The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) says that 77.4% of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by July 6th. This figure represents a 2.3 percentage point decrease in the share who paid rent through July 6, 2019 and compares to 80.8% that paid by June 6th. The data comes from the NMHC’s Rent Payment Tracker which uses data from 11.4 million professionally managed apartment units across the country.
“It is clear that state and federal unemployment assistance benefits have served as a lifeline for renters, making it possible for them to pay their rent,” said Doug Bibby, NMHC President. “Unfortunately, there is a looming July 31 deadline when that aid ends. Without an extension or a direct renter assistance program, that NMHC has been calling for since the start of the pandemic, the U.S. could be headed toward historic dislocations of renters and business failures among apartment firms, exacerbating both unemployment and homelessness.”
