CLEARFIELD – One local real estate and business owner has found his livelihood in jeopardy due to the COVID-19 restrictions and has not been able to get any help from the government.
Dustin Quigley of D. Quigley Homes-Real Estate, D. Quigley Properties-Rentals and Dustin Quigley Construction in Clearfield wrote an open letter to “anyone who will listen” that he sent to local media, various officials and government representatives about his plight.
Quigley said his rental and real estate businesses have been “pushed to the edge of bankruptcy” by the limitations on evictions and real estate agents.
In an interview, Quigley explained that he has applied for every program available but various problems have led to him being ineligible for funding.
His construction business was not eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program because he has been using sub-contractors to eliminate the overhead costs of worker’s compensation liability and taxes.
A friend helped him apply for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan but when he became unavailable, Quigley was left trying to figure out what the friend had done and ended up starting the process over again. This led to the application being put into duplicate status.
“We spent hours on the phone trying to straighten it out,” he said. Each time they called they would get a different answer from a different person, leaving them more confused.
Eventually he did receive $28,000 from this program, but that covered only one month of losses.
His complaints echo many others who have found the government unprepared and ill-informed on how to disperse funds through various programs including the Pandemic Unemployment system.
Being unable to evict anyone during this time, has also led to legal problems. One tenant that he was ready to evict just before COVID hit, now owes him $9,000.
Meanwhile, the tenant has trashed the apartment while running up the utility bills. This led to Quigley being threatened with possible arrest if he didn’t pay the tenant’s water bill.
There was also a sewage leak in the basement and the service was cut off.
Quigley hoped to have a code enforcement officer deem it unlivable as a way to get the tenant to move but that didn’t work out either.
Luckily, this man left in the middle of the night when he thought he had to leave before the eviction restrictions were renewed.
“There was drug paraphernalia and garbage everywhere. I am still trying to clean it up,” he said.
Quigley said he was out approximately $15,000 for just that apartment.
To stay afloat, Quigley said he has burnt through his savings and maxed out his credit cards, as he hoped for help to arrive.
“On paper I have money,” he stated because of his property but because his income from rent and the sale of homes has been impacted, banks will not give him a loan.
Another example of the losses he’s suffered, is a sale of a $229,000 home that was not completed because the buyer was suddenly laid off from his job due to COVID.
Several other properties that he has “flipped,” or worked on for resale, have not been listed by realtors because they could not show them.
Rather than let these property “just sit,” Quigley ended up renting them out.
If he is able to sell a property, it is at a loss.
A home he would normally get $100,000 for, he now has listed at $75,000 to $90,000 just to get “money out of it.”
His frustrations are evident as he explained he had never even had a late payment before and now he is “humiliated” and looking at bankruptcy.
His business “was everything to me,” he said.
In his letter, he stated that he started his business in 2007 when he was only 23 years old with the idea of retiring at 40.
“I’ve undergone two back surgeries from it, put off having a family and ruined multiple relationships because of being too busy at work.”
Adding to the problem is his need for a third back surgery that could leave him unable to work in the construction business. Putting it off puts him in danger of further injuring it and being paralyzed.
Quigley is still waiting word on an application for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security or CARES funds from Clearfield County.
In the meantime, he said his employees are working on other solutions and applying for everything they can find.
Toni Frankenfield has been trying to help Quigley.
“Each day I go to grant.org to see if any new grants may have opened up,” she explained.
“We are really frustrated that a rental company that provides homes for over 70 families in the area is not offered any kind of help.
“This is our community, and many are low income. I would say 95 percent of our renters are low income, on HUD, disabled, elderly or families.”
Seeing the list of funding the county gave to various agencies and businesses led her to ask the following questions.
“The Clearfield Fair received a whopping $100k. I am not saying this is not something important to the community, but the fair is not a necessity for families and businesses to stay afloat.
“I am appalled at the leadership of distribution of funds to our county. There are many that received funding that did stay open and were maintaining well. Many were not necessities to this community.
“I have been researching various cases against the commissioner as well as our governor and even the federal aspect for the lack of help for landlords across our state and nation. I will continue to try to bring awareness to this issue.”
Recently, the state Senate failed to advance a bill that would provide help to landlords and families that the House had passed on Oct. 19.
As the politics of the money work themselves out, it is people like Quigley and his tenants that continue to suffer.