Financially strapped renters in SD seek help avoiding eviction amid pandemic

[TexasTowelie]

Many people who rent homes or apartments in South Dakota are hurting financially during the pandemic, causing large numbers of renters to ask for public assistance or charitable help to stave off eviction and maintain a stable residence.

More than twice as many South Dakotans have looked to taxpayers or charities to cover at least one month of rent in the first half of 2020 compared to all of 2019, and new surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau suggest the need for rent assistance will rise as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

In the middle of July, the Census Bureau, which has been conducting weekly pulse surveys of U.S. households since April, estimated 30%, or about 42,000 of South Dakota’s roughly 139,000 renters had little or no confidence that they’d be able to make their August rent payment.

Meanwhile, the 211 Helpline Center has fielded more than 7,000 calls from people needing help making a rent or mortgage payment during the first seven months of the year, more than double the number of rent-assistance calls the organization saw in all of 2019.

Read more: https://www.bhpioneer.com/covid-19/financially-strapped-renters-in-sd-seek-help-avoiding-eviction-amid-pandemic/article_3d692b86-e3f5-11ea-9c0c-cbf525cab7d5.html
(Black Hills Pioneer)

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Knowing a little tad about Sodak,

most incomes are below 20k per year. Most likely thousands have exhausted their Unemployment. To qualify for any food assistance one has to be actively doing their Employment Job Search,even if there are zero to none Jobs available.Did I forget,there is nothing of a Public Transportation system. And you damn better be able to travel some distance in order to drop your job App.

The Attitude of the Elected People is,tough shitski my friend. You don't like it,go some where else,you don't belong here.

[PBC_Democrat]

2. I always a little skeptical of these numbers ...

I have no doubt that a lot of renters are behind, but in order for it to make sense to evict a tenant - you need to have some hope of finding a replacement tenant.

I have a few relatives here in S. Fla that own rental properties and they are all working with the good tenants to keep them in the property. One relative is offering rent reduction or forgiveness to tenants willing to do some work and make improvements to their unit.

It is a crisis that needs to be addressed but government imposed rent moratoriums are not fair to landlords who expenses (maint, taxes, insurance) are not being placed on hold.