The COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak has had far-reaching economic effects, some of which have yet to manifest. Leaders have scrambled to mitigate the worst effects where possible, but in a crisis, rushed decisions are sometimes bad decisions. Snap eviction moratoriums are among them.

Helping renters in financial crisis makes sense. With so many people sheltering in place and social distancing, the economy has tanked. Businesses have shut down. That, in turn, has led to a huge spike in unemployment figures. During the last week of March, nearly 182,000 Washingtonians filed first-time unemployment claims. That was more than half of the 350,000 total claims since the pandemic started. The state has never seen unemployment numbers like this.

White-collar, higher-paid workers can work from home or have savings that can help them through the crisis. Many of the newly unemployed live paycheck to paycheck. Without help, they quickly might be unable to pay rent and face eviction. Some local property owners are helping their tenants on their own. But not all.

Hence the good intentions behind moratoriums. Rather than allow people to fall into homelessness and have an eviction on their record that would make future renting far harder, Gov. Jay Inslee and the Spokane City Council, among other governments, have said no evictions for now. The orders are temporary but can be renewed.

The problem is that a moratorium on evictions creates new problems and only delays the financial reckoning.

Renters still owe the money. The moratorium just means they won’t be tossed out on the street. They must honor their rental agreement and make up the missed rent later. That could be a dicey proposition in one, two or many months. People living paycheck to paycheck don’t typically have enough padding to make up such large debt. Nor do low-margin small businesses. Many landlords likely will have new, unexpected costs trying to collect.

It’s all well and good for the state to say renters can’t be evicted for nonpayment, but then landlords suffer the harm. While giant rental property companies might be able to weather a few months with reduced revenue, mom-and-pop landlords have mortgage and utility bills of their own to pay. Without the stream of rental income, they could go under.

Government should maintain a level playing field, not be for or against renters or landlords. Shifting the burden might appease activists in Seattle where “landlord” is just two four-letter words crammed together, but it isn’t sound economic policy. If owners of rental properties find that they can’t keep up with their own financial obligations, rental property sell-offs could upend the housing market and leave even more units in the hands of large, corporate leasing companies that don’t work with tenants.

Nor is it as simple as giving landlords permission to miss utility and mortgage payments. That just pushes the problem up the ladder to banks and service providers. Nor is an eviction moratorium the end of it. Advocates – and count the Seattle City Council among them – are agitating for rent forgiveness. Renters would never have to pay what they owe. Landlords, banks, utilities can just eat it.

This is always the problem with the government meddles in the market. Someone has to pay.

That someone should be the government. If a city, state or the federal government deems an eviction moratorium or rent forgiveness appropriate, then that city, state or the federal government should bear the costs and risks. Fortunately, there’s a good model for doing so. Under the massive $2.2. trillion stimulus bill that Congress recently passed and President Donald Trump signed, small businesses are eligible for Payroll Protection Program loans. If they use the loans to cover payroll and not reduce staff, the loan amount will be forgiven.

The same sort of program serves renters and landlords. Loan money to renters and forgive the loan if they pay rent, or loan the money to landlords and forgive it if they waive rent. Either way, everyone is whole and the state bears the cost of its policies.