PROVIDENCE — Like thousands of other Rhode Islanders, Kristian Montalvo is out of work because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The 45-year-old independent carpenter, who shares the second floor of a Providence three-decker with his wife, daughter, stepson and baby granddaughter, said he’s starting to worry about how he’s going to pay next month’s rent.

“It’s not because we don’t want to,” he said. “It’s because we don’t have the resources to afford the rent.”

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An April survey by the National Multifamily Housing Council, made up of apartment-industry leaders, found that nationally, 84% of renters had made a rental payment by April 12, compared with 91% who’d paid their rent by March 12.

While housing advocates said Rhode Island-specific numbers on how many people have paid rent aren’t yet available, they said that they’re becoming increasingly concerned about tenants across the state as unemployment continues to rise and any easing of restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the virus is still weeks if not months away.

“April was a little better than May might be, just because people were still working or were working part time,” said Brenda Clement, director of HousingWorks RI, a housing-policy group at Roger Williams University. “May and June and on become much more dicey at this stage.”

Montalvo said that’s the case for his family, which was able to dip into savings to pay April’s rent.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen for next month,” he said.

Everyone in the household who contributes to covering expenses has been affected by the coronavirus crisis, he said. His wife's hours at her job at American Advance, a lending company, were cut. His 22-year-old daughter was laid off from her job at an ophthalmology center. And his 23-year-old stepson is working only part-time at Domino’s Pizza.

Montalvo said his family received an increase in its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits, also called food stamps, so they’ve been able to afford food. But, speaking with a reporter over the phone, he began to wonder aloud about his other bills that were starting to pile up and which could be put off — maybe the car insurance? The gas bill? The electric? Internet?

“The kids, they can’t live without the internet,” he said.

Housing advocates say there is some relief available to tenants who are struggling.

The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission has halted the collection of unpaid utility bills until May 8. The recently passed federal CARES act places an eviction moratorium on certain properties, including those with federally backed mortgage loans, until July 25. HousingWorks RI estimates that about 60% of mortgages in Rhode Island are federally backed.

And because Rhode Island courts have stopped hearing all non-essential matters until after May 17, eviction proceedings can’t begin.

But these measures don’t necessarily alleviate all concerns for tenants.

Jordan Mickman, staff attorney for the Rhode Island Center for Justice, a public-interest law nonprofit, said that, once courts reopen and the federal moratorium on evictions expires, he fears a wave of evictions will be filed against tenants who, at that point, could owe months of back rent.

Plus, he said, the inability to pursue eviction proceedings in court hasn’t stopped all landlords from trying to evict tenants on their own.

“We’ve seen landlords do some awful things,” he said.

Over the last few weeks, Mickman said, he’s worked with at least five clients whose landlords attempted to evict them illegally through methods such as removing doors from their hinges.

In a letter to the state’s chiefs of police on April 6, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that his office had received an increase in reports of landlords trying to forcibly remove their tenants.

“This conduct is unlawful,” the letter reads. “We are asking for your assistance to both prevent and deter it for the benefit of our communities.”

But landlords say they are suffering the effects of the pandemic, too.

Anna Feder and her husband rent out the bottom unit of their two-family home in Washington Park to a tenant who recently told them that, after April, she was unsure how much longer she’d be able to pay rent.

Feder, who charges $1,050 for the two-bedroom unit, said she and her husband depend on the rent to afford their $1,800 monthly mortgage.

“Being a landlord is the only way we could afford to own a house,” she said. “But it was very important to us that we provide good, safe housing under market value and that we are neighbors to our tenants.”

While Feder said she is committed to working with her tenant through the crisis, she is concerned about how she and her husband, who collectively owe over $200,000 in student loans, will be able to pay potentially months of their mortgage on their own.

Even if their property is covered under the eviction moratorium, Feder said, she isn’t sure how they would ever catch up on back payments.

“It can’t just be a regular forbearance,” she said. “It has to be mortgage relief and rent relief. They need to go hand-in-hand.”

While the short-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic have already been catastrophic, housing advocates say they worry even more about the long-term implications.

During the Great Recession that began in 2008, the number of Rhode Islanders experiencing homelessness climbed from 3,926 in 2007 to 4,162 in 2008, according to data compiled by HousingWorks RI from the Homeless Management Information System. The number continued to increase until it reached 4,868 in 2012.

But the number of Rhode Islanders unemployed due to the coronavirus has already outpaced unemployment seen during the Great Recession.

In 2009, about 63,000 Rhode Islanders were out of work, according to the Department of Labor and Training. Last week, Gov. Gina Raimondo announced that 132,000 people had filed for unemployment benefits.

Direct Action for Rights and Equality, a Providence nonprofit advocating for the rights of low-income residents, along with a coalition of other organizations, sent a list of policy priorities to Raimondo this month. They asked that residents be protected from evictions, foreclosures and utility shutoffs for at least 120 days after Rhode Island’s state of emergency is lifted; that a significant portion of federal disaster-relief funds be directed to rental and mortgage assistance to keep people in their homes; and that the state devote more financial resources to agencies serving those experiencing homelessness.

Raimondo announced Wednesday that the state had contracted with a Warwick hotel to provide rooms for anyone who is homeless and needs to quarantine.

The inability to pay rent and the uncertainty of the coming months has only compounded the stress felt by so many, said Gabriel Alvarez, 21, who recently moved to Warwick with their partner and a roommate.

While Alvarez has lost only about 10% of their income, their partner and roommate, who usually each pay one-third of the rent, have lost their jobs.

“It feels awful,” Alvarez said. “We moved here for a new start almost… Having to have this pressure of rent and hoping I don’t get kicked out and have that on my record as well…

“It’s just that anxiety of, ‘What comes after not being able to pay rent?”

(Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated what a landlord said her tenant told her about her ability to pay rent beyond April. The story has been updated.)

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