Renters face financial cliff ahead; limited help available
Renters are nearing the end of their financial rope.
People who rent have largely been able to survive the initial months of the pandemic helped by unemployment and federal relief checks. But the extra $600 in unemployment benefits ceases at the end of July and local eviction moratoriums are expiring. There is no agreement between the White House and Congress on a second federal relief package.
More broadly, there are fewer supports in place for renters than for homeowners. And as a jump in virus cases in numerous states nationwide adds more uncertainty to the economy and job market, many who rent are facing a precarious future.
“It’s an incredibly stressful situation for renters,” said Bruce McClary, spokesman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a nonprofit that works directly with consumers. “I don’t know what lies in the road ahead.”
Sam Moore knows this pressure all too well. Shortly after the stay-athome orders hit in California, Moore and his four roommates who live in San Francisco’s Treasure Island found themselves with no regular income. Only two of them received relief checks from the federal government, one was receiving unemployment and two are still waiting on it.
Ultimately, they had to decide whether to use the money they did have to cover rent or food; they chose to stop paying rent. The five eventually used a GoFundMe campaign to raise the roughly $10,000 needed to pay the back rent for April through June plus the $2,500 bill due for July.
The group, all in their early 20s, are looking for work but will have to move in with their families if they aren’t able to find jobs and face eviction.
ROUGH TIME TO RENT Renters already faced a dire situation before the pandemic hit, said Alexander Hermann, a researcher at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
The center reported in January that vacancy rates for rentals had hit the lowest level in decades, pushing up rent far faster than income. At last count, one in four renters spent more than half their income on housing.
Then came the pandemic, which hit renters particularly hard financially. U.S. Census data shows about 19% of renters were late or deferred their rent payments in May. And about 31% of renters surveyed in June said they have little to no confidence they will be able to pay next month’s rent.
Renters tend to have lower incomes and to be more economically vulnerable than their homeowner counterparts. They also cannot tap into the equity in their homes as a line of credit in case of an emergency. A disproportionate number of renters are black, Hispanic and other minorities.
The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, a coalition of economic researchers and legal experts, estimates that 19 million to 23 million Americans are at risk for eviction by the end of September.
FIRST STEPS
If possible, tenants should continue to pay rent. Reach out to your landlord or property owner if you are having financial difficulties to see if an agreement can be made. Some are willing to negotiate discounted or deferred payments.
If you live in federallysubsidized housing and your income has changed, you may qualify for a reduction in rent; contact your housing authority to talk about income recertification.
Renters should be sure to take advantage of other relief programs as well to free up cash. If they qualify for unemployment, apply as soon as possible as the process takes time. Banks have been willing to make some accommodations for credit card and other loan payments for those financially hurt by coronavirus.
PROTECTIONS
A number of cities and states have put some assistance programs in place, as well as moratoriums on evictions amid the pandemic.
See if you qualify for help. The National Low Income Housing Coalition has a list of state and local rent assistance programs on its website. United Way’s 211.org website also has links to local charitable assistance for housing, food and other essentials.
Find out what local protections you have. The Eviction Lab maintains a list of local and regional actions to pause evictions of renters. It’s policy scorecard provides useful detail on actions in your state.
There is also some protection for renters at the federal level.
Congress put a temporary nationwide eviction moratorium in place for renters who live in a federally subsidized building or one with a federally backed mortgage through July 25. Landlords cannot charge fees or penalties for nonpayment during this time as well. Tenants can search the Fannie Mae website or the Freddie Mac site to find out if their building has a federally backed mortgage.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has helpful information on its website as well.
NEXT STEPS
While you may get temporary relief from eviction, rent is still due.
Tenants may need to work out an arrangement to pay back rent or cope with potential eviction. They may want legal assistance through this process.
The Stanford Legal Design Lab along with Pew Charitable Trusts, has created a user-friendly website for tenants with questions about their legal rights or facing other rent issues as well. Just Shelter, a tenant advocacy group, also offers information on local and national organizations that can provide advice to renters in distress.
Renters can also find a certified housing counselor through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website to see if they qualify for housing assistance or eviction issues.
