Negotiate Rent With Landlords To Reduce Homeless Stats

In the past month alone, articles have been popping up like spring daisies about tenants that have re-negotiated rent with their landlord. Let's back-peddle first with some background history: Since March when shelter in place started, thousands lost their jobs and couldn't pay April's rent. If they couldn't pay April's rent, then they had a nightmare trying to pay subsequent rents and so the amount owed to landlords (today) adds up to a walloping six months if September's check isn't handed to the property owner or manager. Due to local leaders empathy, eviction freezes took place, giving panicked residents time to scramble for 1st month cash or consider leaving the city for good. The problem was that this legislation only covered suffering tenants until yesterday, 1st September. Nevertheless, the law has extended until December yet it comes with conditions. You can read more about it in the San Francisco Public Press. 

One thing that most tenants (residential AND commercial) didn't consider during their near 1st month frenzy of coughing up cash or finding a new home was the opportunity to re-negotiate rental rates with their landlords. We know it sounds strange since a (lease) deal is a deal, but what about those tenants that could pay 80% rent yet didn't want the burden on their heads to one day pay the 20% owed? Tenants took their own initiative, spat out a bit of gumption laden with common sense and bartered a deal with their landlords. Residents knew that if they left, the landlord would have multiple problems on their hands: #1 An empty property that may not result in new tenants, since so many were leaving the city, #2 Plunging property prices by nearly 20% in the past month alone and continuing to plummet, #3 Safety and security issues since an empty apartment is a cat call for squatters. These are the three main issues yet there are half a dozen more.

So residential tenants talked with their landlords and arranged a new six-month lease whereby they'd honor to continue renting, yet with a 20% discount that wouldn't be repaid once the half year was up. By using this elbow grease of logic, pretty much everyone wins - landlords aren't out of pocket, tenants aren't out of a home and the homeless numbers don't rise.

Commercial tenants also followed a similar rule of thumb yet with a twist: The cost of packing their office furniture in a commercial storage unit + hiring a moving company to store items (and deliver them once a new office is secured, post Covid-19) became so much more attractive than paying rent + overheads. Therefore, commercial tenants took the leap of faith, explained this to their landlords and re-negotiations of rent were set in stone for the short term, with a lease number that swung anywhere between the storage costs vs current office rates. This has slowed down the most depressing sight that no one wants to witness: For Lease signs in windows of every other building.

Our biggest feat is to stop the number of homeless rising, especially during a pandemic. Using our noodles, simply calculating the benefits to both landlord and tenant, and producing a very simple 'this is what I can afford over the next six months' can result in a major win/win...and avoid more displaced people on our streets. Please spread the word with friends or family who are struggling with office or home rent. It's important we support each other since positive knowledge benefits everyone.