Amid confusion, lawmakers urge Cuomo to halt evictions for COVID-hit tenants
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State Sen. Brad Hoylman sponsored legislation that would prevent evictions of tenants who experienced “financial hardships” due to the COVID-19 crisis. The bill passed the Senate and Assembly but has stalled on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s desk. Photo vis State Senate
By David Brand
Local lawmakers and tenants rights advocates are urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign legislation that would prevent landlords from evicting tenants who suffered a financial hardship due to the COVID-19 economic crisis.
The bill, co-sponsored by Queens State Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. and Queens Assemblymember Aravella Simotas, passed both chambers of the state legislature but has stalled on Cuomo’s desk. Tenants rights groups and elected officials participated in a virtual press conference calling on Cuomo to sign the measure, known as the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, before a Tuesday deadline.
“More than 1 million renters in New York have lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. If we don’t take further action, we could be facing a massive rental apocalypse by the end of the summer,” said State Sen. Brad Hoylman, the Senate’s lead sponsor. “The Tenant Safe Harbor Act would help financially struggling tenants stay in their homes and avoid evictions.”
The law would prevent evictions until the state economy fully reopens in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are facing a crisis the likes of which none of us have ever seen,” added lead Assembly sponsor Jeffrey Dinowitz. “A pandemic, essentially an economic depression and everything else that’s going on and we run the risk of having an explosion of homelessnes in the city and state of New York.”
New York City’s five housing courts began to reopen last week, but a June 18 directive from Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks postponed proceedings in new evictions cases until at least July 6. Only cases that began before the court closure date of March 16 in which both have legal counsel can currently proceed.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also extended an eviction moratorium for tenants facing COVID-related financial hardship until August 20.
Cuomo’s spokesperson Caitlin Girouard said the governor was reviewing the Tenant Safe Harbor Act.
“During this incredibly difficult time, this administration has made it a priority to provide assistance to struggling New Yorkers — including extending the state's moratorium on evictions until August 20th for anyone who is suffering financial hardship due to COVID-19, allowing renters to use their security deposit to make rent payments, banning late fees for missing rent payments, and signing into law $100 million in rental assistance to New Yorkers suffering financial hardship due to the global pandemic,” she said.
The confusing series of directives and orders have put additional stress on tenants who have been unable to make their rent due to job loss or cutbacks. New York is in the midst of an unprecedented unemployment surge.
“This pandemic has already led to the loss of millions of jobs across the country,” said Judith Goldiner, the top attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Civil Law Reform Unit. “With unemployment rates skyrocketing, we must protect the most vulnerable of tenants in New York who will not be able to pay rent during this crisis.”
The piecemeal rollout of information from the state and court system has also strained landlords, particularly small property owners who have to make their mortgage payments even as tenants struggle to pay the rent.
A May survey by the landlord trade group Community Housing Improvement Program found that about a quarter of tenants did not pay their rent in May.
The onus should be on the federal government to step up and provide rent relief to tenants facing evictions and landlords struggling to make mortgage payments, said CHIP Executive Director Jay Martin.
“Unless the federal government steps in to help renters and owners in a big way, we are going to see a housing disaster the likes of which we have never seen,” Martin said.
