ECON Eviction Crisis On Schedule

[Doomer Doug]

The thread I started a few months ago, about how all the "rental assistance programs," and "forebearance" on both rent and house mortgage payments would ALL run out at the end of the year, and be in full collapse mode by spring, Valentine's Day to Easter time frame.

Lo and behold we are on time, on target and on schedule for MILLIONS of people being evicted from their rental units, and/or houses, condos, etc starting on January 1st 2021 to March 31st. Further, the ECONOMIC DEVASTATION DONE TO LANDLORDS, corporate property owners and managers, small, medium and large property owners, renters from everything from malls, to houses, trailer parks, and a long list of other commercial business and private property. All of them have had their property rights GUTTED by the CDC emergency order banning evictions up to 12-31-2020. Finally, they have had done to them, in my opinion, what the US Constitution called an "illegal taking," by the government.

Sure, the "system" was protected since multiple millions of renters and home owners weren't kicked out from March to December. My apartment manager told me they haven't evicted anybody this year. People have moved out, and their vacant units are not renting well.

Of course, in ALL the discourse about eviction protection, etc nothing is said about the dangerous economic situation for property owners, who, in some cases have had a total collapse in their revenue payments for most of 2020.

At any rate, on top of the looming civil war 2, and chaos, etc etc we have the imminent creation of a refugee crisis of bigly shape. And yes, the "government" could absorb all past due rents and mortgages, or they could just extend it and let the landlords collapse. Classic marxist doctrine is you let landlords go broke, and then you shoot them. AOC might introduce a bill to do just that.

the link is here.

The Economic Collapse

Are You Prepared For The Coming Economic Collapse And The Next Great Depression?

theeconomiccollapseblog.com

America’s Pride In The Economy Is About To Be Greatly Shaken As Tens Of Millions Face Eviction In 2021
November 29, 2020 by Michael Snyder

Unless there is emergency intervention, tens of millions of Americans could be facing eviction once the holiday season is over. We kicked the can down the road throughout 2020, but all of the rent that was originally owed to landlords all over the country is still due, and they are very eager to collect. Countless landlords are on the verge of financial ruin because of the rent moratoriums which were put in place, and kicking the can down the road even more would be absolutely disastrous for them. Of course it would also be absolutely disastrous if the moratoriums are not extended, because in some states more than half of all households are behind on their rent or mortgage payments, and most of them have no way to pay.


One way or the other, we are about to hit a breaking point. The Aspen Institute is telling us that a whopping 40 million people “could face eviction over the next several months”…

According to research by the Aspen Institute, nearly 40 million Americans could face eviction over the next several months. The only thing holding back the flood right now is the CDC’s eviction moratorium order and a patchwork of state and local protections for renters.
But these moratoriums are only kicking the can down the road. Chief economist for Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi told the Washington Post that tenants could owe nearly $70 billion in back rent by year’s end. And for landlords left holding the bag, there’s been little relief, as they’ve been forced to take on the role of government — subsidizing housing for millions even as their own taxes, mortgage payments, and other expenses are due.

That is about 12 percent of the entire country.

If they get evicted, where are they going to go?
Into the streets?

Vox recently interviewed a 48-year-old Texas resident named “Kimberly”, and she says that is exactly where she is headed if she gets evicted…

Vox recently interviewed a 48-year-old Texas resident named “Kimberly”, and she says that is exactly where she is headed if she gets evicted…

But after Covid-19 hit, she lost hours at her job as a crew trainer at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and found herself on the brink of financial collapse. She fell behind on her rent and when she tried to work with her landlord to set up a repayment plan, she told Vox that she was served an eviction notice. Now, the only thing keeping her in her home is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) national eviction moratorium, which prohibits landlords from evicting qualifying tenants for failing to make rent.
If she’s evicted, Kimberly says she has nowhere to go — and will be homeless for the second time in five years.

