Worried about paying rent on April 1? What states are doing, and not doing, to help

Shanette Joyner wasn't worried about making her rent payment on Wednesday. But her autistic daughter lost her job at a Panera Bread because of the pandemic, her brother in California lost his job at a bookstore, and her son's employer is cutting his hours as a software developer – putting all of them at risk of not making rent.

Making matters worse, Joyner's parents would usually step in to help, but her 66-year-old mother is now filing for unemployment in Newport News, Virginia, after deciding to stay home from her job as a painter at a shipping yard where several workers tested positive for COVID-19. That's left Joyner holding nightly calls with relatives trying to figure out who needs money the most urgently.

Joyner, 49, a paralegal who's been able to continue working from her Alexandria, Virginia, apartment during the coronavirus outbreak, said the financial stimulus passed last week by Congress will definitely help whenever the checks arrive. But the stress of making sure everyone in her family can pay their rent is pushing her to her limit.

What to do if you can't pay rent:What happens if you can't pay rent on April 1 because coronavirus forced you out of work?

"I do have a therapist if it gets to that point," Joyner said. "The government, I don't think, is realizing that people's mental health is in jeopardy because of the lack of action that the government has taken, and how long it took them to act."

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With rent due this week for many Americans for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak erupted across the U.S., people across the country have been urging federal, state and local governments to institute eviction moratoriums as a record 3.3 million Americans have filed for unemployment in a crisis that could lead to nearly 50 million people losing their jobs. Landlords are also pleading for help, saying that if millions of tenants are allowed to forego their rent indefinitely, they themselves may go bankrupt and be forced to sell the houses, apartments and condos they rent out.

On social media, #RentZero and #RentRelief have exploded in recent days, with people urging President Donald Trump and their local politicians to take more action to protect renters as they're being told to shelter at home but are losing their jobs and struggling to pay rent.

The federal government took a big step toward protecting renters by issuing a 120-day moratorium on evictions from federally subsidized housing or from a property with a federally backed mortgage loan. And a USA TODAY analysis shows that at least 34 states have issued broader moratoriums on evictions as of Tuesday, either through executive actions taken by governors or orders issued by state supreme courts.

Some states bar evictions for a few weeks, some for the duration of the state of emergency issued in those states. Some states bar all evictions, some only in cases where the tenant has been diagnosed with coronavirus or suffered a job loss because of it.

State supreme courts have also stepped in. Some have simply postponed all non-emergency court hearings, with landlord-tenant disputes among those. Others have explicitly forbidden judges from issuing eviction orders or clerks of courts from issuing the legal document necessary to finalize an eviction.

And a few states have not only barred evictions but dedicated state dollars to helping people pay their rent. In Delaware, for example, Democratic Gov. John Carney barred any evictions until the state's emergency declaration is lifted and the state will provide up to $1,500 to renters who have lost income because of the pandemic.

"We hope this assistance program will give Delaware families, especially our most vulnerable neighbors, some peace of mind as this situation continues to evolve," Carney said after approving the subsidy.

Four states have taken partial measures. In Florida, the state Supreme Court issued an order that could limit evictions, but the order has caused confusion among county clerks. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has not issued any eviction moratorium of his own.

That confusion was on display last week in Bradenton, Florida, where the property managers of Robin's Apartments sent a letter to renters explaining that, "If you think that you don’t have to pay rent because of the pandemic, you are mistaken," according to the Bradenton Herald.

"We have received the emails, we have received the text messages of people who are afraid and who are scared because they don’t know what the next day will bring," Shevrin Jones, a Democratic state representative from West Park, Florida, said during a video call Tuesday urging DeSantis to take action.

That leaves 12 states – 10 led by Republican governors, two by Democrats – that have taken no states measures to limit or halt evictions.

The most populous of those states is Georgia, where an online petition has garnered more than 20,000 signatures urging Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to issue a moratorium on evictions during the pandemic. In Colorado, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has urged landlords not to evict renters but has not forbidden them from doing so, leading to the creation of a legal defense group to help those hit by eviction notices in the days to come.

Dozens of mayors and local governments from Denver to New Orleans to St. Louis have also issued eviction moratoriums, providing some relief to renters in those cities. But that has still left millions unsure of what will happen in the coming days.

In Arizona, renters can avoid eviction only if they prove they contracted the virus or suffered a "substantial loss of income" as a result of the outbreak. That left Ada Obinwa, a Nigerian immigrant who received a master's degree in engineering in the U.S. but was not working at the time the pandemic started, unable to qualify for that protection.

Obinwa was scheduled to move out of her apartment at the end of March to move into a more affordable apartment. With the virus spreading, the people living in the apartment she was going to move into decided to stay put. That sent Obinwa on a desperate search throughout Phoenix to find a place to live.

Finally, on Monday, her apartment manager allowed her to extend her lease for six more months, with an increase of $107 a month.

"I will be able to pay my April rent, but I don't know about May or June," she said. "My relatives have been helping me out."

As the potential end of the national shutdown continues to push farther back into the summer, landlords are also facing a difficult road.

Nearly half of the nation's 49 million rental units are owned by individual investors, "mom and pop" landlords who, in many cases, depend on that income to survive, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Even in cases of larger apartment buildings, landlords say they have a long list of bills they have to pay as well, including mortgages, utilities, payroll, insurance and taxes.

The National Multifamily Housing Council, a coalition of apartment building managers, along with 10 other real estate organizations, sent a letter to Congress and the White House applauding efforts to help renters pay their rents, but pleaded for help of their own.

"Even if rental relief were provided to large numbers of residents, it is likely that rent payment shortfalls would nevertheless impact the ability of rental property owners to satisfy their own financial obligations," the groups wrote in the letter.

The National Apartment Association, whose members operate more than 10 million rental housing units in the U.S., says the eviction moratoriums included in the federal stimulus package should have made clear that only people hurt by coronavirus should be protected by the government.

"What should be a limited protective step is expanded to those who have not been financially impacted by the pandemic," the association said in a statement. "This is already creating an expectation that unaffected renters do not have to meet their lease obligations."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paying rent during coronavirus: Many states offer relief for renters