A WORLD-CLASS AGRICULTURAL CENTER
A few factors came together to make Yuma a world-class agricultural center. The area has 230,000 acres of fertile soil and a year-round growing season with most acreage producing at least two crops.
“It’s not desert sand, like people might think. It’s wonderful dirt that’s been brought by the Colorado River over the ages. It’s been flooding and receding and putting out all that silt out there, and it’s nice fertile soil,” Brierley explained.
Yuma also has an available workforce, thanks to its proximity to Mexico, and senior water rights. “We don’t do anything with water,” Brierley noted. “Yuma is lucky to have very senior rights on the Colorado River. We need to be watchful and protect those, but with those, we’re able to produce the crops that America needs.”
Local farmers are willing to explore and use technology. “We’ve got a great farming community here that is always looking for the next best thing and the better way to do it,” he noted.
The industry has great business and community support. “It’s not like that in a lot of the country, and that’s very much appreciated by the ag industry and helps make it a success,” Brierley added.
Yuma has one of the most efficient irrigation networks in the world, with growers using 18% less water than in 1975, and in that time, the lettuce production nearly doubled from 1970-2010.
“Any place you can get the most crop for drop is the place you ought to be farming. When people say, oh why are you farming in the desert, just remind them this water in the Colorado River it’s going to be used somewhere, why not use it in the place that’s the most reliable, most productive place to do that?”
However, the industry is still facing some challenges related to food safety, COVID-19, water, soil health, plant disease, labor/immigration, pests, weeds, weather and ag tech, such as remote sensing and drones/robotics.
“The industry does so much behind the scenes to keep this product safe. It’s a challenge because people don’t cook this product, so these e-coli and things like that, you can’t see them, you can’t smell them, you can’t taste them, yet you’ve got to keep them out. The industry is doing amazing things to keep that food safe,” Brierley explained, adding that this involves research, growing practices, grower training, government inspections and technology.
Crops are perishable, yet they’re needed everyday in grocery stores. “It takes a lot to do that. Upwards of 1,500 refrigerated trucks a day roll out of here every day, taking that product to where it needs to be,” he noted.
COVID-19 has impacted the markets. Half of the produce goes to retail and the half to the food industry, which includes restaurants, hotels, airlines, conference centers and schools.
“Half of that market just disappeared overnight when everything shut down due to COVID,” Brierley said. “You saw shortages in your grocery market, and that’s a shame because the crop was there, the product was there, it just couldn’t get through the supply chain … A lot of crops got disked under, milk got dumped out. It was really sad knowing there was a need and there was the supply, but it couldn’t get there.” He explained that the produce grown for retail is packaged differently and it couldn’t be changed overnight.
With COVID-19, a lot of changes were made to protect workers, who work close together, travel together and, in some cases, live together. “One bit of good news is that the FDA came out and said that this disease is not transmitted in food,” Brierley noted.
Yuma has great water rights, but it’s at the end of the Colorado River, the last one to have access to the water. Brierley cautioned that Yuma needs to stay vigilant to protect those water rights.
“There’s also work that needs to be done in irrigation efficiency and making sure the quality is there … whether it’s the salinity in the water or pathogens that come in the water,” he said.
With tens of thousands of people working in the fields, labor and immigration are always a big deal. It’s an aging workforce, and less people want to do this work. The industry is also facing border crossing complications, which affect the 15,000 people who cross every day to work in the fields and then go home at night. Growers worry about border closures and visa programs that are getting harder to work with.
With that comes automation technology. “It’s not a matter of getting rid of jobs, but a matter (of) how do you keep producing when you don’t have the workforce that you’re used to having?”
Remote sensing, drones, robotics and satellites allow farmers to know what’s going on in the fields in real time so they can make quick decisions.
These kinds of technology require broadband. The industry is working with a coalition in Yuma to get better broadband service in Yuma, especially in the very rural areas where most ag fields are located.
“Without broadband, it’s a nonstarter,” Brierley said.
He pointed to a quote by Dr. George Frisvold: “Yuma is a unique national center of agricultural production. Yuma is to agriculture what Napa is to wine and Silicon Valley is to computer technology.”
Then he added: “We really believe we have that opportunity here in Yuma to keep pushing that envelope and do world-class ag tech development.”