Wednesday 23 June 2021

They own land! Give them money!

Spotted by TBH in the Epoch Times:

California authorities announced Monday the state plans to pay off 100 percent of unpaid rent accumulated during the pandemic, with the money to come from some $5.2 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a tweet Monday that, “California is planning rent forgiveness on a scale never seen before in the United States,” attributing the post to a report by the New York Times, which noted that state lawmakers were putting the final touches on the program.

While eligibility criteria for the newly proposed program are still unclear, reports indicate that the measure would both give renters in arrears a clean slate and make landlords whole.


Possibly one of the worst abuses of "COVID-19 relief funds" in recent history. Are they mental? Let's imagine that a developed country send a struggling country £1 billion in aid payments to help them get over Covid-19... and they just hand it all over to landowners.

10 comments:

mombers said...

'Rent forgiveness' - that's a very strange use of the term. What quid pro quo is there for this cash?

Mark Wadsworth said...

M, tenants are sinners who must redeem themselves by paying tribute to their lords and masters. In this case, they will be 'forgiven'.

Bayard said...

M, indeed, the term "rent forgiveness" suggests that the state says to both tenants and landlords, "You can write off your arrears".

Mark, landowners rule!

Lola said...

Interesting. has no-one pointed out that without any economic activity the land and buildings rented have no value and hence no rental value?

I understand that something similar is happening here with Commercial Premises. Shops and caffs have been given rent holidays but either they have to pay back those arrears OR the gummint will pay them. Those premises had zero value in the suspension of the economy. Why are landlords 'special'?

Lola said...

..and even if they were not paid , the landlords will still claim the non-payment of rent against their tax liabilities.(?)

mombers said...

@L at least in the US property taxes are paid (directly) by the landowner and form a significant source of revenue for local government. Also a nice demonstration of costs not being reflected in rents. Rents are much lower in the US despite an average $2375 property tax bill vs £0 for UK landowners. Per square metre in the UK is even more shocking value despite a much lower cost base

James Higham said...

They’re of the left of course, therefore criminally insane.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, yes.

L, exactly. Landlords skim off the top, when everything is shut down and nobody's working, there's nothing to skim off. Rent = nil.

M, "Also a nice demonstration of costs not being reflected in rents" Exactly, but even the American Homeys insist that property taxes are passed on to tenants.

JH, Home-Owner-Ism is not a left-right thing.

Bayard said...

"Home-Owner-Ism is not a left-right thing."

It is to the extent that tenants tend to be poorer and therefore more likely to be socialist and owner-occupiers tend to vote Tory. However, that may be an artefact of history: when my grandfather was young, even the rich middle classes rented, it was considered quite infra dig to live in a "bought house". The land beneath houses was worth very little then - in "Lark Rise to Candleford", the author tells of a house in quite good repair that was simply abandoned and left to fall down after its owners died. Even in the mid 60s the value of a farm was entirely in its land, the house was "thrown in".

Robin Smith said...

Yes, the are mad.

Pretty much any religiosity or similar ideology is led by possessed people, often latent psychopaths. The cult allows them to kill millions with impunity. All in the name of the cause.

We see it in the left, right, Marxism, georgism