And there are countless others out there that are just like her.
According to Zero Hedge, “at least half of households in Arkansas, Florida and Nevada are not current on rent and mortgage payments”.
We have never seen anything like this in modern American history, and the new lockdowns that are being instituted across the nation will just make things even worse.
Of course there are many Americans that will be able to move in with family, and this has already been happening in very large numbers. In particular, young people are moving back in with their parents on a massive scale. According to the Pew Research Center, “a majority of young adults in the U.S. live with their parents for the first time since the Great Depression”.

The phrase “since the Great Depression” has been popping up a lot lately, hasn’t it?
That is because this is literally the first economic depression that the U.S. has experienced since that time.

Everywhere we look, we can see the sort of economic devastation that I have been warning was coming for a very long time.
In New Jersey, approximately one-third of all small businesses “have closed down in 2020”…

A third of small businesses in New Jersey have closed down in 2020, according to a report from The Star-Ledger newspaper.
“It’s really bad… And without federal dollars coming into New Jersey, the Main Street stores and other establishments are not gonna make it through the winter.” said Eileen Kean, the state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.

New Jersey’s number is higher than the national average, but not by very much.
Of course Atlantic City has been hit particularly hard because it is so dependent on tourism. At this point, it is being called “the city without a pulse”…

 

[Squib]

Well, by E.O. POTUS could seize all funds from, and repudiate all of our debt held by CCP.

They hold, what, about a trillion dollars? Add to that the real estate they've purchased here...it’s a start!

Call it a war debt for their creation and release of a bio weapons virus...this will do for now: Then, as costs soar, tell CCP we’ll get back to you for more compensation for what you did!

 

[mzkitty]

 

[Intestinal Fortitude]

Doug

Cloward and Piven -- more chaos

 

[Doomer Doug]

Sheesh, Mzkitty Daniel Defoe needs to up his meds or something.

the facts are as follows. Oregon, not the federales etc made all evictions ILLEGAL starting on March 30th? or so. They covered all the way out to June 30th. When June 30th came around, Oregon extended the eviction ban till September 30th. Finally, not sure whether Oregon extended the eviction ban to 12-31-2020, or whether they piggybacked on the CDC federales eviction ban.

during all of this the state of Oregon, Kate Brown, the CDC etc were in full marxist mode since they allowed people to stay in apartments for MONTHS, without paying any type of rental payments, house mortages.

Now, Mzkitty in addition to all of the other economic bs, we have collapsed tax revenues from lack of economic activity, sales etc plus no INCOME from rents, etc which will gut Oregon income taxes and taxes on all types of economic activity related to repair of falling apart apartment and houses.

Yep, and all this shit, ALL of it is going to hit like a sledge hammer starting on January 1st, to February 1s.
However, we got rental assistance notices all over my building.

My 60 unit building doesn't have 60 full units, maybe 40ish up or down.

Yeah, Portland is going to go critical mass for a lot of reasons, besides blm antifa, no housing, starvation etc.

Duck and cover. Duck and cover

 

[mzkitty]

Doug, as I've said before (and many others) -- take away people's jobs, businesses, schools, recreation, and now their homes, what can happen next except duck and cover? It's going to be brutal. And if the chinks step in, even worse.

And then there's Covid on top of everything. And Biden. Ooh, I'm making myself sick........

 

[Intestinal Fortitude]

 

[Dystonic]

That is about 12 percent of the entire country.

How much of that 12 percent is armed and seeing less to lose by the day? Not a pretty thought when trying to extrapolate numbers on demographics.

Ghetto vs working poor vs until recently middle class

Families vs single parents and number of kids

Multigenerational housing increases vs lone wolves

Is impact spread out nationally, regional pockets or a red vs blue state, urban vs rural?

And that’s off the top of my head. I can’t imagine how scary the numbers are in reality. Without dedicating days researching I can already say it’s a one way street that will be violent.

 

[Doomer Doug]

hmm, I think a lot of them will be urban poor, living in apartment buildings and with few physical assets .The paycheck to paycheck types, and who don't have weapons at all.
The people with weapons are more likely to have other assets, or the ability to go sync with their family.

