent. One is called a mortgage while the other is called rent.

The difference being that you can choose to take out a loan and buy a house, but you can't really choose not to pay rent (unless you want to be homeless of course, but that's not an option I would recommend to anyone)

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#14

Post by tomg »

I don’t understand how a waiter and a home-care provider can afford to buy a rental property that is apparently worth charging $80,000/yr in rent. I’m in the wrong business!

[edit: to be clear, this is tongue in cheek, though the circumstances where a bank made this loan seem unusual to me]

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#15

Post by techsupporter »

testfoobar wrote: post #3

Sad story. It is time for eviction moratoriums to be lifted. The second peak of the pandemic is behind us in nearly all datasets in the United States.

But is the second-wave of the economy coming roaring back so that people have jobs to go to in order to pay rent behind us in nearly all datasets in the United States?

Or would those people still be thrown out onto the street with no housing?

Because if there's anything we need to be doing in the United States, particularly on the West Coast, it's bringing more people to homelessness.

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#16

Post by RupertEisenhart »

heavyset_go wrote: post #4

I find it hard to be sympathetic with people who chose to overleverage themselves with their investments.

Do you also find it hard to sympathise with people who are trying to escape the trap of poverty? If I made assumptions about your circumstances, would I be surprised?

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#17

Post by bigmattystyles »

heavyset_go wrote: post #9
bigmattystyles wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could make the exact same point towards the renters who were banking on their job to pay the rent. One is called a mortgage while the other is called rent.

There's a difference between working to eat, and investing. Investments have inherent risk, and if you can't bear that risk, don't overleverage yourself.

Reading the article, the owners aren't exactly rolling in it and are also depicted as mostly working class. If it wasn't for a global pandemic, most would have been fine and they would have thought to have invested very conservatively. In my mind, it's just that it's convenient/expedient to make them eat the cost of unpaid rent -

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#19

Post by reanimus »

heavyset_go wrote: post #4

I find it hard to be sympathetic with people who chose to overleverage themselves with their investments.

I really don't understand why we insulate landlords from investment risk so much. At the end of the day they can sell the place to mitigate their losses. What recourse could renters have?

Re: The Victims of the Eviction Moratorium

#20

Post by testfoobar »

jedmeyers wrote: post #10
testfoobar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad part is how politicians and organized groups are seemingly afraid to change their direction for fear of voter retribution. Comparing datasets across states and regions, it is not entirely clear to me which had the most effective policies. I would like to see an official CDC report that identifies which policies worked and which did not. I don't think we're going to see a report - because it would become an in…

> Individual owners such in the article will eventually lose their properties to deeper pockets How do we know that’s not the actual goal of those policies?

So much of the official government response has been to support entrenched wealth. Some examples: large stores remained open, while small stores were forced to close in many regions. Financial support was provided to large businesses via PPP funding that wasn't available to small businesses. Capital subsidies of near 0% loans were extend to the largest companies (e.g. the Fed owns Apple bonds) while smaller businesses were left to die on the vine. Connected industries like airlines continue to receive bailouts.

It is all kind of sad, really.

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