April 1 and rent is due - pandemic or not

Rent is due for thousands of people who were laid off over the last month because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Many of those people have already filed for unemployment – but the crisis developed so swiftly that most people have not yet received their check.

That’s the situation at Cody Deasy’s apartment in Belltown. He got a letter from his landlord the other day reminding him that no matter what was going on in the outside world, his full rent is still due.

“The whole letter is like ‘we understand these are troubling times, but much like your car payment and your insurances rent is still due on the first’.”

Deasy has a job delivering alcohol to people’s homes. And then on March 16, Governor Jay Inslee said he was “temporarily shutting down restaurants, bars, entertainment and recreational facilities.”

Suddenly, the alcohol delivery business went crazy, and Deasy even learned that the state considered him an essential worker. But the same order closed down the restaurant where Deasy’s wife, Skye, works as a pastry chef. Even with extra tips Deasy’s been getting, they need her income to get by in Belltown.

Now she’s waiting for her unemployment check. To make rent this month, they’re clamping down on food spending and doing some stressful things, such as putting their car payment and some utilities payments on a credit card. Perhaps Skye’s unemployment check will arrive before interest accumulates.

Right now in Seattle and many cities around the region, there is a moratorium on evictions. You can’t be tossed out because you can’t make rent.

But renters still have a problem. Cody Deasy says the city explained it to him in an email which he paraphrased like this: “It sucks, but any rent that you do owe will be owed as soon as the moratoriums are lifted.”

So you pay now or you pay when the landlord has their eviction powers back and might be inclined to use them. A lot of people have posted on Reddit that their landlord is demanding full payment regardless of the circumstances.

But not all landlords: Ginnie Hance says she’s flexible with her tenants. She manages her family’s building in West Seattle, the Ivy Court apartments.

“I always want my tenants to know, please let me know ahead of time, don't wait until the right to the end,” she said.

Hance says she needs some notice so she can figure out how the bills get paid.

“You want to work with people, you know, and who wants to kick somebody out?” Her business took a hit when three of the building’s four commercial tenants had to shut down after the governor’s order.

Then the first of the apartment tenants spoke up -- she’d been been laid off.

“We're giving her a break. It's about $350 for next month off of her rent. And then we did the same for another tenant that also lost her job,” Hance said.

For many people, this is a cash crunch. They’re going to be on unemployment or federal aid. But they don’t know when the check will land and it’s still rent day.

“This is not regular, none of this is regular right now,” observed Annie Taylor of La Conner.

The day the governor closed restaurants and gyms, she lost three jobs: her restaurant gig, her gig teaching private yoga lessons, and her yoga studio.

Taylor is a renter and an owner. She’s also landlord to a massage therapist who can’t work. Her first unemployment check hasn’t arrived either.

“I have money to pay my bills this month. And then hopefully all the unemployment will be sorted and that'll help,” she said.

So if you’re in this spot – apply for help. Look here and apply here. If the state can't help you, they should direct you to where you can obtain federal aid.

Try to work it out with your landlord.

Remember: you are not alone and landlords know that too.