This letter is in response to our disappointment at the rollout of your “rental assistance” policy. First, let’s establish that it is not a “rental assistance” policy, it is a “rent deferment” policy. The Irvine Company has taken steps to ensure that it will receive every penny of the rent that all rental agreements state they are to receive. There is not a cent of “assistance” in this policy. America is quickly learning which companies are good to their people, and which companies are bad to their people. What a shame to find the Irvine Company, a company that owns a majority of an entire county, on the losing end of this determination. 

I looked into the “rental assistance” program being offered by The Irvine Company . The  offer is laughably offensive and can be summarized as this: Pay less rent for two months and then normal rates plus what you didn’t pay starting in June. The Irvine Company uses its vast resources to employ some of the brightest finance and economics minds in the world and is owned by the wealthiest real estate developer in the United States with a net worth of over $17 billion. Surely, the company can see that this policy is simply predatory.

Does any company with a semblance of common sense truly think that, in 2 months, consumer finances will be back to normal and folks will be able to afford more than their normal rent amount? I’ll go out on a limb and say no- that’s not what the Irvine Company thinks. Further, I’m inclined to believe that the Irvine Company knows exactly what it is doing: Dodging the statewide moratorium on eviction proceedings and collecting what they can from their tenants before the eviction ban is lifted and vacated units can be occupied by new tenants at higher rental rates. Anyone who has ever lived in an Irvine Company apartment knows that the company loves nothing more than to raise the rent of its tenants as often as possible. 

The Irvine Company is uniquely and fortunately suited to weather this storm and it is the Irvine Company’s social and economic obligation to help thousands of tenants weather this storm along with them. To squander an opportunity to be a beacon of hope and grace is disappointing. Reasonable forgiveness programs to serve those in need and keep them housed for the long run should be the Irvine Company’s legacy during this crisis, not an “assistance program” designed to fail. 

The Irvine Company signed a lease with its tenants where the Irvine Company specifically added things like access to pools, gyms, business centers, etc. The Irvine Company is no longer providing those material aspects of the lease to its tenants, yet the company is not reducing rent accordingly. The company’s argument is surely that the current state of the world prohibits them from providing those amenities. However, the current state of the world is prohibiting thousands of its tenants from paying rent because they lost their jobs, yet the company still insists that tenants pay their full rent obligation. The hypocrisy in this is repugnant. 

Discounts for amenities we no longer have access to but are a part of our lease, rolling back rates to what individuals first signed their leases for before the yearly and unnecessary ~5% rent increase, and actual rent forgiveness for those who qualify would be a start. The Irvine Company could do so much more, but this would be a start. 

If the Irvine Company needs reminding, your tenants were not fired. Being fired is a result of misconduct, poor performance, or some other transgression. Rather, the world changed overnight and hard-working individuals are suffering as a result. These are people who have paid rent to the Irvine Company for months and months and years and years- these are people who deserve more than a transparently greedy offer that jeopardizes that which ever human holds dear: a home. 

We demand a reduction in rent prices and a letter of apology for the insensitivity during these unprecedented times.