When Engineered Tax Services CEO Julio Gonzalez set out to write an op-ed for Business Insider on how landlords are “suffering” under Biden’s eviction moratorium, he probably should’ve sent a long a different photo. Specifically one that doesn’t include him posing in front of his own private jet. The egregiously tone-deaf photo, which is credited to Gonzalez, did not go over well on Twitter where people couldn’t resist dunking on the audacity of the obviously wealthy CEO asking for sympathy for landlords.
I'm a landlord with 24 properties. We're suffering during Biden's eviction ban, too, and no one is helping. https://t.co/orq9Sd5gRS
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) August 17, 2021
Twitter users also latched onto Gonzalez’s own admission that out of his 24 properties, only four of his tenants are using the moratorium to help with rent. Via Business Insider:
Twenty of my properties are residential, and I currently have four tenants taking advantage of the federally mandated eviction moratorium. The moratoriums have led to a significant and negative impact in profitability — for me, it’s been a 15% loss in profit. Residents not paying rent essentially leads to free living, while landlords still have to pay for taxes, utilities, and more.
Even further into the piece, Gonzalez openly confirms that “we’ve been fortunate to be in a position where we can sustain no income,” but he argues that other landlords might not be. Granted, that could be a compelling argument, but not coming from the millionaire CEO of a tax company who’s smiling in front of his own personal airplane.
You can see some of the reactions below:
sorry that the 24 families living there to avoid homelessness aren’t letting you profit enough to buy a 25th
— legal observer (@legalobserver1) August 17, 2021
https://twitter.com/MenshevikM/status/1427673157805166598
: also cutting on avocado toast.
— @ladyteruki@🐘.social (@ladyteruki) August 17, 2021
this guy posed in front of his private jet to cry about how a small percentage of his tenants haven't paid their rent
he's an accounting firm CEO and his net worth is in the tens of millions https://t.co/TsYbq1kv4w
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) August 17, 2021
A coke spoon, babe
— Danielle Perez she/her (@DivaDelux) August 17, 2021
may I suggest… snorting your private jet’s fuel and getting a real job? https://t.co/vVF9fRrcFV
— Not Exactly (@offbroadway666) August 17, 2021
https://twitter.com/blackhart___/status/1427640671964438537
wish this guy's properties were like his online presence, which is to say, publicly owned https://t.co/AYEyua3hrp
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) August 17, 2021