Paying Bills Suspend It Also
Containing COVID-19 and homelessness.
The government has all kinds of measures to contain the virus and the primary one is staying at home. The public understands that, but how effective is it going to be if landlords kick tenants to the curb because they can’t pay rent and banks repossesses our homes?
CHAIN REACTION
The people cannot pay because they have been laid off or their work hours cut by 80%. Take the hotel industry for example. Hotel managers in Canada are already giving their employees a tough choice because of cancellations. Do you want to stick around and work a few hours or sign up for unemployment income?
One online commentator admonished himself for watching funnies, a sign that he was missing sports on TV, said he was not taking it very well. I laughed because he is not the only one, which brings me to the NBA. It was one of the first sports organizations to suspend games. It did not occur to me at the time, how that would affect hotels.
Can you imagine what could have happened to the City of Chicago and the whole state of Illinois if corona had hit just before the NBA All Star uber event, in mid-February 2020? Hotels would have been the first casualty.
GOVERNMENT MUST TALK TO OUR CREDITORS
The bulk of the government’s health resources have shifted to containing coronavirus. Equally, other government departments should come up with a solution of how to solve the social ramifications of not going to work. Top of the list is avoiding homelessness.
OUR HOUSES
We proudly say we own our homes, but we don’t. They belong to the
Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, Toronto Dominion Bank, Scotiabank, Banco de la Nacion Argentina, Standard Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, Citibank etc. until we pay off the bond/mortgage. Few people do. It’s capitalism. That is how it works.
Billionaires that benefit from it call it ‘free enterprise’ translated into: freedom to collect interest. The government should convince banks not to charge interest on unpaid monthly mortgage payments.
RENT
We cannot pay rent if we are not working. We might pay the April rent but not the May rent and beyond. Beyond because we don’t know how long the coronavirus situation will be with us.
Landlords will charge interest as usual but get to the point where they kick us out. The government should convince them not to charge interest on unpaid rent. Better still, it should make it a crime to evict tenants because they cannot pay, and they cannot pay because they don’t go to work, and they don’t go to work because of coronavirus.
INTEREST
Mortgage payments, rent, are not the only bills that charge interest. Phone, electricity and water, school bills, clothing stores, everything has this hunchback: interest. We will end up falling back on credit cards, which will be surfing on shark infested waters. We will not even discuss the interest on credit cards, for fear of heart failure.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
By government we mean all levels. COVID-19 has broken capitalism’s dam walls. They must find grout to patch them so that citizens don’t find themselves homeless, because of the pandemic.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
1. Is your house paid off?
2. Are you renting?
3. Do you live with your parents?
The government has all kinds of measures to contain the virus and the primary one is staying at home. The public understands that, but how effective is it going to be if landlords kick tenants to the curb because they can’t pay rent and banks repossesses our homes?
CHAIN REACTION
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| Pic: Nonqaba waka Msimang. |
One online commentator admonished himself for watching funnies, a sign that he was missing sports on TV, said he was not taking it very well. I laughed because he is not the only one, which brings me to the NBA. It was one of the first sports organizations to suspend games. It did not occur to me at the time, how that would affect hotels.
Can you imagine what could have happened to the City of Chicago and the whole state of Illinois if corona had hit just before the NBA All Star uber event, in mid-February 2020? Hotels would have been the first casualty.
GOVERNMENT MUST TALK TO OUR CREDITORS
The bulk of the government’s health resources have shifted to containing coronavirus. Equally, other government departments should come up with a solution of how to solve the social ramifications of not going to work. Top of the list is avoiding homelessness.
OUR HOUSES
We proudly say we own our homes, but we don’t. They belong to the
Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, Toronto Dominion Bank, Scotiabank, Banco de la Nacion Argentina, Standard Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, Citibank etc. until we pay off the bond/mortgage. Few people do. It’s capitalism. That is how it works.
Billionaires that benefit from it call it ‘free enterprise’ translated into: freedom to collect interest. The government should convince banks not to charge interest on unpaid monthly mortgage payments.
RENT
We cannot pay rent if we are not working. We might pay the April rent but not the May rent and beyond. Beyond because we don’t know how long the coronavirus situation will be with us.
Landlords will charge interest as usual but get to the point where they kick us out. The government should convince them not to charge interest on unpaid rent. Better still, it should make it a crime to evict tenants because they cannot pay, and they cannot pay because they don’t go to work, and they don’t go to work because of coronavirus.
INTEREST
Mortgage payments, rent, are not the only bills that charge interest. Phone, electricity and water, school bills, clothing stores, everything has this hunchback: interest. We will end up falling back on credit cards, which will be surfing on shark infested waters. We will not even discuss the interest on credit cards, for fear of heart failure.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
By government we mean all levels. COVID-19 has broken capitalism’s dam walls. They must find grout to patch them so that citizens don’t find themselves homeless, because of the pandemic.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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