LAKEWOOD, Colo (KDVR) — As April 1 drew near, Curtis Haines began to get anxious.

His job as a door-to-door salesman in Lakewood had hit an obvious roadblock, and the transition to working remotely was taking time.

“There were definitely some short checks,” says Haines. “It’s not a comfortable feeling, that’s for sure.”

But Friday, Haines received an encouraging letter in the mailbox of his Lakewood rental.

His rent for April and May, had been waived.

“I opened it up, and it wasn’t like a full-on cry,” he says. “But I definitely welled up a little bit. It was big. It means a lot.”

His landlord, Christopher Armeli, decided to waive rent at his 8 properties in Denver, Lakewood, Aspen, and the Western Slope.

“Everyone’s kind of getting the bad end of the stick on this,” he says. “I think the biggest fear is most people want to make sure they have a place to stay to catch up.”

Armeli is the CEO of Huaka’i Investment Partners, and says the decision was not an easy one.

“We don’t want to lose tenants, because getting them back will be twice as hard,” he says. “Sometimes being the person that offers you that olive branch, gets you more repayment in return.”

Armeli is hopeful he’ll be able to recoup some of the money from the federal stimulus plan.

“In general, your losses are able to be written off,” he says. “So even if we do take a loss on this, we’re not hitting rock bottom.”

He hopes the move encourages other landlords, specifically those with bigger properties and more financial backing, to do the same.

“If a smaller company can do this, you can do it to,” he says.