By Vanessa Raymond-Garcia, RHLS Policy Analyst
Renters need help before they can afford to pay what they owe.
Emergency rental assistance programs are likely to partially or fully close across the country this summer when Congressional funds are expected to run out. Studies show that evictions are very close to pre-pandemic levels now as money to runs out. With inflation keeping steady, the end of the eviction moratorium, skyrocketing rents across the nation, rental vacancies reaching historic lows, and emergency rental assistance programs closing, renters are having a significantly difficult time keeping up and are often turning to other means to pay their bills.
Pennsylvania renters are still struggling. Based on the latest Census data, approximately 25 percent of renters surveyed had to use various financial sources to make ends meet – from borrowing from friends and family to relying on social safety net programs like SNAP.
As of the latest reports, we do not have a good estimate of how much renters owe on average or in total. Part of the problem behind being able to accurately calculate how much people owe is that there is no database that tracks unpaid rent. The processes we currently rely on are typically surveys of residents across the country, technical statistical analyses, and available court records, among others. For court records specifically, each state has its own record-keeping process, not every state collects the same information, and they can often be difficult to access because of privacy laws.
Tenants say they’re confused about their rights and responsibilities during the pandemic.
There have been many confusing and conflicting messages about the pandemic and related programs focused on providing aid to those impacted. To ease some of this confusion, staff at RHLS are working on a supplemental report and toolkit to accompany this blog post to give tenants and advocates a better understanding of what has been happening with the Emergency Rental Assistance Program and what options are available to tenants who owe rent. Until then, the following contains some helpful information about where things are in the Commonwealth.
There are few remaining eviction moratoriums left across the country and none in any jurisdiction in the Commonwealth. The statewide Emergency Rental Assistance Program (administered by each individual county in Pennsylvania) has run low on or fully distributed the first traunch of federal dollars allocated for the program. Some additional funds may come through, but that is to be determined as of now. The following counties have shut down their programs entirely – Allegheny, Berks, Dauphin, Erie, Lancaster, Philadelphia, and York.
It is now year two of dealing with the global public health crisis and many tenants across the state and country still do not know what they can do if they have fallen or will fall behind on paying rent and/or owe back rent. This is especially true for tenants who have never been behind on rent before and aren’t familiar with the process of potentially negotiating a payment plan with their landlord or facing possible eviction.
Tenants can carry rental debt for years and this was true prior to the pandemic. This rental debt can affect a tenant’s credit and tenant screening scores if sent to debt collectors who report this debt. Landlords tend not to share information about specific tenants with one another or with credit reporting agencies for privacy reasons and out of fear for legal liability. Debt collectors are hired by landlords to collect monies owed and are usually not the same person. There can be serious consequences through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission, as these federal agencies act as enforcers of consumer protections, if something goes wrong during the reporting and collection processes between landlords and agencies like Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion. Tenants have the opportunity to fix any incorrect or misreported information on their credit or tenant screening reports.
For assistance with utilities in the Commonwealth, the Low-Income Heat and Electric Assistance Program and the Low-Income Water Assistance Program, among others, currently exist to help tenants and homeowners – visit the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project’s resources here and here.
There are a few legal alternatives to eviction court.
In lieu of eviction court, there are a few legal alternatives for tenants with rent debt. Tenants can negotiate with their landlords if the landlord is willing to work with them to find a mutually beneficial solution. Landlords can agree to create payment plans for back owed rent, creating a repayment timeline, adding more time for tenants to pay arrears owed, forgive rent, make move-out plans, and more.
A landlord can give a tenant the option to pay partial rent and sign a repayment plan. Tenants who pay their landlords back can get to stay in their apartment, but the relationship between tenant and landlord can sour. In addition to paying their rent, tenants may also be asked to pay interest on top of what they owe – this would be on top of the monthly rent tenants are already obligated to pay. Another alternative is that a tenant may simply agree to pay back rent without being evicted by the landlord. This agreement is between the two parties, and not filed in court, which could mean there may be no protection if neither side holds up their end of the bargain.
Landlords who have representation by a lawyer will often take their delinquent tenants to court to recoup any owed rent and may choose to evict a tenant. Eviction records can severely negatively affect someone’s ability to find safe, affordable, and accessible housing in the near and far future.
When it comes to debt collection, legal aid agencies lack resources.
Many tenants find themselves in a situation where they are deep in debt and need help. Often, people turn to legal aid agencies that provide free or low-cost legal services to their clients. Tenants who are represented by lawyers will often get better outcomes than those who are not – even if they have weak cases – because landlords will usually work with them more amicably than unrepresented tenants. Unfortunately, these programs are underfunded and overburdened, which means that these services can be hard to come by for the people that need them most.
Advocacy can help.
Beyond individual solutions to the issue of tenant debt, working with policymakers to get more funding into the hands of tenants and their advocates will go a long way to improve some of these systemic solutions. Contacting representatives at all levels of government to voice support for specific legislation or more funding for specific programs during budget season are some integral ways of improving the way things are done locally and statewide.