The Glendale Star
10
June 17, 2021
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Landlords are the forgotten pandemic heroes BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Glendale Star Columnist
The COVID-19 pandemic has been full of quiet heroism, men and women sacrificing to keep others healthy and safe. Doctors, nurses, firefighters, paramedics, cops and grocery workers have all done amazing work and have all been recognized for their efforts. But what about the owners of apartment complexes? The moms and pops who own duplexes or single-family rental homes? We have heard not a peep of praise about them despite their massive sacrifice over the past 16 months, a time period when they have been forced by various state and federal eviction moratorium orders to provide free rent to thousands of residents across Arizona. I think it’s high time we do something many people find unthinkable: Say something nice about the good actors often known derisively as “landlords.” Full disclosure: In my day job as a public relations consultant, one of my
clients is the Arizona Multihousing Association, a trade association representing the apartment industry. So, yes, I am predisposed to say kind things about property owners. That doesn’t change the fact that, beginning in March 2020, the state and then the feds voided more than one million leases in Arizona, suspending the private property rights not only of big companies that own apartments but retirees supplementing their Social Security with a rental property or two. You think it’s tough having company stay a few nights too long? Imagine having residents stay 16 months with no rent while you pay the mortgage, property taxes, insurance and maintenance costs. We didn’t force grocery stores to give away free food or gas stations to pass out free unleaded. But enforce free rent for a year-plus? Yes, we did. One of the saddest parts of this story is the massive and underreported government snafu that has accompanied the eviction moratorium.
To date, Arizona at the state, county, city and town level has received about $1 billion in federal eviction relief funding. Thus far, 16 months into the pandemic, the agencies charged with distributing these funds have managed to give out about $134 million — or 13 cents of every relief dollar. We can only wish government revenuers would be that inefficient when it comes to collecting our tax dollars. These eviction relief programs, beset by red tape and overly complicated applications, have backlogs thousands of applications long. That’s tragic, because it never should have been this difficult to give away free money. Common sense should have dictated that everyone who qualified for the eviction moratorium – in other words every renter who lost work or suffered a pandemic-induced salary cut – also qualified for relief dollars. End of story. That ship has sailed, however. And the Centers for Disease Control order suspending evictions is set to lapse on June 30. If it’s not extended again, tenant advocates say there will be a rush to the courthouse and a wave of
evictions. No property owners I’ve met look forward to evicting people, especially anyone who has struggled during the last year-plus that was 2020 and early 2021. At the same time, just as there are “slumlords” who give responsible property owners a bad name, there are also “bad apple” residents who used the moratorium as a vacation from responsibility. They failed to pursue relief and went silent on the property manager. Instead of taking their stimulus checks or enhanced unemployment benefits and spending them on basics like rent, they decided responsibility could wait. Meanwhile, the back rent tab continues to rise. So, thousands of property owners waited. For 16 months. Silently, amid frustration, the threat of bankruptcy and without an iota of praise for their efforts. It seems like one kind column is the least we can do, no?
is harmful to their mental health and doctors have reported that requests for anti-anxiety medication is on the rise. Ahh, the lovely sounds of nature. Why are cicadas so darn noisy? The males “sing” by flexing their tymbals, which are drum-like organs in their abdomens. Small muscles rapidly pull the tymbals in and out, the sound intensified by their mostly hollow abdomens. It’s one beautiful mating call.
When cicadas are burrowed underground, what do they do? Well, it seems they are tunneling and feeding, not really hibernating. Once they emerge as nymphs, they shed the exoskeleton, their wings inflate, and they can begin their brief and loud adult life. If you are heading back East where the Brood X cicadas are serenading, you might take some ear plugs. Hungry? I have a new recipe to share. First, you gather up a bunch of cicadas, throw them in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Then fry them up in a pan with some olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Get your dips ready because
they are supposedly delicious with a little salad dressing. (Do not try this if you are allergic to shellfish.) A sustainable, cheap and high-protein snack. I saw this famous chef on a cooking show saying that cicadas and other insects are the “food of the future.” Well, I don’t like the looks of that future and I will not put a bug in my mouth. Intentionally that is. (I did swallow a fly once by mistake.) I was coerced into eating rattlesnake once. I was at Rawhide when it was in Cave Creek and my husband thought it would be fun to try it because it was
David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com.
This ‘cicadas invasion’ is a battle worth fighting BY JUDY BLUHM
Glendale Star Columnist
Seventeen long years they have been waiting. Now, trillions of cicadas making a racket as loud as lawnmowers have emerged from their slumber throughout the Midwest and Eastern states. The noisy little critters are considered a major nuisance because they amass in huge numbers in parks, wooded areas, neighborhoods and just about everywhere. They fly, land and crawl on trees, pets, cars and houses. People have claimed that the “cicadas invasion”
SEE BLUHM PAGE 12
