(Previously published at the Houston Daily)
The adage “never let a good crisis go to waste” is one that has been embraced by officials in Texas and across the country over the last 18 months. But as the pandemic recession comes to an end, emergency policies should, too.
Since the beginning of the pandemic emergency policies ranging from shutdowns and mask mandates to the expansion of social welfare programs like extended unemployment benefits, a revamped child tax credit program, stimulus payments, business loans, rental assistance, and eviction moratoriums have been implemented.
In the news lately has been the extension of the nationwide eviction mortarium, a policy that should most certainly come to an end.
There was an argument to be made at the start of the pandemic for an eviction moratorium. 40 million people were facing eviction and businesses were shut down cutting off their ability to pay for housing. However, that is no longer the case for most parts of the country, the economy is coming back, the housing market is booming, and in Texas there were 60% more jobs posted in the month of June than in 2020, 76% of those jobs paid more than minimum wage.
Many mortarium proponents acted as though all landlords were corporations able to withstand months, maybe longer, without income they had previously anticipated. This is incorrect.
Often forgotten are the noncorporate “mom and pop” landlords. Roughly 22 million rental properties in the United States are owned by independent landlords this could be someone renting out one side of their duplex or a garage apartment.
A moratorium hurts them most because they may have been, or may still be, grappling with unemployment or increased pandemic-related expenses, still must pay utilities, property taxes and mortgage, and are forced to forego a source of income they once relied on.
Moratoriums don’t reduce or eliminate rent; they simply prohibit tenants from getting evicted for not paying. This means a landlord cannot bring in new, paying clients and for those remaining in the rental property, back rent builds up. If moratorium proponents are concerned about a tenant’s ability to pay today, imagine the difficulty to pay off the mounting debt given another six to twelve months of foregoing payments.
Given that the shutdowns were government-imposed, assistance was justifiable, but assistance should have a clear end point. We know that once government programs roll out, they’re rarely ever scaled back and that is even more of a reality for programs that alleviate financial burdens, whether directly or indirectly. Growing accustomed to these programs will only have a long-term negative impact on these they intend on helping and given we are no longer where we were a year ago, it’s time for them to come to an end.
Charles Blain is the president of Urban Reform and the Urban Reform Institute.