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Study Shows Nearly 480,000 Tenants Are Unable to Pay Rent in NJ During COVID-19 Pandemic

The global investment bank and advisory firm Stout has released a 36-page study that reveals out of nearly 1.4 million tenants in NJ, 330,000 to 480,000 are unable to pay their rent and are at risk for eviction. 

According to a portion of the research, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health crisis and an economic crisis in the United States.

”As of September 21, 2020, there have been more than 6.9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 200,000 reported COVID-19 deaths in the United States,” the research stated. 

In the Garden State alone, as of Christmas day, Governor Phil Murphy reported 457,000 COVID-19 cases since March with over 18,595 deaths. 

The Stout study found that along with small business owners, renters and individual landlords are also experiencing financial hardship.

A monthly survey by Apartment List that started in June found that for each of the last four months, approximately 33% of American rental households did not make an on-time rent payment, according to Stout. 

Nationwide, the report estimated that the rent shortfall by the end of September 2020 for these households was between $12.2 billion and $16.7 billion and that this rent shortfall will increase to between $25.1 billion and $34.3 billion by January 2021. 

Just in NJ, Stout said the estimated shortfall for those not paying rent $1.3 billion. 

Starting Jan. 1, 2021, landlords will once again be able to evict tenants for failure to pay rent legally.

Dec. 31 is the last day of protection from evictions and from a handful of other coronavirus relief measures that will expire on Dec. 31 if there's no new stimulus bill or executive action to renew them, according to cnet.com. 

President Trump vetoed a stimulus bill that would have extended the moratorium on evictions this week. 

INFORMATION CREDIT: Stout, a global investment bank and advisory firm.

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