Tens of thousands of residents in the U.S. are planning to embark on a massive rent strike Friday. This is coming after millions of workers have been laid off from their jobs when nonessential businesses and service providers were asked to shut down to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, scores of people from California, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere are expected to join in the rent strike for May 1.
Housing Justice for All, a coalition of more than 70 groups representing tenants, housing advocates and the homeless in New York state, has urged more than 12,000 people pledge online to refuse to pay May’s rent.
In a recent interview, the communications coordinator for the coalition, Cea Weaver said that the strike is not just about tenants not paying rent, but also a push for relief for apartment owners. She added that the coalition hopes to see “unprecedented government intervention” in the housing market following the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Other coalition groups include the Los Angeles Tenants Union in California. The Union is also in support of residents not to pay their rent Friday.
An organizer,Kenia Alocer working with the group Union de Vecinos that organized a rent strike in East Los Angeles this month, said she estimates about 8,000 union members within its preview will forgo paying their rent.
Despite the movement, the housing advocates are fearful of mass evictions if the government doesn’t respond in favour of tenants to suspend rent and mortgage payments for those who have lost their jobs and incomes due to the coronavirus.
More than 30 states around the country have embargo on evictions due to the outbreak, but some are due to expire next month. However, other states have no such mandate, leaving evictions to courts and local governments.
However, economic experts have termed the strike as reckless, due to the potential cascading effect it could have on the housing market if the strike is large enough.
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“These people don’t think through who they’re hurting, and they’re disrupting the entire financial ecosystem in doing this,” Doub Bibby, president of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), told NBC News.
“They think they’re hurting the big, bad landlord, and what they’re really hurting are all kinds of people like themselves, and they are spreading the economic malaise more broadly in the economy,” Bibby added. He explained that there should instead be a push to press local and federal lawmakers to intervene.
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