Many Detroiters out of work from pandemic choose between rent - or supplies for family

(FOX 2) - "I am an office manager of a dental office," said Carmen.

Rob Wolchek: "So you've been out of work for about a month, right?" "Just about." she said.

Dental offices are just one of the businesses shut down as being non-essential during the COVID-19 crisis.   

Now Carmen, has to make a hard decision, pay the rent and use up most of her money - or don't pay the rent and face the consequences.

"I have medicine I have to take," she said. "My son has medicine he has to take. I'm trying to prioritize - do I want to take the risk of being put on the eviction, because I know they have the bill passed where they can't kick anybody out, but I'm just scared once I'm put on the eviction notice, once everything goes back to normal, I'm going be kicked out."

"You don't know where your next month's money is coming from," said Marcel. "So for us to scrape that together and that's the note you have before you drop your deposit off, leaves a bad taste in your mouth."

Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order that halted evictions during the stay at home mandate. But that hasn't stopped some rental companies from letting their tenants know they still expect the rent.

Marcel works cutting steel in a factory.  It is another business that has been temporarily closed. He paid his family's rent for April but was handed what he calls a threatening letter from his girlfriend's apartment complex.

Here's what the letter says:

"Yes, Michigan has a moratorium law in place which means no evictions in the state of Michigan right now. As soon as the government has stepped in with the stimulus package and unemployment benefits are being paid, that law will be lifted. Ask yourself, 'Will you have a safe place for you and your family to live?'"

Jay is a landlord who is working with his tenants and reminds those who own properties they rent to others, to be kind.

"Some of the notices that people are sending out just sound downright threatening." he said. "And maybe they're not meant to be but you need to be really careful because this is a stressful time and I think it either brings out the best or worst in people."

Jay explained part of a property manager's job is to document tenants who don't pay and send out the proper notices which will pay off in the long run for the tenant if help is offered by the government.  

In other words, if you don't have an eviction notice- you may not get government help."

"If you don't already have good lines of communication already this is certainly a recipe of mistrust," Jay said.

Which is why working together and communicating is now more important than ever. He reminds renters that property owners have their own bills to pay as well.

"If people don't pay their rent, the people that are paying mortgages on those properties are not going to be able to pay their rent, they're going to get foreclosed on, the tenant's going to get kicked out, the owners going to get kicked out of their property as well and it's no good for everybody."

We have some resources to help tenants during these challenging times:

Wayne County Dispute Resolution Center: wcdrc.org
Resolution Center for Macomb and St. Clair Counties: www.theresolutioncenter.com/
Dispute Resolution Center for Washtenaw and Livingston Counties: thedisputeresolutioncenter.org
Oakland Mediation Center: mediation-omc.org/