ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis landlord called the You Paid For It Team to tell his story on how he thinks landlords are treated unfairly in this COVID crisis.
There is a moratorium that blocks evictions. Allen Shelton says he has a tenant that hasn’t paid rent for months. He says he’s owed $6,000. Shelton laments he can’t collect the rent and is prevented from evicting the tenant.
He says there are also others living in his property that are behind on rent and says he’s owned a total of $11,000.
Shelton says he has a family too that he has to take care of out of his income from rental property.
FOX 2 spoke with St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts who says the only evictions he’s serving is where criminals activities are taking place and at some commercial locations. Beyond that, he says landlords will just have to be patient.
We also talked with a spokesman for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest philanthropy in the nation focused on health. The organization just finished a big nationwide study on evictions, including St. Louis.
They agree more funds must be set aside to help landlords in this crisis. But they emphasize it’s critical to keep families in their homes to avoid the further spread of COVID and to avoid more homelessness.
For more information: Eviction Lab
