Utah landlords rep: Use charity, borrow money, and sell your TV to pay rent

Tenants' jaws are on the floor after the director of a Utah landlords' group suggested they "work more hours," take out loans, sell their belongings and ask for charity to cover rising rent.

Why it matters: Housing costs have exploded in Salt Lake since the pandemic began, forcing families to leave the city , adults to move in with their parents and renters to risk poverty even for modest apartments.

Driving the news: In a Tuesday story about rising rents, the Salt Lake Tribune posted a list of "Landlord advice for renters" by Paul Smith, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Utah .

• Before asking a landlord for help, tenants should first sell their TVs and four-wheelers, work more hours or take out a loan, Smith advised.
• They also should ask for money from family, churches and nonprofits before trying to negotiate rent, he said.
• Renters, Smith said, should grow their income 5% to 7% each year to keep up with inflation, including rising rent.

Reality check: Incomes haven't kept up with rising housing costs in Salt Lake City — a market-wide disparity that individual renters cannot necessarily fix on their own.

• The vast majority of TVs listed on local classified ads are priced at less than $200, a fraction of the average monthly rent for a studio apartment.
• Financial experts generally discourage personal loans to pay rent because interest accumulates quickly, and borrowers will have to cover loan repayments and rent in the following months.

What they're saying: "Ah yes, I remember when I was renting a place for $450 a month (literally an old maintenance closet) and I couldn't afford it. I just sold my four-wheeler that I had laying around and all my money problems were solved," Dylan McDonnell, a disability advocate in Salt Lake City, posted on X.

Fun fact: As housing costs spiked during the pandemic, Utah used federal rent assistance to pay legal bills for landlords seeking evictions, the Utah Investigative Journalism Project found .

• After federal guidance was revised to prevent that, at least one renter said her landlord refused her assistance checks unless she paid a legal fee following an eviction case.

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