Sometimes the rent isn't due on the 1st

I never took a sociology class in college. So, I’m not big on understanding people and having empathy isn’t really needed in business. Matter of fact, while helping others has always been part of my belief system; it never made my top ten list of things to do. I’m not an evil guy, I put money in the church collection basket, donate to the United Way, hold open doors for people, heck – I’ve even helped an old lady cross the street. However, our rental project is really having an effect on me. So far we have 6 families that rent from us. Slowly, we are getting to know each other.


Folks in Lower Price Hill aren’t used to having decent landlords. As I have mentioned before, this area is low income. They are the working poor. These are people that live day to day. Planning for the future means getting to the end of the week or month when their next check arrives. Any unexpected expense like a doctor bill or car repair throws their financial world out of whack.

A large majority has government subsidized housing vouchers and nearly everybody in the area rents. A few apartment buildings are controlled by large companies that have processes and run it as a business; they maintain the buildings but really have no relationship with the tenants. Most of the apartments and houses for rent are by smaller firms or individuals. They are absentee landlords with little involvement except collecting a monthly check.

If you are a parent, you know that if you leave a group of kids alone and never check on them, things will get out of hand quickly. What starts out as quiet play turns into rough housing and unintended destruction. Renters are no different. If you aren’t around to enforce the rules, things get out of hand. Just by being seen, talking to the tenants, and enforcing your rules, a visible landlord can maintain order.

We have a different approach. My partner’s office is in the neighborhood. Many of the guys working for him live here and I am around at least once a week. Steve & I have been cleaning up the buildings, and doing the maintenance that has been neglected for years. Like good parents, we do enforce the rules and try to keep as much order as we have power over.

Having said all that, sometimes you need to bend your own rules and this is where I am going to show a soft spot. I am starting to connect with our tenants. I am getting to know their stories and deep down want to help in some way.

Maurice lives with his girlfriend in one of our buildings. In his teen years, he got hooked on drugs, stole to support his addiction and ended up doing time in jail. He has been out of jail for several years but doesn’t have steady employment; typically he works odd jobs as a day laborer. Maurice does volunteer time working with kids to keep them off drugs and is trying to stay clean and out of trouble. I’m not sure if he has always been this way or if it was the drugs, but Mo’ isn’t the brightest guy. He seems to have limited cognitive function, difficulty staying on task and really doesn’t have any skills in maneuvering through the social systems that could help him. He is used to being beaten down by “the man” and accepts it as part of life.

Two months ago, Maurice didn’t show up with his rent, by the 5th of the month I decided to look for him. Like most folks, when faced with a problem that is overwhelming, Maurice decided to ignore it in hopes that it would go away. Unfortunately, not paying rent isn’t a problem that will go away. When I finally tracked him down, he explained that he hasn’t been working much and didn’t have the rent and offered to move out.

The way the system works I can evict Maurice for non payment of rent. This process takes about 6 weeks and legal fees run $350. His offer to move out would have been a big savings to me in time and money. The problem with that solution was that I liked Maurice and if he had no money to pay me, he wasn’t going to have any to move in anywhere else. I also knew that nobody was going to try to help him. I had already introduced him to a local community service, Santa Maria, to try to help him with housing assistance and moving at this point might hold up any help he would receive.

In the end, we decided to split his rent over a few weeks. The only cost to me in spreading out his rent is timing of payments which isn’t that big of a deal and it was a big relief to Maurice. Only time will tell if Maurice will honor his word of if he tries to take advantage of my flexibility. I am hoping he continues to try to help himself and if I can provide him a little support he may be able to improve his life.

I am probably naive in thinking that I can make a difference. I honestly expect Maurice to take advantage of my kindness and try to slide on his rent. I doubt he has ever had someone provide him any generosity without a condition. In a way Maurice is no different than any of us and the acceptance of unconditional giving is really difficult. By nature, we are trained to be suspicious of kindness. How often has someone offered you something and you rejected it, not because you didn’t want it but because you were afraid of what would be asked of you in return?