Stop Playing Games With Rent Relief

Stop Playing Games With Rent Relief

Share to Linkedin Bud Abbott laughing and Lou Costello with hand on chin sit together in a scene from the film 'Bud ... [+] Abbott And Lou Costello In Hollywood', 1945. (Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images) One of my favorite Abbot and Costello routines is really a Lou Costello routine. The duo owe back rent and Bud Abbot tasks Costello with conning their way out of paying. It's worth watching if you haven't seen it. Hilarious. Very funny. That is unless you are one of thousands of housing providers or families in the United States who are looking at rising balances of unpaid rent. For those people, the schtick is all too familiar. States are playing bureaucratic and political games with much needed assistance, just like Costello. But as of today, $25 billion set aside to reduce unpaid rent “” unpaid as a result of government interventions to stop the spread of Covid-19 “” isn't funny it is an unfolding tragedy. State and local governments simply don't know how or want to efficiently get the money where it needs to be. States need to involve lenders and create a program that is more like the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). In conversations