'That ain't right!' say tenants in KC virtual rally as concern over rents, mortgages grows

A screen shot shows some of the more than 200 video callers in a tenants rally Thursday afternoon.

While more than 200 people from across Missouri joined in a Kansas City-based virtual rally for tenants Thursday afternoon, this was the kind of news invading their space:

The federal government was tallying another round of 6.6 million unemployment claims, bringing the total to 16 million in three weeks.

A national report had tracked that 31% of American renters did not pay their rent this month.

And KC Tenants activist Ashley Johnson, while speaking online to the virtual audience in a massive Zoom call, said texts from her family had notified her that her uncle was diagnosed with COVID-19.

KC Tenants member Diane Charity closed out the rally in song, singing, “ . . . like a tree that’s standing by the water, we shall not be moved.”

People “are terrified,” Johnson said. “People young and old are sick . . . This is real.”

With so many jobless, so many fearing to join already swollen ranks of homeless, and both renters and landlords fearing mounting debt, the rally organized by KC Tenants stoked their campaign to get a statewide moratorium on rent and mortgage during the pandemic.

It’s a hard debate, with renters wanting more protection beyond the existing moratorium on evictions, and with many landlords teetering on their own financial ledges with bills beyond just a mortgage to pay.

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Tenant advocates have been calling on Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to issue a moratorium on rent and mortgage.

The rally played a clip from the governor’s recent press conference in which, when asked about such a moratorium, he did not endorse the idea but said he would evaluate it when it becomes a problem.

KC Tenants organizer Tiana Caldwell said, as if for Parson to hear, “It is a problem.” And as speakers in the rally shared their mounting fears one by one, the audience held up hand-written signs, saying, “That ain’t right!”

The National Multifamily Housing Council’s monthly report showed that, nationwide, 69% of rents were paid within the first week of April, compared to 81% the same time last month and 82% last April.

Under the circumstances, the 69% payment rate showed some resiliency among renters and landlords, said NMHC President Doug Bibby in a statement with the report.

“The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in significant health and financial challenges for apartment residents and multifamily owners, operators and employees in communities across the country,” he said.

But the road ahead doesn’t promise to get any easier.

The record-shattering number of unemployment claims reported by the U.S. Department of Labor indicates that the strain on rent payments will likely intensify by May 1 when the next rent comes due for most renters.

“We need rent zero,” Johnson said during the rally. “We need to protect Missouri tenants.”