Who’s worse than an OSU campus slumlord?

Any OSU campus slumlord demanding rent be paid April 1st, and also threatening to raise rents because they fear a large number of their tenants will be unable to pay.

A “Rent Strike” for the forthcoming months is looming at home and abroad.

Rightfully so, our government has sent us home and shuttered many places of employment. The state’s unemployment website keeps crashing on many applicants.

In Columbus, where so many jobs barely pay the bills month-to-month, many local tenants simply won’t have the funds to pay their rent. A disaster in the making – as if we need to tell you what the skipping record keeps repeating.

Even if a surge of homelessness is staring our community in the face, Columbus tenants posting on the Rent Strike Ohio Facebook pageare saying many local landlords have made it abundantly clear in letters: Rent will be due on April 1st or face eviction when courts re-open.

In many of these letters the landlords have also offered helpful suggestions: Kroger (community spread) is hiring, do better at saving your money, spend your (un)stimulus checks wisely, etc.

“I find it to be horrible, while also being sadly hilarious given the pandemic that is killing people, that their big advice is to ignore the stay-at-home order and go out of my way to get a job at Kroger,” deadpanned ‘Rey’ to the Free Press, refusing to offer her full name for this story. “Don’t they realize when I’m dead from COVID-19 I can’t give them their $600?” 

Some local landlords have increased rent even though they must by law give the tenant a 30-day notice to do so. Their apparent logic is those who can pay will make up for those who don’t.

“It’s happened to at least six people I know from different landlords,” said Lindsay Burke the owner of a tattoo parlor in Yellow Springs, who’s been active on the Rent Strike Ohio page. “I believe housing is a human right and the people need to unite to protect each other in this unprecedented time.”

The Columbus Tenants’ Union (CTU), run by the Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, says those who initiated the Rent Strike Ohio page told her they are uncertain how many will strike. And if they do, may not have anything to bargain with.

CTU supports rent strikes, but there’s no law supporting this type of strike. You can strike by putting your rent in escrow due to black mold, but not because of a pandemic.

What would be helpful for those who do strike, says attorney Rachel Wenning, who administers the CTU for the Columbus DSA chapter, is greater organization which then lays-out official demands.

“I support rent strikes, but there has to be a goal for the rent strike. It would be helpful right now if there were more clear demands for people who are not paying their rent,” says Wenning. “Basically, you don’t want to put anyone in a position where they might end up worse off, and end up all getting evicted when the moratorium is lifted.”

Some Columbus rental property management companies have offered the chance of rental relief in the form of a future payment plan if a tenant can prove hardship. But some tenants said the financial information they want is too sensitive and perhaps difficult to obtain.

ERA Real Solutions Realty of Grove City manages several hundred rentals throughout Franklin County with a price ranging from $400 to $2,100 a month. They sent a letter to tenants stating they could be approved for payment arrangements if they provide two months of bank account statements, permission for a credit check, a letter from their employer, and documentation showing they applied for some type of third-party assistance.

ERA property manager Donny Thompson told the Free Press he represents 300-plus owners of these properties, and they’ve agreed to not raise rents and will waive late fees for the time being.

“We are trying to do some investigative work so we don’t have people taking advantage of the situation and just not paying rent when they in fact are working,” he said. “We are just trying to show proof to the owners I represent, that the people who are seeking an extended payment plan, that we do our due diligence and show they had a very quick and abrupt end to their employment, and make a judgement call on that.”

The CTU’s Wenning suggested the pandemic may be offering a silver lining to local tenants whose landlords offer no reprieve during a pandemic, rarely fix what needs repaired, and treats you like second-class citizens. The time to finally organize is now.

“We are in a push right now to try to start autonomous tenant unions so to help organize their buildings individually, which now is a great time for that because there are so many people who want to do a rent strike but don’t know how,” she says.