In a Facebook post, Nathan Nichols said he will not collect April rent from his six tenants due to the 'serious financial hardship' the coronavirus could bring

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Editor's note: The above video shows you how to make hand sanitizer. MaineHealth's Dora Mills gives NEWS CENTER Maine the recipe.

A South Portland landlord's Facebook post is going viral because of his commitment to helping his residents during the coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic.

Nathan Nichols made a post Friday saying he will not collect April rent from his six tenants due to the 'serious financial hardship' the coronavirus could bring.

"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," Nichols wrote in the post.

Nichols told NEWS CENTER Maine that his building is in the area of the Meeting House Hill and Ocean Street neighborhoods of South Portland.

He said the money he makes on the property in the form of equity, which he did not relinquish. For the foreseeable future, all the money that comes into his property stays in the property. What doesn’t go into the mortgage, tax, insurance, etc, Nicholes said goes into upkeep and improvement.

"All I really did was to add some time to when the front porch gets replaced in exchange for some much needed relief now," Nichols told NEWS CENTER Maine via Facebook Messenger.

Nichols is asking other landlords to look into their own situations to see if they could help their tenants.

"I expect that many landlords are not in a position to do this, but there are certainly others who are," Nichols said. "I hope that other landlords, especially if they are earning income from their tenants, will consider returning some of it in this time of need."

At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus

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