National REIA’s Charles Tassell was a recent guest on the Scott Sloan Show (WLW 700 AM, Cincinnati, Ohio) to discuss the languishing covid impact on housing. In 2021 emergency rental assistance funds began to slowly trickle out of non-profit agencies. Many times renters were waiting not just weeks, but months to receive confirmation of a check, let alone the check itself.
Low-income housing advocates, always pushing to limit housing providers’ rights, sought to establish a very limited form of affirmative defense. The idea being that, if a renter was behind due to Covid, and their money was in process, the voucher and payment should be honored by the housing provider. The goal was to reduce the prophesied tsunami of evictions. The realities, and legislative creep, evolved differently as this interview with Tassell points out.
Additional background: As reported by WVXU radio, Cincinnati City Council unanimously passed a “pay to stay” ordinance in November, 2021 with the goal of preventing evictions in the city. The new law required landlords to stop an eviction if the tenant can pay all past due rent and late fees.
Charles Tassell
“Affirmative defense has already morphed into pay to stay, which is a pathway to just cause, with each step making housing more expensive, and less friendly to its neighbors.” Said Charles Tassell, COO of National REIA.
National REIA’s Charles Tassell was a recent guest on the Scott Sloan Show (WLW 700 AM, Cincinnati, Ohio) to discuss the languishing covid impact on housing. In 2021 emergency rental assistance funds began to slowly trickle out of non-profit agencies. Many times renters were waiting not just weeks, but months to receive confirmation of a check, let alone the check itself.
