Home Life A Plea from local landlord regarding COVID-19

A Plea from local landlord regarding COVID-19

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In the past few weeks, many of us have experienced a dramatic shift in the way we normally live our lives. For some, the change has been gradual, and somewhat minimal with routines, schedules, places we enjoy visiting, and social events.

For many however, the change over the past few weeks has been more dramatic: The loss of employment, a severe worry about the future, and an overwhelming concern of how life’s critical needs will be met: Food, water, housing.

We Ohioans all fill a role in society, some of us produce food, some supply it, some of us work in factories, and my team personally work in supplying housing to people.

Like many of you, I’m also very concerned with the future, and to find the best way to continue to provide stable, affordable housing to people in our part of Ohio.

As a business, we rely on predictable income so that we can make choices and plan for the future. This includes paying bills like mortgages, paint, carpet, construction crews, appliance repairmen, utilities, insurance, and taxes to name a few.

Inside all of the historic events we’ve seen unfold in the past few weeks, there’s also been a great deal of misinformation with regards to how landlords are changing how they are going to be operating in the near future, some of these articles & stories are even mentioning that rent and payments to landlords can be skipped or forgone entirely.

From all the research, phone calls and time spent, my company is completely unaware of any government program, loan program, payroll options, or assistance options for private landlords. The only exception to this is that with direct government housing programs operated within the HUD program, and a temporary postponement of evictions, of which I’m told will resume within a few weeks.

Many local landlords like myself have invested significant sums of money into local communities by way of renovating and building housing stock. This significant undertaking from my perspective stands at risk of *failure* due to such misinformation. In solidarity with many of those suffering from employment and income struggles during this time, I’ve made a personal choice to forgo any salary compensation I take from my landlord business, and will also elect to donate any and all government assistance that I may be eligible for on a personal level. However, even though these are choices that I am more than willing to make, they will constitute a very minimal effort with regards to the operation of the company that provides housing for so many people locally. I, like other landlords will still require payment for housing that my company provides. There’s just no simple way around the people that I must pay, and an endemic failure to receive rents will unfortunately affect many beyond just those within my company.

 

 ~ Brandon Schlichter
Owner, Mid Ohio Rentals