The cancel rent phenomenon has noble aims, but it fails utterly to deal with long term problems that will be caused by otherwise solvent people withholding rent from landlords.

If you can’t afford to pay your rent, that’s one thing. But if you choose not to?

What do you think happens to properties when the owner can not afford to maintain it, pay taxes on it, or pay the mortgage owed on it?

I’ll tell you: it becomes a liability. What do people do with financial liabilities? They tend to either sell them to someone who is less scrupulous or interested in maintaining it, OR they burn it down. Don’t believe me? Look at what happened to rent controlled properties in the Bronx 30+ years ago. A lot of accidental fires. A lot of destroyed neighborhoods. A lot of worse housing outcomes for residents, lowered property values, lowered property taxes, and a hollowing out of a previously prosperous community. You can pretend like only evil people would burn down their own building, but it’s just as evil to give a property owner no other rational choice as a matter of policy.

Don’t force the hand of landlords to create a WORSE situation than we have now. Be a responsible adult. Pay your bills. Don’t be a voluntary deadbeat for some hashtag purpose.

Your landlord is not a billionaire. They are not profiting from this shutdown or the pandemic. You made a promise to pay them rent for the term of your lease! Breaking this promise on purpose is not a moral choice.