Why Some Landlords Don’t Want Any of the $50 Billion in Rent Assistance

But thousands of building owners across the country are rejecting the government offer. They say the aid often has too many strings attached, such as preventing them from removing problematic tenants or compelling them to turn over sensitive financial information to government agencies or contractors.

Their decision to forgo the cash could be costly for tens of thousands of renters who have been counting on that aid and who are vulnerable when the national ban on most evictions expires at the end of March, though the government could extend it again.

The government has said the money should be used to help low-income tenants pay back part or all of their missed rent for up to 12 months.

In Houston, a nonprofit charged with administering pandemic rental assistance last year said more than 5,600 households who applied for money had a landlord who refused to take it.

In Boston, one tenant attorney said at least 20% of his current cases involve a landlord who refused the funds. “I’ve seen it happen more and more,” said Brian Miller, an attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services.

The city of Los Angeles said that nearly half its tenants receiving rental assistance last year had landlords who declined to participate in the program.

States and cities have discretion over how the money is spent, including deciding whether tenants can obtain all or only part of what they owe. Some rental assistance programs pay directly to tenants, cutting out landlords that refuse to acknowledge the program. But some tenants are finding that receiving the money directly doesn’t always solve the problem, because some landlords are still unwilling to take it, according to housing attorneys and tenants.

A representative of the Treasury Department, which oversees funding at the federal level, declined to comment on landlord objections to some of the conditions set by local programs.

The federal eviction moratorium doesn’t guarantee renters the right to renew their leases. When leases expire, that is when many landlords weigh the government’s cash against the chance to remove a tenant the owner no longer wants in the building.

That was the case with Christina Kelly, a home care aide in Omaha, Neb. She lived in a house with her 17-year-old son, paying $850 a month in rent. After losing her job and when unemployment insurance ran out in August, she fell behind on her rent. Her landlord moved to evict her in December after the lease was several months expired.

Ms. Kelly found a job at a telemarketing agency and was approved for pandemic rental assistance that would cover her back rent, plus one future month, totaling $3,000. But the landlord wouldn’t accept it.

“His response was, ‘It’s too little, too late,’” she said.

A representative for the landlord didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Landlord groups say building owners who won’t take pandemic assistance are the exception. Real-estate trade groups have been some of the largest advocates of increased rental assistance, lobbying for more funds throughout the pandemic at both federal and local levels.

Still, some landlords are choosing to look for new tenants rather than stick with existing ones who haven’t been paying.

“If you have someone who wasn’t upholding their end of the contract…you’re asking the housing provider to sign up for essentially another year of this person being in this unit unable to pay,” said Amanda Gill, government affairs director for the Florida Apartment Association, a landlord trade group.

Ms. Gill said the majority of Florida landlords take rental assistance and work with tenants who are behind on payments. Some local programs are a better deal than others. In Broward County, Fla., for example, assistance programs will only pay up to 60% of a tenant’s back rent if it exceeds one month. Some landlords are unwilling to take that 40% haircut.

“You’re really putting them in a really difficult position, because they have ongoing obligations,” Ms. Gill said.

Write to Will Parker at [email protected]