APARTMENT ADVOCATE
NATIONAL APARTMENT ASSOCIATION
A 2020 Case Study : NAA and COVID-19 Advocacy
As the cliché goes , “ 2020 was
an unprecedented year .” The COVID-19 pandemic seemingly overnight knocked the nation ’ s economy to its knees and marched the health care system to the edge of an abyss where we continue to teeter . The virus took on average 906 lives each and every day and started a culture war over an individual ’ s right to ignore public health guidelines . For housing providers , who immediately had to grapple with operational challenges and adaptation to new COVID-19 safety regulations , the pandemic and its economic devastation broke the most important link in the housing ecosystem chain of events – the timely payment of rent .
Despite a bipartisan , rapid response at the outset of the pandemic , Congress and the Administration remained deadlocked for most of the year , taking nine months to finally reach an agreement on additional , much-needed support in December 2020 . To be sure , in many ways we all would like to forget 2020 ever happened and move on to a hopefully better 2021 . Yet , it is important to do some reflection on the advocacy front , where the battles were lost and won to protect the industry from the ongoing effects of the pandemic . Follow along the timeline as we revisit NAA ’ s COVID-19 federal advocacy to date .
NATIONAL EMERGENCY AND CONGRESS ’ FIRST RESPONSE
On March 13 , 2020 , the last day of the NAA Advocate Conference in Washington , D . C ., the President declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency . What followed in the next two weeks was a rapid succession of legislating by the Congress . By March 27 , three bills totaling $ 2.1 trillion were passed in quick succession : the Coronavirus Preparedness and
Response Supplemental Appropriations Act , the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid , Relief , and Economic Security ( CARES ) Act . The common thread of these bills was allocating resources to fight the virus , helping businesses survive the economic displacement and supporting impacted individuals and families . NAA added its voice and that of the apartment industry to these first deliberations , stressing the importance of assistance for rental housing providers and renters alike , and we worked quickly to ensure that compliance resources were made available to support the industry as they operationalized these new requirements .
These bills were of mixed benefit . On the positive side , the “ boost ” of federal unemployment benefits and individual “ recovery rebate ” checks would prove critical for partial or complete rent payments . Also , substantial www . aamdhq . org FEBRUARY 2021 TRENDS | 39