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CA to Pay Off All Past Due Rent Accrued During Covid, Giving Renters Clean Slate
- danboarder 5y agoOut of fairness then, how about a credit to those who struggled and made it a priority to still make rent every month?
- analyst74 5y agoThe primary goal of this is to make landlords whole, not to help renters.
- geoduck14 5y agoThe primary goal is for Newsome to get reelected
- rektide 5y agothe owners must always be made their dues. such must be done.
- deep-root 5y agoSeems like an especially poor way to get votes based on California demographics[1], and how divisive perceived "handouts" are politically. Poverty-line renters are most likely pro-Newsome or unregistered, and too few Rep landlords to convert with this $Bn rent subsidy. [1] https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-likely-voters/ https://www.ppic.org/publication/californias-likely-voters/
- bejelentkezni 5y agoI think that even if this were about renters and not landlords that would never happen due to being so much harder to measure. Investigating who really struggled and who was fine or who gamed the system and who really couldn't pay would probably end up costing more than it was supposed to save people even ignoring how it's paid for out of federal debt if I'm reading the article right. All that said I think if any state really wanted to help renters they'd make real renting illegal and mandate all the contracts change to lease agreements. Nobody likes to pay their landlord's mortgage, that's not fair whether you made rent payments a priority or not. But seeing as big landowners and politicians always seem to be buddies that's about as likely as as what you originally proposed so I digress.
- Afforess 5y agoCrabs in a bucket mentality. Pull down others because you didn't benefit too. How about compassion?
- esyir 5y agoHow about incentives. Incentivizing bad behaviour for a feel good doesn't tend to end well.
- Afforess 5y agoa one off jubilee does not create an expectation or incentive. the pandemic was (hopefully) a once in a lifetime event.
- computerphage 5y agoSo was the 2008 crash, so was the 2001 crash, so was the...
- DoreenMichele 5y agoWhat bad behavior do you think is being incentivized here?
- djbebs 5y agoNot paying what you owe.
- DoreenMichele 5y agoSo some significant portion of the US ended up unemployed due to pandemic restrictions in order to protect the rest of the US from infection and we had a moratorium on evictions in order to protect the rest of the US from people ending up homeless, with covid and also not bathing and the like and now they owe multiple months worth of rent in a state where rent trends very expensive, but you are just going to tell me they are "bums" who simply don't want to pay their bills? wut?
- tdfx 5y agoThe idea of this makes me shudder. Not because of any sense of fairness about the idea, but rather that government never seems to understand that their well-intentioned ideas always have unintended consequences. Cue the footage of politicians patting themselves on the back for passing student loan legislation.
- esyir 5y agoThis really does feel like nobody seems to understand second order effects. Either that or somebody up there in power is really invested in the current dysfunctions.
- patrick451 5y agoPutting a moratorium on evictions was tantamount to stealing from landlords. We should have been concerned 12 months ago when the housing market was effectively nationalized.This seems but a feeble step towards correcting that egregious overreach.
- ivraatiems 5y agoCan you elaborate on what those unintended consequences are in this case?
- musicale 5y agoCanceling student loan debt seems like a nice idea. Student loans were basically a corrupt bargain between universities (who got to raise tuition with impunity), banks (who collected the interest on the loans) and the federal government (which made student loans standard operating practice, made them hard to discharge, and turned them into a guaranteed money spigot that universities and banks milked in ever-increasing amounts, for half a century or more.) Even better would be if universities and banks offered refunds for their excessive tuition and student loan charges for the past 50 years. ;-) More realistically, perhaps we should make student loan debt the same as all other unsecured debt, since it's paid off with the same dollars. And universities should be subject to antitrust laws.
- sagarm 5y agoThis is a bailout more so for landlords than renters. IMO this should be done via a non-refundable property tax rebate. Don't pay property taxes? Then you already get your subsidy on an ongoing basis.
- deep-root 5y agoI wonder if renters will know their back-rent was made whole, or if shady landlords could attempt to "double dip".
- koolba 5y ago> IMO this should be done via a non-refundable property tax rebate. Don't pay property taxes? Then you already get your subsidy on an ongoing basis. Even better, let them make a deal with the landlords that to opt in you have to allow for a reassessment to “fair market value” based upon the back rent. That will allow pushing the revenue can down the road for another 25 years.
- google234123 5y agoProperty taxes are already way too low in CA. Though given how high all the other taxes are... I don't know.
