Evictions are about to restart as tenants wait on billions in unspent rental aid | Hacker News Reader

Evictions are about to restart as tenants wait on billions in unspent rental aid

washingtonpost.com

21 pointspaulpauper7 comments

If rental relief is needed then it should be implemented entirely at the state level. There's no Constitutional basis for a federal role here. States that need additional revenue to support such programs can temporarily raise income and capital gains taxes on the wealthy.

The eviction moratorium was effectively using the “wealthy” as a capital buffer, by delaying payments. The solution for refilling that buffer is to tax the “wealthy” and use their income to fill in their own deficit?

This is getting pretty circular.

What's your thoughts on moving it up another level to the banks? E.g., if tenets can't pay the landlord, the landlord gets a temporary interest deferment from the bank. I've heard this discussed as essentially recompense from the industry bailed out 12 years ago by the taxpayer

Would it be legal for the US govt to take over the renters' leases under the 5th amendment?

That is, they would "take" the leases (just like they might take land) and pay "just compensation" (which I assume would mean reimbursing landlords for all back rent, and whatever the lease rate is going forward). At that point the fed govt would become the tenant, and the original tenant would be a subtenant of the fed govt.

In that case, the fed govt wouldn't be dependent on states distributing federal rental aid, because they would be interceding directly in the landlord-tenant relationship.

(Let's leave aside the fact that politically, this will never happen, and practically, HUD doesn't have the staffing or logistical infrastructure to take responsibility for these leases en masse)

And then be liable for damages when the tenant moves out? Yikes! Better to be the tio rico and just pay the rent on their behalf.

And who, might I ask, will the landlords replace them with?

Billions of dollars allocated for rental relief is tied up in state capitals. One can count on the government to demonstrate inefficiency.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com