Memo: Americans Support Suspending All Rent Payments
By Lew Blank Senior Advisor, Data for Progress and Tara Raghuveer People’s Action, Homes Guarantee campaign
With millions of renters in a desperate situation, bold legislation to relieve renters is imperative. Eviction moratoriums—which postpone rent payments, but don’t cancel them—are only a first step, but they are not enough. Under these moratoriums, even if a tenant is able to defer rent payments to a later date, they would eventually have to pay for both their current rent and the rent of past months. Tenant rights groups, like those involved in the campaign for a national Homes Guarantee, and politicians like Representative Ilhan Omar and Senator Bernie Sanders are calling for the cancelation of rent as part of the next federal stimulus package. Legislation has already been drafted to suspend all rent and mortgage payments.
Executive Summary
Voters strongly favor a program of suspending and forgiving rent, backing it by a margin of 22 percentage points.
Voters under the age of forty-five are especially enthusiastic about suspending and forgiving rent, supporting it by a margin of 50 points.
By a 14-point margin, voters who self-identified as Republicans favor a more moderate proposal of suspending, but not forgiving, rent during the coronavirus crisis.
