Fix for rent assistance: Have tenants pay rent to county, not landlords
Milwaukee County is frustrated that county rent assistance recipients are having difficulty finding housing. In Wisconsin, legal source of income is a protected class in fair housing. However, a court precedent effectively created a carve out excluding county rent assistance participants from this protection.
Now the county is convening to consider how to incentivize landlords to accept more rent assistance clients. The solutions are simple.
The existing assistance formula usually requires tenants to pay at least a small portion of their rent, for example, $100 per month. This is good policy, but it puts landlords in an awkward position. While the county can be trusted to make its payments, sometimes the tenant does not. The landlord is faced with a conundrum. Landlords can beg and cajole tenants and request payment, but the only tool with any consequences is eviction. However, is a landlord likely to file an eviction costing $150 or more to recover a $100 delinquency? Unlikely.
Instead, the delinquency may fester until the amount demands action. That amount could be $400 or more. While seemingly a relatively small sum, for the county aid recipient, this represents four months of rent. They are unlikely to be able to pay and will face eviction. Now everyone loses. The landlord is unlikely to ever recover these funds and the tenant is forced out of their home.
The remedy is obvious. Have the aid recipient pay their portion of the rent to the county and have the county pay the landlord in full. Now the county can decide when to be patient. The county will know more about what is going on with their clients and how well their recipient screening process is working.
Another problem that makes county rent assistance clients unattractive to landlords is the rent assistance contract terms. The contract provides that payments to the landlord will stop if the tenant vacates the housing unit for any reason. This can leave the landlord suffering a vacancy with little notice or time to find a new tenant and avoid a loss.
Instead, the county should make good on the rental agreement like any other lease. Landlords already have the obligation to mitigate damages. The county should continue to pay until a new tenant is found or the lease expires, whichever comes first. Again, the county will have a greater vested interest in screening their applicants.
These two changes would make the rent assistance client very attractive to landlords. Rent is guaranteed by the county even if the tenant moves out. Enacting these two changes will not only help aid recipients find housing, evictions will decline as well.
David J. Decker is founder of Decker Properties Inc. of Brookfield.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Having tenants make payments to county could boost rent assistance
