Impact of the Most Recent Stimulus Bill on Multifamily Housing
According to the latest National Multifamily Housing Council’s Rent Payment Tracker, 79.8% of apartment renters made a full or partial rent payment by April 6, which is a 1.9% increase from those who paid rent through April 6th of 2020. The percentage by April 6, 2019, was 82.9. The Multifamily industry is resilient and the data is evidence of a recovering economy but there is still a potential pending economic crisis once funding is no longer given from the government.
Data from National Multifamily Housing Council
The extension of the CDC order is tough on many property owners who have been not been receiving rent from their residents for months. Without rent, property owners cannot afford capital improvements or even maintenance requests necessary to increase the quality of life for the residents. Safe housing is at risk when those maintenance requests cannot be completed. This isn’t a situation where an internal door needs to be fixed because it isn’t closing properly. It is a risk when a resident has a huge leak that prevents them doing using their kitchen and the mold just continues to grow until everything is fixed. Landlords do not want to evict residents. A better response to rent relief would keep residents in their homes.
In The American Rescue Plan, there is $26.1 billion for emergency rental assistance. This is to help assist households that are unable to pay rent and utilities due to COVID-19. This plan nearly doubles the initial funding of the existing emergency rental assistance program. Additional funds for unemployment, state and local recovery, small businesses, and employee retention and paid leave will definitely benefit multifamily property owners. Residents do need to prove they are at risk of homelessness. This requirement can be fulfilled by providing a copy of an overdue utility bill or a past-due rent notice. A household may receive up to 12 months of assistance.
In order to qualify:
At least one person in your household needs to be eligible for unemployment benefits, or
Has lost income since the COVID-19 outbreak began, or
Has incurred significant expenses due to the pandemic.
In addition, the 2020 income of the resident CANNOT exceed 80% of the area’s median income.
A bill that is designed to help renters made multifamily an event asset class and any help with rent payments is a true blessing for the residents and the landlords. The financial aid will hopefully assist with the US recovery due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Adventurous Real Estate Investors, we continue to work with any resident that needs help with applying for assistance and we are looking into all the options for our business as needed.
Until next time….
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