Some laid-off Boise-area workers could not pay their rent. Here’s what happened
Dawn Ostrander dreaded calling her landlord after she lost both her jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
She had moved into an apartment on Wade Circle, behind the Vista Village shopping center at 1002 Vista Ave., only three months earlier. Ostrander expected that the owner of the 10-apartment complex might tell her she’d have to move out if she couldn’t pay her rent.
“I was bawling,” Ostrander said by phone. “I told him I didn’t know how I was going to pay him. He simply said, ‘Pay what you can, whether it’s $50, whether it’s $200, and no late fees.’”
Nearly a third of renters nationwide did not pay their rent on time in April as millions of people were pushed out of work because of the pandemic created by the virus that causes CoviD-19, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, a trade association.
Some Idaho landlords, like Ostrander’s, have given tenants a break. They have accepted partial payments and eliminated late fees. At least two owners of Boise apartments cut rents in half for May and June.
But tenant requests for help are far fewer than some Boise property owners expected after the pandemic led to widespread layoffs in the restaurant, hotel and other sectors. More than 131,000 laid-off Idahoans filed for unemployment compensation from March 16 through May 9.
Few tenants seek rent deferrals, apartment association says
Ostrander was a chef at Longhorn Steakhouse at 7997 Franklin Road, Boise. Her second job was also as a chef, at Twin Peaks restaurant, 7751 W. Spectrum St., Boise.
Her landlord “said he was well aware of what was happening in the world and that I wasn’t his only tenant that’s in the restaurant world,” Ostrander said.
The landlord declined to be identified publicly, telling the Statesman that he didn’t feel he had done anything extraordinary and that he doesn’t like publicity.
The Idaho Apartment Association, which represents companies with more than 20,000 rental properties, including homes and apartments, asked its members in April to consider offering tenants rent deferral for those affected by the pandemic.
“Very few Idaho renters asked for deferment,” Paul Smith, the association’s executive director, told the Idaho Statesman by email.
Unemployment compensation, federal payments help
Rent payment rates in Idaho have been among the top five in the nation, Smith said. State unemployment compensation for those laid off, plus $600 weekly supplements from the federal government, and the federal coronavirus relief checks that provided $1,200 per taxpaying adult, have helped many tenants pay their rent, he said.
Other renters have relied on family, friends, churches and community organizations, he said.
“We had a handful of our tenants — not nearly as many as we expected — who had trouble paying their rent,” Juli Frontino, who manages about 80 units in Ada County, said by phone.
Frontino, vice president of the Idaho Rental Owners & Managers Association, said she’s agreed to take partial payments and waived late fees.
“It’s trying to get them to pay what they can and then at the point when they go back to work, make it up at some point,” Frontino said.
This landlord cut rent in half for May and June
Evan Swanson, a Portland resident who with his wife, Tina, has several rentals in Portland and Boise, went further. He told his tenants to pay half of their rent for May and June.
“We’re in a fortunate position where our jobs and financial standing haven’t really changed a whole lot,” Swanson, branch manager for Cherry Creek Mortgage Co., said by phone. “We wanted to be able to help those who may need it. I just feel like in times like this, everyone’s got to pitch in and give a little, and if everybody does that, we’ll pull through.”
He said he didn’t want to make his tenants reach out for help if they were struggling. Swanson said he sees his renters more as partners than tenants.
Eighty-five people responded to a Statesman solicitation on Facebook for stories about rent relief. Most said they’re still responsible for paying their entire rent.
Some said their rents have gone up during the pandemic. “Our lease is up, and they raised our rent $100,” Boise resident Jeffrey Syme wrote.
M.M. Camacho Fejeran praised the owner of her rental for cutting her rent in half for April and May.
“He has a generous heart,” she said
Tammi Nelson, co-owner of Eagle-based Idaho Management, said some owners of the 120 units she manages were willing to reduce rents temporarily, but most weren’t. Twenty tenants, including Camacho, benefited from a break in rent, she said.
None of the tenants had contacted Nelson saying they were struggling to pay rent.
Some landlords ‘are growing impatient’
Ali Rabe, executive director of Jesse Tree, a Boise nonprofit that looks to prevent evictions and homelessness, said her agency is hearing from 30 to 40 people a day who say they can’t pay their rent. Before the coronavirus pandemic, they were contacted by five to 10 families a day.
“Some landlords and property managers have been willing to work with tenants and give them more time, such as by setting up payment plan,” Rabe said by email. “A handful of clients our case managers are working with told us their landlords waived late fees and attempted to set up a payment plan before rent was due, while others have been willing to set up more flexible payment plans.”
The good will may not last if people don’t get back to work soon.
“On the housing crisis line, we are hearing from tenants whose landlords are growing impatient,” Rabe said.
Conditions may be improving. A rent tracker from the National Multifamily Housing Council found that 80.2 percent of apartment renters made at least a partial payment by May 6.
This story was originally published May 18, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
