The 2008 financial crisis was sort of the beginning of -- or acceleration of -- a shift in home ownership from individuals to larger institutions who bought up

The 2008 financial crisis was sort of the beginning of -- or acceleration of -- a shift in home ownership from individuals to larger institutions who bought up distressed properties and put them on the housing market. As this unfolds, I would be interested to see analysis of how rental property ownership breaks down in the affected area. And to the extent it is large property and financial institutions that are impacted, my sympathy is going to be rather low. They took advantage of the economic crisis -- one the big banks engendered -- to profit off of financially distressed mortgage holders. Now, they find themselves in a situation where they feel squeezed due to their own distress, in this case caused by a natural weather event -- and a lot of poor planning with manifold causes, of some of which they are probably complicit (holding their immediate, short-term expenses down). As for "smaller" landlords, they have bills to pay, too -- to such large institutions. This is where "the government" steps in and sets rules -- or at least guidelines -- for how to proceed, what is and isn't permissible, and what grace periods and conditions should apply -- including terms and compensatory actions that allow the large institutions to manage, albeit perhaps with a manageable "haircut" of sorts. So that landlords are caught in the middle of a financial squeeze, themselves. But yeah, insisting a renter cough up rent for a property they cannot use as the result of an "act of god"? Well, you have to ask yourself: Just whom should that "act" affect?