Patriot Act: Rent in the Time of Coronavirus

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Patriot Act returns to Netflix amid quarantine to talk about how coronavirus is causing a rental crisis in America amid its existing housing problems. For those who are concerned about their area's rental legal protections, the show has created the site Don't Get Kicked Out as a database for how renters can protect themselves from eviction.

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Comments

[missjersey]

I never gave a lot of thought to the ethics of renting till COVID and reading ONTD posts w/ discussions. So I want to say thanks to the folks here who have discussed it in a way that's accessible to people like me who have the privilege of not having to worry about rent and never had to growing up.

While for now I'm not in fear of losing my job, my landlord told me in the beginning of April that if there was ever an issue w/ paying that we could work something out. I don't know much but I know I got incredibly lucky with my landlord. He gets things fixed when I tell him about it and has no problem if I'm a few days late on rent (and it's mostly because I forget if I'm busy).

[trynabme]

what is up with the ethics of renting?

[missjersey]

Ethics of renting out places, not being the renter. And someone can explain it better than me, but basically the fact that we live in a country where buildings are being built and/or bought en masse so that the majority of people end up having to rent w/ no other financial option because most can't afford to buy homes. There's a lot more to it (like rent hiking w/out notice) but again I'm just starting to understand it myself so I'm not the best person to ask lol.

[soulhades]

But buying home/building homes is extremely pricy ? So renting is the only other solution

[palmsread]

Are there cities currently with rent freeze?

[truth_and_facts]

Yeah I was wondering the same thing, so no city/country is doing rent freeze?! So why do people keep talking about it like it's happening somewhere? It just makes others paranoid and feel angry lol. But it honestly should be happening in many places, it should have been one of the first things the government put in place, better have a rent freeze than 1,200 dollars that barely covers rent and monthly bills, better yet is both rent freeze and a stimulus check.

[likeiused2]

even the small business grant/loan program stipulate that you have to use 75% of the loan on payroll and the rest on supplies, etc. there's no provision for rent, so these small businesses (idk for example a coffee shop or something) can't pay rent with that money, or they have to pay it back and possibly face an audit for using it for something besides "business expenses"...which, like, what's the point of buying supplies to run a business if you can't pay your rent?

[cbluechicken]

nyc highkey needs a rent freeze. peak landlord scumbags tbh.

[ellaellaeheheh]

I think they did a great job making the show work like this. I love Patriot Act and enjoy Hasan interacting with the audience, but they don't need it to make it work. I'm glad it is back.

[unchoco]

My new kink has been reading articles about Airbnb hosts who are losing thousands. Who knew investments can go bad lol? They try so hard to play the victim and to get public support but no one cares about those parasites who are ruining communities.

[xtinkerbellax]

People don't seem to understand that if they can't afford to pay a couple of months rent on an investment property, it's a bad investment. I see people like, "I basically break even after repairs and shit" and it's like, then why are you still doing it? Not everyone is cut out to be their own boss or have their own business but I feel like that's still seen as the ideal.

[nomoneyfun]

The fact that real estate investment is the only investment people think no investor should ever take a loss on shows how much society is comfortable with people's need for shelter being exploited. It's disgusting.

[bellwetherr]

a friend of a friend has an airbnb listing and airbnb sent them a check for money lost during all of this