A Perspective from Both Sides: Housing and evictions during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic was an unprecedented event unlike anything that the world had seen since the Spanish flu, which happened more than a hundred years ago. Although the pandemic was unprecedented in many ways, it also greatly exacerbated many of the problems that were already being faced by people around the globe. In western countries, one of these problems was the previous and continued lack of affordable housing and skyrocketing rents that make it hard to buy even the most basic necessities. However, one aspect of the housing crisis that I feel was not discussed was the impact that it had on landlords. While I understand that many landlords are corporations that definitely could give breaks to their tenants, something which was highlighted on Last week tonight, some of these landlords utilized their homes as a source of extra revenue to make sure that they could live through the tumultuous times of the pandemic . My family was stuck on both sides of this argument as we were both landlords and tenants. The problem we faced was that while the eviction moratorium in the United States was in place, we had to still pay our rent because the country we were living in did not have a moratorium on rent. Especially when we were in lockdown, our home was an important source of revenue. However, the tenants seemed unwilling to pay because they did not have to, and no compensation was given to us by the government, so our financial situation became significantly worse. This is why, while I understand that tenants should not be having to pay rent or be worried about being evicted, there should have been some consideration given to people who might rely on rent as a source of income as well. Why was this type of scenario never considered when discussing eviction moratoriums and why more broadly were rent moratoriums not put in place with compensation for landlords to alleviate pressure from both the landlords and the tenants?