No this first wave will be the ones who owe 6 months back rent, or who took the rental assistance they got an bought big screen tvs. Like the two black guys coming out of Target in downtown Portland I saw today. one of them had a oster blender, maybe $60, and the other one had a pretty good sized tv.

Nah, when those type get booted, eventually they will not even have a backpack to carry their useless trash.

We are dealing with short attention span types here. They live day to day. They will just wake up one day, find out they have to leave, and just leave their shit behind and walk out the door, maybe join blm or antifa or whomever.

Mass chaos by July of 2021 for sure. And I may have my cataract surgery done then, and buy a camper or something and go hide for the summer. LOL

 

[Intestinal Fortitude]

and with winter = they will be on the move to somewhere warm
- they will be as locusts (or a zombie horde).

 

[twobarkingdogs]

This won't matter, loss of rental payments, so much to the big rental companies like Equity, Mid-America, etc as any income from loss of payments will just be written off of their taxes and carried forward for years. And any cash flow shortages will just be covered up by going to the bond market to sell debt.

Who this hurts is the small mom&pop's with just a couple of rentals who have mortgages on the properties and cannot afford to cover the payments due to the loss of rental income. Their only option is to cover the shortfall themselves or refinance the mortgage.

Back many moons ago before moving to Ga I had 2 rentals I owned. Due to 1 bad tenant they barely covered cashflow. The only thing that really saved me and made it worthwhile was the capital gains I made from selling the places. Even with that though I got turned off from ever owning rentals again.

In the current political and economic environment a small time rental owner has to work much harder to keep his head above water. And having tenants you have to evict makes the process even harder.

tbd

 

[dstraito]

Do you suppose the builders of the Titanic who were convinced of the unsinkable nature of the ship were shocked when they entered the water and felt a thousand knives?

 

[coalcracker]

And let’s not forget that Portland and her sister, Seattle, have a double-date scheduled with Juan de Fuca. That should be fun.

No cities will be safe. Living nightmares. I’m assuming all our forum members who live in these places have a bug out location/plan. If not, someone needs to yank the hopium IV out of your arm and try to wake you from your coma before it’s too late.

I know, some will think/say that “you rural and small town people will be screwed too.”

Analogy: If someone held a gun to your head and demanded that in exactly 5 minutes, you must crawl across a highway, would you then choose an Interstate? Yes, all highways are dangerous, but some are far worse than others. Choose wisely.

 

[Meemur]

Mass chaos by July of 2021 for sure. And I may have my cataract surgery done then, and buy a camper or something and go hide for the summer. LOL

Now that is a sensible plan! I know that you can handle a gun and defend yourself, but you have to sleep sometime.

 

[Meemur]

I know, some will think/say that “you rural and small town people will be screwed too.”

Analogy: If someone held a gun to your head and demanded that in exactly 5 minutes, you must crawl across a highway, would you then choose an Interstate? Yes, all highways are dangerous, but some are far worse than others. Choose wisely.

Excellent analogy! I'm going to use it in the real world, attributed to an Internet poster called "Coalcracker."

I would rather be "unemployed" where I live than making a living wage in NYC or Chicago when the chaos comes. The quotes mean that I always have a job. I may not be getting paid in cash, but there's always work to do out here, even if
I'm sometimes paid in eggs, bacon, or other things.

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

Do you suppose the builders of the Titanic who were convinced of the unsinkable nature of the ship were shocked when they entered the water and felt a thousand knives?

IIRC, none of them were passengers on that ship on the voyage where it sank. Quite the parable there...

 

[hiwall]

Are there many homeless in Minneapolis in January?

 

[gonewacky]

Like this?

 

[Cardinal]

So, this is mainly happening in Democratic run areas?
Red states aren't going to experience this?

 

[Meemur]

Are there many homeless in Minneapolis in January?

There's more than you might think. This is a weepy liberal article, but I chose it for the photos.

