Heartbreaking Photos Of Eviction Day In America
Matt Desmond’s NYT best seller “Evicted” is impacting our industry in ways that even he probably never predicted.
In speaking to him, my company had a small mention in the book as well as Desmond and I were on an NPR broadcast on evictions, I do not feel he is anti landlord, nor that he puts the blame solely on our industry. Rather his objective appears to be universal housing vouchers, kind of Rent Assist on steroids.
Let’s face it, evictions are economically hard on rental property owners as well. Anything that would address the root cause would be good for owners and tenants alike.
But many “advocates” are reading the title of the book, and probably not much more than that, combining it with the eviction statistics Desmond has assembled and are using this as a rallying cry to end all evictions, blaming landlords in the process. They fail to realize or admit that tenants that do not pay rent or are causing problems are increasing the costs to those tenants who are paying as they should.
If my tenants don’t pay rent it is very difficult to pay taxes, insurance, and mortgage on the property. To compensate, I have to sell the bad property at a loss and/or increase the rent for my other tenants.