Dear ____________,
My name is _________________. I live in _________(city), am a___________(job), and I’m worried. Not just for myself, but for everyone I know, and especially those made most vulnerable by the current crisis. Overnight, a bulk of the population has become unemployed, and while some support has been promised by your government, rent is due in exactly one week, and relief payments will not arrive on time.
I’m writing to ask that the federal government cancel all rent payments for April, and for duration of the crisis. The government must include relief for renters in its crisis response. While it has already directed banks to suspend mortgage payments for six months, most renters are living month to month as it is, and we can not afford to incur more debt.
Many of the EI provisions made for those who can’t work anymore due to COVID-19 won’t cover our rent as it is. Moreover, most people in the gig economy can’t access EI easily. Many people do not qualify for employment insurance or Canada revenue agency managed programs including homeless and undocumented people, migrant workers, unemployed, temporary and precarious workers, disabled people, cash work and more. Times are deeply uncertain, but what we do know is that even if our payments are deferred, in six months from now the majority of renters will not be able to afford to pay our back rent. We have watched the airline industry and the oil industry get bailed out. Certainly you can make provisions for both tenants and landlords.
Please consider immediately waiving all rent payments for April 1st and for the duration of this crisis which has made so many of us unemployed overnight. May it not also make us homeless and crippled by more debt!
Sincerely yours,
_______________________
YOUR NAME
