REALTORS® Advocate for Rental Assistance at the State and National Levels

On Wednesday, November 11, 2020 GAR President Faron W. King sent a letter to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on behalf of our 44,000 members outlining the issue of the looming rental crisis. The letter urges Governor Kemp to utilize funds from the $4.1 billion that Georgia received from the CARES Act in order to establish a statewide rental assistance program. The letter outlines the challenges faced by both landlords and tenants due to the recent CDC eviction moratorium. Click here to read this letter.

This letter follows another letter that was sent on Monday, November 9, by a coalition of housing groups, including NAR, to the majority and minority leaders in the Senate and House.This letter advocated for rental relief at the federal level and requested help for tenant and landlords.

In addition to NAR, the coalition includes the CCIM Institute, Council for Affordable and Rural Housing, Institute of Real Estate Management, Manufactured Housing Institute, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Affordable Housing Management Association, National Apartment Association, National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, National Association of Home Builders, National Association of Housing Cooperatives, National Leased Housing Association and the National Multifamily Housing Council.

The coalition says that “housing providers will continue to suffer losses that strain their ability to continue operations,” and, “many of these firms are small, family-owned businesses that will face an unrecoverable financial burden that could lead to the greatest rental housing crisis of our lifetime.”

The letters from GAR and the housing coalition were preceded by a letter from six members of Congress to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Friday, November 6. This letter requested that existing pandemic-recovery money be reprogrammed to help the housing industry.  The lawmakers said that an SBA final rule issued on April 2 raised doubts about PPP loans for rental housing developers, housing cooperatives and owner firms.

While Congress, HUD and the Treasury have not yet responded to the requests from the lawmakers and housing coalition, the groups are optimistic that additional relief will be authorized in some form.