If Landlords Get Wiped Out, Wall Street Wins, Not Renters

Nobody’s bailing out Connecticut landlord Maribeth Shields.

More than half of the tenants in the 27 low-income apartments she owns in the city of West Haven and its vicinity aren’t paying and there’s nothing she can do about it. The state banned evictions until July and allowed tenants hurt by the pandemic to defer with no penalty.

Maribeth Shields in West Haven.

Photographer: Jillian Freyer for Bloomberg Businessweek

But Shields can’t pay, either. Her profit last year came to only $24,000, and now she’s behind on $1.2 million in mortgages. Like millions of other U.S. landlords, who owe lenders more than $1 trillion combined, her fate is tied to renters ...