A landlord from Arizona has decided to waive the rental fees of his tenants in his apartment for the month of March and he hopes this inspires many other landlords like him to put in mind the financial challenges of their tenants and be lenient with them.

As the coronavirus outbreak has become a worldwide pandemic, Nathan Nichols , 46 years old, cares for the welfare of the tenants living in his duplex apartment in Tuczon. They work in the service industry with hourly pay and will surely be affected with the closing of their stores, restaurants and other establishments. With these going on, they still had to have something to spend for food and other needs for the following weeks while being jobless. So he thought of a way to somehow ease their financial burden.

“I have two units and one of the units there is a young family who have a one or two-year-old child. They are on a single income and they are living on the edge. My other tenants are millennials who work at some venues and I knew they would also be affected,” Nathan explained to PEOPLE.

“My thinking was, they might not be able to pay rent,” he said. “If they’re not making any money, they can’t pay me. It’s not like they’re going to somehow magically get money if they’re not working.”

That is what motivated him to put the collection of tenants’ rent on hold for the month of March which will save his renters hundreds of dollars that can be spent on other important needs like food, hygiene, and other necessary items during their non-working days especially that stay-at-home order, quarantines, and curfews, are in place.

On March 13, Nathan made a public announcement of this good news on Facebook and his post has since become viral with 24,000 shares.

“COVID19 is going to cause serious financial hardship for service and hourly workers around the country,” he said in the post. “Because I have the good fortune of being able to afford it and the privilege of being in the owner class, I just let them know I would not be collecting rent in March.”

He also encouraged other landlords in his post to do the same if they can afford it.

“I ask other landlords out there to consider and take a serious look at your own situation and think about giving your tenants some rent relief as well,” he said.

Many people on the internet praised him for his kindness and the way he thinks not only of himself but also of others in this trying time. But Nathan wants to emphasize that not all landlords may be able to afford losing a month of rent especially if they solely depend on it. Nathan on the other hand has another full-time job and enough emergency savings to support him in times like this when it is most needed.

He was also very surprised with the overwhelming response and positive comments he was getting in his post. For him, it is only natural to help but clearly, his post has inspired the people who have stumbled upon his Facebook announcement.

“I’m really grateful to have good tenants who I can trust and are reliable,” he said. “I don’t want to lose them and I’m grateful to them.”

In the recent update, there are 857,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus globally. The United States now has the most number of cases all over the world with more than 185,200 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 3,800 deaths related to the virus.

Nathan is happy to have helped his tenants in a time like this. He also said that it is because of their honesty and promptness to communicate with him their challenges after being laid off from their jobs that he was able to provide help as needed.

“I really think that the more you communicate with people, the more you are able to humanize other people, the more they will humanize you,” he said. “The moment you bring it out of the financial and into the human, then problems are easier to solve.”