Homeless and facing winter in Minneapolis

Racial inequality, skyrocketing housing prices and stagnating wages have created a dire problem here and across the nation.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Dux]

Who wants to actually live in Portland, besides Doomer Doug? I'm getting "refugees" from Seattle and anywhere-California. We have very few vacancies, and 100% rental payments. I do understand there are landlords in a bind (yes, a taking that needs compensation) but it won't be anywhere near 12% of the country. Before Covid, Seattle-Portland-SF-LA were shit-full of homeless. They won't look much different after the purge. The moratorium should have been a stipend to the LL's to cover tenants' shortfalls. But, who cares about LL's? Certainly not the tenant class and their representatives. Single families are converting from rentals to owner occupants to escape the tyranny.

 

[greysage]

Let's just say 20 million get evicted because they haven't paid their rent for whatever reason. Who is going to move into 10, 15, 20 million newly vacated units? Are there that many working people that are homeless with cash to burn on rental deposits and rent?

 

[Kathy in FL]

Stop feeding into the idiocy of the far lefts wet dreams. Let's go for a little reality.

It costs hundreds of dollars to process an eviction. In some states the final bill is in excess of $1000 due to the necessity of hiring a lawyer, process fees, and court fees. Those costs are generally carried by the landlord because most people that get evicted have nothing to start with. Sure, you can and should get a judgment and lien against them to let the next sucker down the road know what they could be getting into.

Now, you add that to lost rent/revenue as well as potentially security deposit that doesn't cover enough and what you are going to get more than an eviction is a mutual rescission, meaning both parties agree to break the lease and walk away ... landlord doesn't evict, tenant vacates on agreed upon date.

Tenants will be a fool to not go for a mutual rescission rather than fight an eviction. If they lose, not only are they liable for all rents, fees, etc. they are liable for all legal fees and if a lawyer is involved you can bet there will be a shark tailing them for however long it takes.

I'm not saying there won't be some evictions. We have already been granted one and have another in process because the idiots refused to just leave. Courts are slow but they aren't at full stop here in Florida any longer.

And got some news for people that are banking on the gov to just write off the debt and let things start from point a. See there is this thing called bookkeeping. For every "loss" there is a "gain" somewhere. You know, the same way for foreclosures. If a loss is claimed by the landlord due to unpaid rent, taxes, etc. that loss is going to be a gain for the tenant that caused it. In the current circumstances that could very well mean a 1099 or 1098. We are already looking into how to send such to the IRS for tenants that moved out without paying their rent due. In the state of Florida we are required to issue something called a SODA (statement of deposit account) for every move out within 30 days that accounts for where their security deposit went. This is a legal document submissible in court.

So, bottom line is that most landlords will simply say, "Do us both a favor and sign this mutual rescission and get out."

We are hearing through the grapevine (or to be more correct a few tenants are screaming about it) that local legal assistance is turning most people down for fighting evictions. They are encouraging them to sign mutual rescissions and if they don't they refuse the case. Because even if they want to fight the eviction, they have to place all monies owed with the court to even get a hearing.

There are a few other options available but mostly the mutual rescission will be the tool of choice, not evictions.

 

[Meemur]

Let's just say 20 million get evicted because they haven't paid their rent for whatever reason. Who is going to move into 10, 15, 20 million newly vacated units? Are there that many working people that are homeless with cash to burn on rental deposits and rent?

Some units will get snapped up by former homeowners who are in the process of losing their homes. If Biden is sworn in, others will be bought by the government for pennies on the dollar for section 8 housings. Can you say "slum"? I knew you could. That was one of the reasons I left my neighborhood in Columbus: the city was adding Section 8 housing. I got out right before that happened. Housing values have now dropped nearly 40% . . . yes, some of my former neighbors are livid.

 

[Secamp32]

Didn’t people get extra large unemployment checks for months? Why are people not paying their rent?

 

[Melodi]

Historically, there is nothing more dangerous to a ruling elite than a somewhat educated, formerly employed (or well-fed) group of people who are suddenly left with nothing.

They tend to become the leaders for what happens next...

 

[coalcracker]

IIRC, none of them were passengers on that ship on the voyage where it sank. Quite the parable there...

Thomas Andrews was the designer/architect of the ship. He died on that maiden voyage. Remember the guy depicted in the movie? “I’ve built a good ship for ya, Rose.”

