TUCSON, Ariz. — The first of the month is a little more than a week away and many folks will be faced with the challenge of paying for housing again.
Tech company, SixFifty, built a free service called Hello Landlord along with law schools from BYU and the University of Arizona.
Hello Landlord assists those who are struggling to pay rent and gives them resources to help effectively communicate with landlords.
"Its like having one of the best lawyers in America write a letter for you. And now with technology, we've made them available so that anyone can use them,” said Kimball Parker, CEO of SixFifty.
The coronavirus pandemic has made paying for housing difficult situations for many. In February and March, Parker said, SixFifty saw a six-fold increase in the use of Hello Landlord.
Since then, rules and acts have been put in place to protect renters and homeowners; so SixFifty added some updates.
"We looked at our tool and thought, 'OK we need to put those updates in.' And then we updated Hello Landlord so that a renter could write to their landlord and notify them of the bar on evictions,” said Parker.
There are a few new additions: Now homeowners and businesses can access the site for free for help on communicating with lenders.
"The site can walk that renter through a series of questions and then produce a letter for them,” said Parker.
Parker said, in this time when so many are struggling, this is his company’s way of doing its part.
"So we can't make ventilators, we don't know how to make masks. But we do have some legal expertise that we can deploy through technology to help people with the legal problems they face,” said Parker.