CLEVELAND — Even a fresh layer of snow outside downtown apartment buildings can't cover up the quickly-approaching deadline for federal workers who have a landlord to pay.
The government shutdown has already prevented those workers from getting one paycheck and their second January payday Friday, Jan. 25 may be missed, too.
"If it goes on for more than another week or two, I'm going to have to talk to my landlord and my creditors and say, 'Hey listen, this is where I'm at, what can we do,' and rely on their mercy," a NASA employee told News 5.
This worker is one of the few thousand federal workers in Ohio who had gone much of January without any salary. At the same time, members of the U.S. Coast Guard have been patrolling Lake Erie also without paychecks.
"We're the only branch of the military that is not guaranteed a paycheck during these times," said Amber Olson, who is married to member of the Coast Guard.
With many rent payments due at the start of February, some landlords are starting to figure out what they'll do if the shutdown lasts until next month.
"Anybody that has a problem because of the government shutdown, we'll delay the rent as long as they sign something and we have proof that they're a federal employee," said K&D Group CEO Doug Price.
K&D rents out about 10,000 apartments around Northeast Ohio, and Price says that delay will be free of any late charges. So far, he says only five or six residents have reached out to say they're federal employees who haven't been paid.
Millinnea Companies tells News 5 they're willing to work out payment plans with federal employees who haven't been paid, but so far, no one has approached them to say they might have trouble covering February's rent.