Bruce Ismay survived in a lifeboat, but his life was ruined.

The Titanic in 1914, in my opinion, had a much better shot at survival than the cities of Cascadia now have. That big earthquake is coming, and it’s no joke. In the meanwhile, the urban areas throughout the country are all on the fast track to becoming third world hell holes.

Past time to get out of Dodge.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Some units will get snapped up by former homeowners who are in the process of losing their homes. If Biden is sworn in, others will be bought by the government for pennies on the dollar for section 8 housings. Can you say "slum"? I knew you could. That was one of the reasons I left my neighborhood in Columbus: the city was adding Section 8 housing. I got out right before that happened. Housing values have now dropped nearly 40% . . . yes, some of my former neighbors are livid.

All the new S8, government-owned rental units are really high-end complexes. Meaning the rental complexes have it all ... internet hubs, exercise rooms, club houses, etc. However, they are also really, really hard on the tenants and evict them for the smallest infraction. Lots of evictions for reasons other than non-payment of rent.

Most S8 housing is actually out in the community. Here in FL most HOAs no longer accept renters due to protections against having community housing forced on them. HOAs are very powerful and are exempt from a lot of restrictions.

Section 8 tenants are easier to evict than in years past. Include a copy of their most recent HAP contract and amount assigned to them to pay. Judges see that their incomes have already been reviewed and their assigned amount has gone through the "rent reasonableness" process and if they don't pay then boom ... they're out. The waiting list is too long to put up with irresponsibility.

Of course, every state is different but by and large, Section 8 here in Florida requires tenants to contribute significantly to the household finances. And, other income such as child support, charity, SSI, etc are all included as income.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Didn’t people get extra large unemployment checks for months? Why are people not paying their rent?

Because that was "play money" for many of them. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is a way of life for many people.

 

[hiwall]

Kathy, thank you for the concise explanation of the rental business.

 

[Weps]

Didn’t people get extra large unemployment checks for months? Why are people not paying their rent?

Here in KY, there are still folks that haven't received substantial portions of their unemployment insurance from during shutdown. Coworker of mine that was furloughed during shutdown just had the last of his unemployment from May paid out to him.

The problem is our governor (like many) waived requirements and told everyone not working that they could apply for unemployment, state coffers weren't ready for that, never could have been, even with the federal cash boost.

Local news was covering the lack in funds back in May and the state system has repeatedly crashed as folks try to file claims. There was/is also a shortage of personnel, KY only had a handful of personnel trainined and approved to process claims and make payouts.

Total figure for KY unemployment claims between March and May was 670,889 with a payout of $1.2B...and that was back in May.

 

[Doc1]

IIRC, none of them were passengers on that ship on the voyage where it sank. Quite the parable there...

The designer of the ship, Thomas Andrews, was a passenger on that fateful voyage. He, like so many other unfortunate souls, perished in the icy North Atlantic.

Like many of the famous and doomed men who died that night, Mr. Andrews was said to have acquitted himself bravely and with dignity. It was a different era and the wealthy and educated were trained from their earliest years to conduct themselves honorably and, especially in times of mortal threats, bravely. Understand that in no way am I suggesting that the better human qualities were limited to the wealthy and powerful; only that character was considered to be much more important and was more highly valued a century ago.

Can you imagine a Zuckerberg or a Bezos conducting themselves with such equanimity as they faced eternity? Sadly, this country - and most of the modern world - is peopled by lesser men who often hold the reins of power.

Best
Doc

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

Are there many homeless in Minneapolis in January?

I was one for six weeks once. First wife didn't pay the rent, while we were both working FT. I continued working and taking a night class during that time, and did not run the engine so as to have heat. (Cheep cheep cheep) The most interesting thing was my driver's license; it was set to expire, and I had to renew it in the middle of all that. I had no trouble doing so as an admitted homeless person; one advantage of a Democrat-run state, I suppose.

 

[dstraito]

IIRC, none of them were passengers on that ship on the voyage where it sank. Quite the parable there...

