A Portland, Maine, landlord is giving back to the community in a very tangible way: He won't charge his tenants rent for the month of April.

What are the details?

The landlord, Nathan Nichols, made the announcement on his Facebook page.

Nichols, who owns two rental units in South Portland, said that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, he would not be collecting rent. In his posting, which went viral, Nichols also urged other landlords to follow suit in order to ease the burden on renters.

The post read, "COVID19 is going to cause serious financial hardship for service and hourly workers around the country. I own a two unit in South Portland and all of my tenants are in this category. Because I have the good fortune and of being able to afford it and the privilege of being in the owner class, I just let them know I would not be collecting rent in April. I ask any other landlords out there to take a serious look at your own situation and consider giving your tenants some rent relief as well."

At the time of this writing, Nichols' post has been shared more than 17,000 times.

What else?

In a statement, Nichols told WMTW-TV that he hopes his post will be far-reaching in order to help out people who may be financially strapped at this difficult time.

"I am quite surprised and I am happy that it got shared a lot because I do seriously hope that people who have some privilege will see this and take a hard look and see what they can do," he said.

"One of my units is one family with a small child on a single income that is hourly and I know that they are under financial stress a lot of the time. It would be a lot more expensive for me to lose a tenant than to give one month's rent off," he added.

"If more people do this, which is the only reason I posted this in the first place, to hopefully get people to take a hard look at what they can do to keep things working," he concluded.

covid-19 landlord www.youtube.com

(H/T: Newsweek)

