Two members of the “Squad” of progressive House lawmakers raked in tens of thousands of dollars in rental income in 2021 while leveraging their power as members of Congress in an attempt to cancel rent and mortgage payments nationwide.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) collected up to $50,000 in rental income in 2021 from her Detroit property, according to her financial disclosure filed Friday. And Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) raked in up to a combined $117,500 in rental income from her four properties in Boston in 2021, her financial disclosure filed Saturday shows.
Both Tlaib and Pressley co-sponsored legislation introduced in March 2021 by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) that would have suspended residential mortgage and rent payments nationwide during the “COVID-19 emergency” and would have forgiven all unpaid rental and mortgage debt accrued from March 2020 through April 2022.
Five other Democratic co-sponsors of Omar’s rent and mortgage cancellation bill also reported earning rental income during 2021, financial disclosures reviewed by the Washington Examiner show.
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COVID-19 remains a public health emergency in the eyes of the federal government. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra most recently renewed his determination that COVID-19 constitutes a public health emergency on July 15.
Pressley tweeted in December 2020 that evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic were acts of “violence” and that canceling rent and mortgage payments was a “matter of public health & safety.
An eviction is an act of violence that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of additional COVID cases.
We need to cancel rent, cancel mortgage, halt evictions & provide legal representation for those at risk of unlawful eviction. This is a matter of public health & safety. https://t.co/xdIXjizsjf
— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) December 7, 2020
Pressley said in a press release announcing Omar’s Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act that the government must do everything in its power to forgive “all rental debt.”
“Housing is a critical determinant of health, economic opportunity and social mobility,” the Democratic landlord said in the March 2021 press release. “With the economic impact of this pandemic worsening and the threat of eviction and homelessness looming large for families nationwide, we must take every measure possible to keep families safely housed, forgive all rental debt, and ensure that the credit scores of hard hit families are not forever tarnished.”
“I’m proud to partner with Congresswoman Omar on the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act, which meets the moment and will help move us towards an America where no person has to choose between putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their head,” Pressley added.
Tlaib said in a press conference announcing the bill in March that the government would be “kicking the crisis down the road” if it doesn’t outright cancel mortgage and rent debt alongside payment moratoriums during the pandemic.
Tlaib previously defended collecting upwards of $50,000 in rental income from her Detroit property during the first year of the pandemic in 2020.
“There is no contradiction between advocating for an eviction moratorium and rental relief and having a great relationship with a long-term tenant in a single rental home,” Tlaib spokeswoman Adrienne Salazar told the Detroit News in August 2021.
“Rep. Tlaib is an unwavering advocate for tenants, has worked to get rental assistance out to landlords to keep people housed, and remains focused on advocating for residents during this pandemic,” Salazar said.
Tlaib and Pressley did not return requests for comment.
Tlaib and Pressley aren’t the only co-sponsors of Omar’s rent cancellation and forgiveness bill that raked in rental income in 2021.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) co-sponsored the measure despite receiving upwards of $1,167,500 in rental income in 2021, according to her financial disclosure filed Wednesday.
Another co-sponsor, Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), disclosed that he received upwards of $15,000 in 2021 from his “basement rental unit” in Washington, D.C.
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Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL), also a co-sponsor of Omar’s bill, disclosed receiving upwards of $2,500 from a Miami, Florida, rental property in 2021.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) reported receiving up to $1,000 in rental income in 2021 from an undeveloped 2-acre plot of land in Mississippi, as well as up to $15,000 in “partnership income” from BLB Enterprises, LLC, a company that, according to his financial disclosure, was “formed to hold rental investment property.”
Thompson is the president of BLB Enterprises, he reported in his 2021 financial disclosure.
Another co-sponsor of Omar’s rent cancellation bill, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), received up to $15,000 in rental income in 2021 from his property in Tuscon, Arizona.
Omar’s bill was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services in March 2021 and has laid dormant since.
