Members of the Summit County Council know that they can’t pass any legislation or issue any public orders to deal with evictions locally. But they are thinking about talking to landlords about Rent Relief for tenants who have been hammered by the COVID-19 crisis.
In a short conversation on Wednesday, County Council Chairman Doug Clyde said it’s a tragedy when a local is thrown out of housing because they lost their job.
Roger Armstrong said it’s not only sad, on a humanitarian level. It could be a blow to the area’s economy, which will need workers in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.
“If our labor force is evicted in any material way, they’re probably not going to remain homeless here—probably not the warmest, most comfortable environment for that—which means that they start to scatter, that they start to look for other housing, they start to look for other jobs where there is availability. And when we go to turn the key on, it’s hard enough in the environment that we came out of, with such a healthy economic environment, with low unemployment, keeping the labor force in place for all of the needs that we have. If labor has fled the scene, it’s gonna be just as difficult to try to get them back.”
Speaking later to KPCW, Council Member Chris Robinson agreed they will have to use persuasion. He noted that landlords have to pay their bills too.
“As a landlord and as a tenant myself, I think that most people in that situation realize there’s gotta be some give and take. It does no good to evict a tenant now-- when there’s likely a paucity of tenants, and when the duration of the non-performance may be short—to make a transition in the middle of a torrent, a torrential stream, to a new tenant. There’ll have to be some forebearance by definition, I think.”
Summit County Council Member Chris Robinson.
