#CancelRent trending nationwide as tenants fight against payments

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Tenants across the United States have started to organize in an effort to halt rent and mortgage payments, as unemployment rates skyrocket due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The hashtag #CancelRent began trending on social media on Friday, May 1, when the majority of rent payments are due, as politicians, nonprofit organizations, activists and more urge the government to enact more protections for renters.

Organizers, such as Tara Raghuveer, are calling for tenants to boycott and refuse to pay their rent in an effort to enact change, according to the New York Times.

“Rent is not being paid, and the organizing strategy is figuring out how we rally around that and politicize it for our benefit,” said Raghuveer, director of the Homes Guarantee campaign of People’s Action, a national network of local advocacy organizations.

READ MORE: Women, minorities shoulder front-line work during pandemic

Fellow organizer Cea Weaver echoed Raghuveer’s sentiments, explaining that the pandemic has presented an opportunity for people to fight for better housing that can sustain beyond the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s a moment that people are literally rising up for real transformation in the housing market,” said Weaver, the campaign coordinator at Housing Justice for All, a New York housing coalition.

More than 30 million people, roughly 18.6 percent of the U.S. labor force, have filed for unemployment since March, according to CNN. U.S. One in four small businesses have shut down temporarily due to the pandemic, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and over 1.1 million people have become infected with the virus.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the Washington D.C. advocates who is fighting for the cancellation of all rent payments. The Democratic congresswoman, 30, took to social media to explain her stance on the housing crisis.

“It’s not that it’s impossible to do and it’s not that we can’t do it,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Facebook Live on Monday. “We lack enough politicians with political will to actually help people who are tenants and actually help people who are mom-and-pop landlords.”

She added on Twitter, “MAYDAY: Tenants in NYC & across the country are crying out for rent and mortgage relief. Many of the 30+ million laid off workers can’t pay record-high rents.”

Fellow congresswomen and “Squad” member Ilhan Omar has also begun fighting for the rights of tenants, even going so far as to introduce the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act to Congress. According to the New York Times, the bill would provide rent and mortgage  cancellation and allow landlords to recover their costs — but only if they agree to “a vast new regulatory program that includes a rent freeze and the inability to collect back payments.”

READ MORE: Rep. Ilhan Omar advocates for rent, mortgage relief during pandemic

“We are not lacking in resources — we are poisoned by greed. As millions of people are struggling to keep a roof over their head, we need a massive grassroots uprising to #CancelRent and mortgages,” Omar, 37, tweeted on Thursday, April 30. 

“It’s May 1st. The rent is due, and 30 million people are out of work. #CancelRent TODAY,” she wrote on Friday. 

The country’s landlords, however, argue that they too are suffering financially due to the pandemic. Jay Martin, the executive director of Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 New York City landlords, told the NYT that the calls for rent cancellation are harmful.

“When government officials say, ‘Cancel rent,’ they are essentially saying that we are canceling the ability for you to pay the bills we are putting on you,” he explained. “Landlords are being made the scapegoat for all the problems.”