"Reviving the Economy: Real Estate"-Renter's Limbo
Friday, April 17, 2009SUSIE GHARIB: Talk of the housing crisis usually focuses on homeowners who lose their properties to foreclosure. But what happens when the people living in those homes don't own them and are renting from a landlord in default? As we continue our series, "Reviving the Economy: Real Estate," Dana Bate looks at the strain the housing crisis is placing on renters.
DANA BATE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: By all accounts, Comeka Evans is an ideal renter. She pays her rent on time, takes good care of the property and always does her own walk-through inspection before moving in. But last August, she was in for a surprise. After only six months in her rental townhouse, she received a letter from her landlord telling her she had a month to move out.
COMEKA EVANS, RENTER: I was upset and I mean I called him immediately to have a better explanation.
BATE: The landlord told her the house had gone into foreclosure. Evans was new to the area, working in a new job and now needed to find a new home.
EVANS: And I felt really bad because I had just really started that job, and I said I just have to take time off. I said, I really need a place for my family. We're not going to have anywhere to live.
BATE: Evans isn't alone. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates 40 percent of people who have lost their homes to foreclosure are renters. Yet most states don't require landlords to give any notice to their tenants when the property is taken over. That's why Congressman Keith Ellison has introduced a bill that would create a national standard, requiring landlords to give at least 90 days notice before evicting a renter due to foreclosure.
REP. KEITH ELLISON, (D) MINNESOTA: So, this 90-day period is a period, hopefully, in which someone can maybe buy the property and at least even if they don't, the tenant has three months to figure out what their next move is going to be.
BATE: Landlord-tenant laws vary by state, reflecting the unique nature of housing markets. But low income housing expert Sheila Crowley says, in today's environment, it makes sense to have a national safety net.
SHEILA CROWLEY, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL LOW INCOME HOUSING COALITION: Banks are now global. They're not just local banks or state banks. These lending institutions work in every state or many states and so having this patchwork that varies from place to place is very complicated.
BATE: Comeka Evans was able to find a new rental home by her landlord's deadline, but it's in a different neighborhood, so her 11-year- old daughter had to change schools only one month into the academic year. And Evans' old landlord still has her security deposit from the foreclosed property, leaving her scrambling to come up with a new one.
EVANS: I mean, it's so many things that you have to do. And your children are losing the friends that they had because they have to move. It's hard on a family; it's hard on any family.
BATE: As a long-time renter, she hopes it's an ordeal she won't have to go through again. Dana Bate, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Centreville, Virginia.
