The landlord who stepped up in the ‘hour of need’
A landlord in Kenya is helping his tenants get through the coronavirus crisis by suspending rent payments.
With skyrocketing unemployment, workers everywhere risk being evicted from their homes. Not just in the U.S., but around the world people are struggling to pay their rent during the coronavirus pandemic.
Understanding this is crucial to Michael Munene’s work. He is a landlord in Kenya’s Nyandarua County, with around 30 low-income tenants.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit Kenya, most of Munene’s tenants were laid off from their jobs. As this was happening, he called a meeting with the occupants to announce his plans to help them get through this.
“When I called for the meeting, even though they know me well, they were expecting bad news. They thought I wanted to increase the rent or tell them to vacate and look for somewhere else,” Munene said. “So when I told them to not pay rent for four months, some started getting a bit confused because they could not understand that reality.”
No rent would be collected for the months of May through August. The tenants were in shock at his generosity. And despite the financial loss, he knows firsthand the hardship they are facing from the coronavirus.
“I found that this [was] the opportunity to help those in need because there was a time I was a tenant. So I know how it feels to be a tenant and how they struggle to pay for the rent.”
For Munene, what one has in the bank is not important. What matters is what we can do to support fellow human beings in their “hour of need.”
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