Industry Update

TRYING TO STOP THE PANDEMIC ROLLER-COASTER

By Paul Cauduro, AAA Director of Government Relations

During this rollercoaster ride, with all of its crazy, twists and turns, the AAA has worked with the TAA and the NAA to advocate for the rental housing industry on a wide range of issues. Year 2021 has not gone as planned for the rental housing industry. That early promise of a strong, resurgent year has been replaced by rapidly rising COVID cases and hospitalizations, extended eviction moratoriums and slow distribution of rental assistance funds.

During this roller-coaster ride, with all of its crazy twists and turns, the Austin Apartment Association (AAA) has worked with the Texas Apartment Association (TAA) and the National Apartment Association (NAA) to advocate for the rental housing industry on a wide-range of issues. However, advocacy has just been part of the actions taken, because coupled with our advocacy efforts are the actions taken in partnership with local, state and federal officials to distribute information to residents, facilitate the submittal of rental assistance applications and maintain a safe living environment at the property. When taken together, both the advocacy and partnership actions demonstrate that association members are committed to its mission of advancing the expertise and collective community impact of the rental housing industry as well as helping realize its vision that people will thrive where they live.

Using advocacy and partnership efforts to keep the apartment industry healthy during the pandemic began

Read about AAA’s current advocacy issues at www.austinaptassoc.com/news/advocacy-in-action almost right away in mid-March 2020 when rental housing leaders immediately began calling for financial assistance to renters economically impacted by COVID before the situation resulted in delinquencies or eviction. The early advocacy efforts also included calls for relief for student housing providers and carry-back rules to address anticipated year 2020 operating losses. In partnership with residents and local governments, the AAA promulgate new lease forms to waive late rent payment fees and establish rent payment extension schedules. The AAA also created a “Renter Resources” page on its website listing all known agencies and organizations able to provide rental assistance and other aid. As soon as the CARES Act was enacted at the end of March 2020, the NAA and its state and local affiliates began offering educational webinars and guidance documents. This was critical to help keep housing providers in compliance with the fast-changing eviction and eviction notification rules, and also to ensure that they could quickly take advantage of the business-related provisions included in the legislation such as mortgage forbearance. When the pandemic extended into the summer of 2020 so did the industry’s advocacy and partnership efforts. More than 24,000 messages were sent to Congress by NAA members asking that ambiguous language in the CARES Act be fixed and explained how compliance with the 30-day notices in the Act was complicated and interfering with efforts taken by rental housing providers to help renters. As these messages were being sent, the AAA was busy working with the city by providing input on how to best implement rental assistance programs and partnering with Austin Public Health to help educate properties about how to comply with local masking and social

distancing orders. AAA education was also offered to members on local eviction notification requirements and government orders prohibiting the issuance of notices to vacate. Plus, in an effort to help the Justice of the Peace Courts directly communicate its courtroom procedures and health protocols, the AAA held a virtual townhall meeting for members with the Travis County JPs.

In the fall of 2020, as the industry kept a steady drumbeat on its message that emergency rental assistance is the best solution to the challenges facing rental housing and that extended local and federal eviction moratorium do not help the long-term needs of renters and is actually shrinking the nation’s rental housing stock, the AAA was busy offering rental assistance application events at various properties. At these events, computer terminals were set up in community rooms where residents could apply for rental assistance and get help scanning and submitting the documents needed to complete the application.

By the end of 2020 AAA’s renter resources page on its website emerged as the most visited webpage, and hundreds of AAA members had participated in nearly a dozen webinars dedicated to offering the most up-to-date information on local rental assistance programs and guidance on complying with local orders and ordinances. Then finally, after many critical relief efforts such as enhanced unemployment benefits had long expired, the coronavirus relief package known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 was passed. The key component of the bill was dedicated federal emergency rental assistance which proved to be a critical measure that would go on to help housing providers pay their bills and keep our nation’s 40 million renters in their homes.

In March of this year, while people were waiting in line for vaccinations, the AAA, TAA and NAA all began working to ensure federal rental assistance dollars approved as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 would be distributed quickly and efficiently to renters and housing providers. Admittedly, the early implementation of the state’s rental assistance program did not go well, but through the ongoing work of the TAA and others the state program quickly found its footing to the benefit of many, many rental property owners. Austin’s own program also accepted feedback from the AAA and housing advocates and quickly became a model program for other local governments to emulate.

Unfortunately, the roll-out of rental assistance in other states and localities have not gone as well. By the

end of this past summer only a small amount of the $46.5 in rental aid allocated by Congress to offset losses from the federal eviction ban imposed had been distributed. Amid the advocacy and partnership efforts displayed by the NAA and its state and local affiliates, the realities of slow distribution of rental assistance funds and the extensions of federal eviction moratoriums led to NAA filing a lawsuit against the federal government seeking compensation for the financial damages suffered under the CDC order. The lawsuit may also serve as an assurance that the federal government can never do this again.

The path to a healthy housing industry is paved with advocacy, partnerships and, yes, legal rulings. During the past eighteen months the rental housing industry has used all three tactics to avoid major system failure. These efforts have not always been easy, but benefits have been gained along the way, and until the pandemic is in the rearview mirror all of these efforts will continue.

Austin Code Looking to Revamp ROP

In October 2021, the Office of the Austin City Auditor took aim at the city’s Repeat Offender Program (ROP). This program is intended to identify and closely track properties with chronic code violations to ensure code compliance and healthy living environments for renters. The findings of the audit were not surprising and was critical of the city’s internal data collections and reporting process used for determining ROP properties. The AAA’s critiques of the program go much further and center on the low threshold of just five violations used to put a property on the ROP list. Another finding of the city’s audit is that there is no incentive program offered by Austin Code that could be used to “reinforce responsible property management as a complement to regulatory pressure generally designed to discourage bad actors”. Austin Code is now considering the components of a landlord “incentive” program. Some early discussions include incentives such as fast-tracking permit applications, fee rebates and flexible compliance schedules in exchange for prompt code compliance or providing certain tenant protections. AAA members familiar with incentive programs used in other housing markets or wishing to offer comments on a possible landlord incentive program are encouraged to call the AAA office or send an email to paul@austinaptassoc.com

The path to a healthy housing industry is paved with advocacy, partnerships, and yes, legal rulings.