Corona Daily 010: Romeo Budhoo’s Story: Part Two

The unemployed Alfonzo Hill, Budhoo’s tenant, browsed the internet for days to learn about tenant rights, New York’s rent strikes, and the eviction moratorium. In the pandemic economy, the US government had banned all evictions until the end of July 2021 to avoid, or rather postpone, a historic housing crisis. Officially, more than 8 million American rental properties were behind on payments on average by six months. Most were owned not by big companies or banks, but by small landlords like Budhoo.

On TV, Alfonzo Hill watched Governor Cuomo say that inability to pay rent was the state’s number one issue, and the moratorium had taken it off the table. In the presidential campaign, Joe Biden said rents should be forgiven. Not delayed but forgiven. Hill made it a point to vote for Biden. After listening to the leaders, Hill’s conscience was clear. He spent the unemployment allowance and the four-figure stimulus checks to fix the broken engine in his minivan, buy some furniture, pay off the credit card debt, and gave his daughter a laptop for her virtual lessons. Why pay to Budhoo what may be forgiven by the new president?

*****

Budhoo dialed a number saved as “Julie eviction” on his cell phone. Her real name was Julie Horn. She owned a few properties herself, and specialized in the eviction business. This entailed helping landlords file court cases, notarize documents, serve eviction paperwork to tenants. Schenectady, with more than half its population renting, and about 1,000 tenants getting evicted each year, provided Julie with a decent amount of business. Julie’s card said “the Hit Lady”. She had met all kinds; tenants crying, begging, threatening or running away. In the pandemic, though, what she experienced was indifference.

Budhoo had sought her help in the past. Julie’s fees and eviction expenses were labeled as “routine turnover” in his books.

This year, Julie’s work had become difficult. The courts still heard eviction cases. But they asked for far more documents. A tenant who was a veteran couldn’t be evicted under any circumstances. Even if the court were to pass an eviction order, it couldn’t be served until the federal moratorium was lifted at the end of July 2021.

*****

Julie talked about the general perception. Budhoo was the landlord, the acknowledged villain. He was the greedy man trying to throw people on the streets.

Budhoo was trapped between non-paying tenants and the government demanding insurance, mortgage payments and property tax. One third of the American small landlords were about to go bankrupt.

“Have you thought of trading cash for keys?” Julie asked him. This was a new strategy in Schenectady. The landlord should pay $500 to the tenant; and forgive all overdue rent if the tenant moved out.  

“That’s crazy” said Budhoo. He didn’t have money to give to his tenants. He would rather commit suicide. Seriously, he told Julie.

“Have you thought about selling it?” Julie asked.

Budhoo doubted he would find a buyer willing to take the house along with its non-paying occupant. If he was lucky in finding a buyer, it would be to minimize his losses. He had put his entire life in the tenancy business. The work of twenty years was being erased in a single year.

*****

In the following month, Budhoo attended a meeting of the distressed landlords. Each of them was a rent creditor for more than $10,000. Most were immigrants who had saved the city twenty years ago. Now the city was trying to survive the pandemic by raising the trash fees and property taxes.

They shared their stories. Some were trading cash for keys as Julie had suggested. Others were cutting off heat in the houses, trying to force the tenants out. For fear of not getting rent, vacant properties were not rented out any more. One person told the story of an Albany landlord who had broken into his own apartment on a Sunday morning. At gunpoint, he had tied the tenants, and then dropped them at a cemetery 30 miles from the property.

Budhoo didn’t think that was a real solution.

*****

(The third and final part tomorrow.)

Ravi