Large Corporate Buyers of Residential Rental Housing During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Three Southeastern Metropolitan Areas Georgia Institute of Technology, January 13, 2022 In this brief, the authors use ZTRAX data to describe purchases of multifamily and single family rentals in Atlanta, Miami, and Tampa in the year before and after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. After a brief pause, large corporate investors increased their purchases during the pandemic, and by summer of 2021, were purchasing homes nearly twice as quickly than in 2019: large corporate buyers comprised 17% of all purchases of single family rentals, and 25% of all purchases in Q2 of 2021.
Oregon's Safe Harbor for Tenants: Rocky Shoals in Eviction Diversion
Portland State University, December 21, 2021 This report tracks Oregon eviction cases from July through September, 2021, to assess the implementation of the state's safe harbor policy, which intended to delay eviction proceedings for tenants who applied for emergency rent assistance. Analyzing data for the 1,138 nonpayment evictions at each documented stage of the eviction process including: court filing data; document review; and courtroom observation of cases (in Multnomah County only), the authors find that only 27% of tenants with nonpayment eviction cases got the ‘safe harbor’ setover and 25% of cases ended in a default judgement against a tenant for failure to appear at one of their court dates. 32.7% of nonpayment cases were dismissed, though it's unclear whether the
tenant remained housed even if the case was dismissed.
Addressing Homelessness Through Hotel Conversions
Terner Center for Housing Innovation, December 15, 2021
This report presents the results of an in-depth analysis of 13 hotel/motel acquisition projects from across the country, with a focus on conversions aimed at providing housing for people experiencing homelessness. The authors find that hotel/motel conversions can provide critical housing for people experiencing homelessness, but a missing piece of the puzzle is often sufficient funds to support long-term operations and services; expanded access to rental assistance and long-term services are critical to promoting successful resident outcomes. Further, local opposition to affordable housing can derail viable projects; local and state land use laws that streamline the development process can be effective tools in efforts to end homelessness.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Rental Property Management: Insights from a Chicago Case Study American Bar Foundation, December 7, 2021
In this report, authors Anna Reosti and Allison Suppan Helmuth draw on in-depth interviews with 69 small-scale landlords in the Chicago area to document their responses to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Independently owned, small rental properties (SRPs) make up an outsized share of the nation’s supply of unsubsidized affordable housing in the private market, which is often referred to as “naturally occurring affordable housing.” The authors find that the majority of landlords in this study used flexible and accommodating approaches to property management during the pandemic. However, a sizeable minority (approximately one-fifth) of landlords whom they interviewed described taking up or planning to adopt more rigid and risk-averse management
practices in response to the financial challenges of the pandemic, such as raising rents, fees, and implementing more exhaustive and restrictive tenant screening criteria.
On the Edge of Homelessness: The Vulnerability of Extremely Low-Income Households in the Bay Area
Terner Center for Housing Innovation, December 2, 2021
This paper presents data on the demographic, housing, and labor market characteristics of ELI households in the 9-county Bay Area region. The paper highlights the role of structural inequities, including a frayed social safety net, the lack of sufficient affordable housing supply, and rising income inequality, in the housing insecurity of ELI households.
Tracking Rent Payments to Mom-and-Pop Landlords Urban Institute, Updated December 1, 2021
Using data provided by Avail, this data tool tracks monthly rent payments in units owned by independent mom-and-pop landlords since January 2020.