Yes that is a fantastic story. I heard quite a few of the elite had trips scheduled for that first voyage and they cancelled the day before. I thought there was either the main builder or a big wig from White Star onboard that was pushing Captain Smith to go full speed.

Interesting conspiracies about the ship really being the Olympic not the Titanic which made the sinking insurance fraud. Another conspiracy revolved around the fact that there was a group.proposing the creation of the Fed and a group that opposed it. There was no one onboard from the group that was for the.creation but there were.quite a few of those that opposed it onboard. They were effectively silenced and the Fed was created in 1913.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Kathy, thank you for the concise explanation of the rental business.

*Blush*

Okay, here's another tidbit for states that are in a seller's market. Many small-number-of-units landlords are selling their units then banking that whatever they can get to pay down personal debt or invest it in something else.

We don't fall in that category but we took the time over the years to get out of debt - four years away from having zero business debt and already have zero personal debt - and create other streams of income. Some of those streams won't be activated until after hubby turns 60+ and some are liquid assets that are there now if we choose to use them.

The big decision we've made is to only sell select properties and keep most of our rental portfolio. We may change our minds once both of us are in our 60s. No matter how you cut it, the numbers we come up with if we sell a property only gives us 8 to 10 years replacement income. That's with high property values, high rents, and low taxes and low debt. In other words we can't replace the income if we sell a property.

At least as many landlords are going to retain their units as sell them ... for the income replacement issues. In Florida the rental market is very tight and the outlook is for it to get worse for the next two or three years, possibly longer. Rents are quite high, the highest we've ever seen them.

 

[naturallysweet]

I understand that many areas are choosing who goes to the front is the eviction list, instead of first come and first serve. Those who have been otherwise good tenents who simply havent paid are moved to the bottom. Which might buy them a few weeks or months.

 

[Doomer Doug]

My point is they will be homeless, whether they get evicted or not.
I will also flatly predict many of them, especially in the blue cities will turn into squatters. You ate not factoring the sense of ENTITLEMENT they now have.
The landlords may end up eating it all lost rent, property damage, etc

 

[packyderms_wife]

This won't matter, loss of rental payments, so much to the big rental companies like Equity, Mid-America, etc as any income from loss of payments will just be written off of their taxes and carried forward for years. And any cash flow shortages will just be covered up by going to the bond market to sell debt.

Who this hurts is the small mom&pop's with just a couple of rentals who have mortgages on the properties and cannot afford to cover the payments due to the loss of rental income. Their only option is to cover the shortfall themselves or refinance the mortgage.

Back many moons ago before moving to Ga I had 2 rentals I owned. Due to 1 bad tenant they barely covered cashflow. The only thing that really saved me and made it worthwhile was the capital gains I made from selling the places. Even with that though I got turned off from ever owning rentals again.

In the current political and economic environment a small time rental owner has to work much harder to keep his head above water. And having tenants you have to evict makes the process even harder.

tbd

Something to not overlook are college towns, where there are thousands if not tens of thousands of units sitting empty right now. I know here the occupancy rate is very low right now, semester ended last week and students won't be back until mid January if then even.

 

[mzkitty]

My point is they will be homeless, whether they get evicted or not.
I will also flatly predict many of them, especially in the blue cities will turn into squatters. You ate not factoring the sense of ENTITLEMENT they now have.
The landlords may end up eating it all lost rent, property damage, etc

Well, if many of them feel "entitled," perhaps it's because they lost their job. Look at all the posts about how this is a deliberate politically-made mess stemming from the Covid thing. Politicians basically have slammed everything shut. So the politicians must answer. I know they probably won't ever bail the landlords out, like they used to bail big banks (ran out of money), but the least they can do is provide all the newly homeless with some way to live that has 4 walls, a roof, and electricity. No? What will the rest of us do when .gov goes totally bankrupt and stops depositing the monthly SS checks? Can YOU live with that? Probably not. I couldn't. It's a fear of mine. As many have said -- this can happen to ANYONE. Whenever they decide to pull the plug. And if you were not fortunate enough to put money in CD's or 401K's or whatever, or granny didn't leave you a trust fund, then you're screwed too.

