After throwing millions of Americans out of work with lockdowns, the government discovered that many of those individuals could not pay their rent. The government responded with a moratorium on evictions. And then, when landlords began to face economic hardship, the government responded with rent assistance. But according to CNBC, only $5 billion of the $45 billion allocated by Congress in December and March has actually reached tenants. This is just another debacle in the series of debacles that defines the government’s response to the pandemic.
Interestingly, as of July 31, one of the states that has a multitude of policies to “protect” tenants, progressive New York, has distributed only $2.7 million of the $801 million it was allocated. In contrast, a state that is very friendly to landlords, conservative Texas, is leading the nation in distributions. Through the end of July, Texas had distributed $616 million, which is 47 percent of the money the state was allocated.
New York has no qualms telling landlords how to operate their business and imposing financial hardship on rental property owners. Indeed, the state legislature has extended New York’s eviction moratorium until January. While landlords struggle to pay their bills, the state doddles in distributing funds that could save many landlords.
Texas is working diligently to help both landlords and tenants. Even the Biden administration has touted the state as a rental aid success story and is encouraging other states to follow Texas’s lead. Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, also praised Texas.
Texas is an example of how programs improve when administrators are willing to learn from and adapt to shortcomings in design and implementation. To their credit, the program’s administrators recognized that the initial program design wasn’t working and used lessons from their mistakes to course-correct and improve.
Unlike New York, Texas did not require legislative approval to begin distributing funds. This allowed Texas to launch its program four months before New York. This approach to distributing aid is a reflection of each state’s general view of government. New York sees government as the solution to every problem, real or imagined. It is a state stagnating in a swamp of regulations and bureaucracy. Texas, on the other hand, has a much more limited government. It is a state that fosters entrepreneurism and independence. Both states are acting on their basic political philosophy, and that is reflected in the level of suffering tenants and landlords in the respective states are experiencing.