Apartment block publicly shames tenants who haven't made rent on time

A video of a Florida apartment block that shamed tenants who hadn't paid their rent on time has gone viral on TikTok.

The original video was uploaded to Facebook by Patron Urbaez, which also went viral with over 1,500 shares at the time of writing.

Once the video was reshared on TikTok by the account @therichexperince, it went similarly viral, racking up roughly 6 million views.

"Embarrassing! Not only do they have the 'rent due' sign stickers out, but they tell you which unit ain't paid they s***," a person in the video says.

A large red sign with "RENT IS DUE" in white lettering can be seen within the video and another sign with countless numbers across it. Some of the numbers are circled in red, suggesting a lack of payment.

On Facebook, Urbaez noted that this was at a Portside complex in Florida.

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Some people made jokes about the signs.

One wrote: "The row that pays first should get a pizza party."

"When the teacher posts test scores for everybody to see," another quipped.

A third, following the same wave, wrote:" When you went out for a team, and they posted who made it."

But others in the comments had sympathy for those who cannot pay their rent on time and are being publicly shamed for it.

"Y'all acting like people don't want to pay it. Y'all do understand people do struggle… right?" someone wrote.

Another person who talked about all the maintenance bits and bobs that the properties have to do added: "Put a sign with all the repairs, maintenance, and everything else they haven't done yet too, put them on blast too!!!"

It is not uncommon for people in the US to be late on rent.

In a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in 2020, it is estimated that "1 in 4 renters with children lived in a household that was behind on rent."

This report also noted that "one in 6 adult renters—or 17 per cent—reported that they lived in a household that was not caught up on rent."

Renters of color were also more inclined to report that their households were behind on rent than white renters.

Indy100 reached out to Urbaez for comment.

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