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What Happens to Landlords When Tenants Can't Pay Rent? | WSJ - YouTube
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- [Jason] Landlord organizations
are telling lawmakers
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in Washington we need help too.
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They say fewer of their
renters are paying rent
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and they too, the landlords,
have bills to pay,
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as the coronavirus crisis
enters its third month
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in the US, more and more
tenants are protesting
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paying their rent.
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- Cancel rent now!
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May, we are not going to pay!
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- [Reporter] While many people pay rent
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to large corporations, around half
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of Americans who rent, rent
from individual landlords.
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There are about eight million
owners in this category,
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most of whom have between
one and 10 properties.
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- Thank you for figuring
out how to do your Skype.
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- Yeah, my son was helping me.
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- [Jason] Oh, that's nice.
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Fadela Hussein says her rental income
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is her only income.
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Her homes are in Schenectady, New York,
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a riverside city
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of around 60,000 that's three
hours north of Manhattan.
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Her single-family homes run
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for, on average, $1,200 per month.
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- I started in 2010.
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I used up my savings to
invest in one property,
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buy it and fix it and rent it.
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It, eventually, over the years,
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I accumulated a few more.
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- More than a few, you're
up to 14 right now, right?
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- Right.
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- [Jason] Hussein, who's
61 years old and a widow,
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says she has so many tenants
not paying their rent right now
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that she can't pay all her mortgages.
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- [Hussein] They're just not paying.
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- She says these four homes are vacant
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and need repairs, which
now she can't afford.
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Hussein was in the process, she says,
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of trying to evict the
tenants of two homes,
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when New York declared a
90-day moratorium on evictions.
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They, and three other tenants, she says
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have yet to pay their April rent.
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Did people lose their
jobs, is that the issue?
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- Well, they haven't responded
to my letter asking them
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for proof if they are affected
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or if they are unemployed
because of the COVID-19.
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And when I call, I'm not
getting any response either.
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- [Jason] Hussein said she
would work with her tenants
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on payment options
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and perhaps even lower their rent
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if she could get ahold of them.
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- I knocked on the door,
nobody would open the door.
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- [Jason] According to
records she shared with us,
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if all the houses she owned were rented
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and current on payments,
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she would have collected for
the month of April $16,000.
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She only took in $6,300,
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which she says doesn't cover her costs.
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- It's so hard and I am so confused.
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I'm lost and stressed.
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- [Jason] Hussein says
she hasn't been able
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to reach your mortgage lenders
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and is trying to get
a small business loan.
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Minnesota's Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar,
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introduced a bill that would
cancel rents and mortgages
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during the coronavirus pandemic.
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- We want to make sure with this package
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that no one is going to be left behind
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and that our system in itself
is not going to break down.
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- But how big is this package?
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I read through the bill
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and I didn't see dollar estimates.
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- Without taking into full account,
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the scope of the problem,
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we can't really estimate the amount
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of money it's going to need.
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- The bill has a tough road ahead
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with no broad bipartisan support
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and critics decline
provisions favoring renters.
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How concerned are they about
their businesses right now?
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- They're petrified.
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They wake up every morning very concerned
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about what the future holds frankly.
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- [Jason] One of the most active advocates
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for landlords in New York
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is the Community Housing
Improvement Program,
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which has over 4,000 owners and managers.
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Jay Martin is the head of CHIP.
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Martin says the government
should bear more responsibility
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and suspend taxes for
landlords like Hussein.
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- Governments are not
willing to entertain the idea
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of suspending taxes
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because they're also in
financial hardship right now.
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- Many of our municipalities
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across this country rely
on these property taxes
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to be able to sustain their communities.
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So we want to make sure
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that landlords have the resources
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that they need in order to
still fulfill their obligations.
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- So what happens if
your bill doesn't pass,
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and nothing gets done?
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- That will be a complete devastation.
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We are looking at, like I said,
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a huge collapse of our housing market.
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- If this continues, what
are are you gonna do?
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- I'm just gonna have to
stop making all the payments
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on these properties, even insurance.
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If something happen,
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I don't know what's gonna happen.
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I'm gonna have to stop
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because there's no
money, there's no money.
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- [Jason] If May and the summer months
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are as bad for her as April was,
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Hussein says she'll have to let some
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of her properties go or.
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- I have to go find a job.
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That's it.
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And decide if I wanna
continue being a landlord
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or I just wanna get out of it.
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I don't think I can keep handle,
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I can't handle it anymore.
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I can't.
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(melancholic music)
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