 

[Kathy in FL]

My point is they will be homeless, whether they get evicted or not.
I will also flatly predict many of them, especially in the blue cities will turn into squatters. You ate not factoring the sense of ENTITLEMENT they now have.
The landlords may end up eating it all lost rent, property damage, etc

There will be no squatters unless local courts create the situation. At least here in Florida. Units simply do not stay vacant long enough. Our waiting lists are very, very long. People are desperate for units but there simply aren't that many coming available. Those that do are quite expensive. Forget about houses. Realtors are letting out all the stops to encourage people to sell, sell, sell ... and people are taking them up on it.

You cannot squat in the average apartment complex here in Florida. The trespassing laws are simply too strict. Security is too tight. And your neighbors will beat the crap out of you if you are getting something for free that they are not.

In Florida, if you find someone living in your rental unit that you do not have a lease with you can have them trespassed so long as you can prove they don't have a lease. Now you have criminal squatters that try and get their mail changed to an address to try and prove they can be there but if they don't have a written lease sayonara baby. Most units these days are empty and then refilled within days. We've always tried for next day turn around. If nothing else we have a signed lease in place once they give us the security deposit.

I don't know what it is like for other states but in Florida it really only takes a little due diligence and reasonable management to maintain order. We've been doing this 25 years and we've never had a squatter and we have over 150 units we manage.

As for the entitlement issue, it has always been there. Homelessness? Again, it has always been there. How many sofa surfers have you met? The landlord already eats lost rent, property damage, etc. that is above and beyond the security deposit. That reason is why security deposits are skyrocketing just like rents. And you rarely find any rental incentives these days. Back in '08 and '09 you could find lots of places that were "one month rent free" or "free tv with move in" or "walmart gift card" or whatever. We never went in for that. Now most places expect first, last, and security deposit fully paid prior to move in. You also need to pass a civil/criminal check at a bare minimum and most also do a credit history. We don't both with a credit history but we won't accept anyone that has had an eviction in the last five years and we also don't take anyone with any domestic violence issues in the last decade. And if your name isn't on the lease (and we list children in the household on the lease) and the renter wants to allow them to stay for more than five days, they better get written permission in advance and if it is an apartment you will be paying a fee per month to cover the additional utilities.

If people are homeless it isn't because of covid. They are homeless or losing their unit because they didn't budget or thought services or entitlements would kick in. Nope. There are help wanted signs all over this city. If may not be a job that someone wants but it is better than zero income. If you think the gov is going to let people live on bennies without a butt kicking of some type ... usually comes at tax time these days ... then people haven't been paying attention.

Here's another thing. Code Enforcement. I really hate those nazis but at the same time they can be used. Code Enforcement is only two people per bedroom in a unit. You might be able to swing an infant for a limited time left on a lease but for most people once a child turns one they need a bedroom outside of their parents'. Don't follow these rules? You can lose your business license.

We aren't vindictive, don't break the law, etc. but if someone becomes homeless it isn't our fault. Our policy is to work with someone up to three months. If they can't get their crap together and remain slow payers after that point then they have a choice, either sign a mutual rescission and vacate on their own, or face an eviction. We've never lost a case in 25 years. The most we've processed in a single year is 10 and that was mostly when we purchased several REOs and we had to evict people that no longer lived there to take possession of the units free and clear because we couldn't find them to get a mutual rescission signed. You make a good faith effort and so do we. On the other hand I can be a hardass extraordinaire if you try and play around. I've heard too many of those "I'm going to school to be a lawyer" or "my auntie is a lawyer" or "I'm calling code enforcement" to put up with any crap whatsoever.

So once again, no landlord wants to go to the expense of an eviction. Most landlords with good sense will try and find a solution to prevent added expense for either party. After that it is simply a matter of saving your pennies and possibly moving to a place more in line with your budget. Staying in a place like Portland, NYC, San Fran, Seattle, Atlanta, etc. simply does not make sense if you expect to survive on government bennies or family charity. Both run out a lot faster than most expect. That's life.