When two of his tenants lost their jobs, a landlord decided to get a job to cover their bills, rather than kick them out.
Several years ago, Ed Peirce, a 54-year-old former stockbroker and ordained minister, moved to Rock Hill, West Virginia to be close to his adult daughter. He’d purchased three houses in the area, and planned to rent two of them out, which would allow him to live off the rental income.
But now, Peirce clocks in at a Walgreens Pharmacy every evening, working at the photo booth for $8.50 an hour.
Why the change in plans? In this difficult economy, it can be tough for landlords to find tenants for their properties—but that wasn’t Peirce’s problem. His rental homes are both occupied by families with young children. One of Peirce’s tenants was a construction worker; another was a utilities contractor. Both men, however, had been laid off in recent months, and could no longer afford to pay the rent to Peirce.
Peirce would have been well within his rights to evict both tenants. Instead, “I sat with them and prayed for better times,” Peirce told The Herald. “These are stand-up guys. Family men. Proud. They paid me before, when they were working. You don’t show your faith, your Christianity, in words. You do it in deeds.”
Peirce has let both families continue to live in his houses, rent-free, until their luck turns. In the meantime, he’s taken the Walgreens job to help cover the bills on the properties. And even there, he’s focused on providing help to those less fortunate: each day, he encourages customers to donate brownies and other items to a group of homeless children residing in a local shelter, and has personally delivered many items to the facility.
Both acts, says Peirce, are in accordance with his general philosophy. “Help the poor,” he said. “That is the calling. It is supposed to be the calling for all of us. Every miracle starts with an action. I am not doing anything I am not supposed to do to help another man on this earth.”