- sagarm 5y agoRaise land value tax rates, lower property tax rates, tax on assessed values, and end income tax. The end result should be a healthier and more dynamic economy that rewards productive activity without subsidizing slumlords.
- Afforess 5y agoGood! Given that the mortgage interest rate deduction exists, and it handsomely benefits wealthy homeowners, it's nice to see impoverished renters win for once. We should do more Jubilees.
- iJohnDoe 5y agoDon’t fool yourself. It’s not “handsomely”. There is a cap. It also usually doesn’t even come close to offsetting property taxes. Go buy a house. Then I’m guessing you won’t take the deduction on your taxes because you’re thinking of the impoverished renters, right?
- proc0 5y agoThis is so authoritative. Did people vote on this? They throw money at everything while they make millions of dollars for themslves. Just redistribute the peasant's money, and experiment with the market.
- quantified 5y agoWhy did I bother paying rent then? Feels like being fiscally responsible is just a fool’s game here.
- matt-attack 5y agoSame with the student loan repayment. Why did I bust my ass for 10 years and forgo: home ownership, travel, dinners out, etc.?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Why did I bother paying rent then? Because the state was under no legal obligation to do this, and even perceiving the problem and having a government that wanted to solve it, is unlikely to have done so (or even have beem able to do so, given Constitutional balanced budget rules) if it hadn't ended up with an enormous unexpected budget surplus to throw at it, so acting based on the assumption that it would do so if you had the capacity to pay rent would be an unacceptable risk of eviction once the emergency moratorium ended, which it was certainly going to at some point.
- pope_meat 5y agoBeats letting a ludicrous amount of people become homeless. But let's not kid ourselves here, if they just lifted the rent moratorium and let it sort itself out everyone here would be complaining about how the homeless are out of control, destroying property values and the "my family has to feel SAFE! The neighborhood has gone to hell!" I'm glad people are keeping their shelter, we can handle the rest. We need a huge natural disaster that destroys everything, a lot of you need to be reminded of the importance of community, the cushy gigs and thought bubbles have poisoned the humanity in a lot of y'all.
- decremental 5y agoThis is bullshit! I paid my rent this whole time and now I'm going to pay for everyone else's rent too? This state is run by unbelievable bastards.
- reportt 5y agoI know, right? I mean, I paid my rent on time for the entire pandemic due to having a job. All those people who have back rent and possibly lost their jobs and only now are getting them back should also have to meet the same financial burden! Or, ya know, accept that people need a place to stay and recognize that the pandemic was a global disaster that many places were unable to handle, and kicking people out now might be a bigger second order problem.
- decremental 5y agoSo just make them pay it off later on or in small chunks monthly until it's paid off. There's no reason whatsoever for making other people pay for it for them. I'm tired of other people being so damn generous with my money.
- nly 5y agoWhy should landlords maintain their profit margins over this period while tenants who lost their jobs lose all their savings and disposable income? Landlords, even if, as a business, they don't have an 18 month cash buffer, have equity. If a landlord is hard-up they can attempt to refinance, or go bust and sell their assets (the property) to another more successful (perhaps less levered up) landlord. Rental yields are something like 3-5%, so 18 months of lost income is only an additional 5-8% LTV. The state should have decreed that anyone who can show hardship (tenant or landlord) be granted interest-free payment holidays for the duration, and made it illegal for leveraged landlords not to pass these on.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Why should landlords maintain their profit margins over this period while tenants who lost their jobs lose all their savings and disposable income? They shouldn't, but the fifth and fourteenth amendments exist and retroactively voiding the debt (including forced settlement at a reduced state-judged-as-fair rate looks a lot like either a taking or a deprivation of property without substantive due process, so it is, at best, a magnet for extended and uncertain litigation if anyone isn’t happy with it, and someone won't be; full-value settlement is the fastest way to resolve the adverse impacts of the crisis on renters and landlords, preventing a wave of evictions and/or a wave of ruin for innocent landlords. Is it perfectly just? No. But its almost certainly the resolution that deals with the immediate problem in a way which has the least risk of being derailed by litigation.
- snicker7 5y agoGreat. Abolish all debt (student loan debt, mortgages, credit cards, business loans, bonds). Make it proactive too. Have the government automatically pay off everyone's credit cards every month. Infinite wealth for everyone. True justice and equity.