Queens lawmakers urge extension of eviction ban

Queens assembly members say they want the State Legislature to reconvene to extend the state’s ban on evictions, which is set to expire at the end of the month.  AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File

By Jacob Kaye

Queens lawmakers are in favor of reconvening the State Legislature to extend the state’s ban on evictions as it faces legal challenges and a looming expiration date, several members of the Assembly told the Eagle Friday. 

Last week, the state’s COVID Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act, which is set to expire on Aug. 31, faced a major blow when the U.S. Supreme Court sided with New York property owners who argued that the legislation prevented due process. 

The legislation has banned nearly all evictions since December of last year. The State Senate and Assembly are currently out of session and unable to pass any laws or take action to extend the moratorium.

The Eagle reached out to each of the 18 assembly members representing Queens Friday and of the four that responded, all were in favor of reconvening as a legislative body to extend the state’s ban on evictions. The action wouldn’t be unprecedented – in December 2020, the State Legislature reconvened to extend the moratorium.  

And it’s important they reconvene, legal experts say. Otherwise, the law will continue to face potentially successful legal challenges. 

“The demand is that we reconvene as a body immediately and address the ramifications of the Supreme Court's decision, and extend the eviction moratorium until June of 2022,” said Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani. “If we do not acknowledge it, address it and resolve it, this could be the difference between life and death for many New Yorkers, because it will put many, many New Yorkers across the state out on the street once the moratorium has expired at the end of this month.”

On Thursday, Aug. 19, the NYPD arrested Mamdani, Brooklyn Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes and a handful of other New Yorkers protesting the state’s lack of action to extend the moratorium in Brooklyn. 

He was released several hours later and said that during his time at an East New York precinct, he received a handful of messages and calls from his colleagues expressing their support to return to session. 

“I think in seeing this and seeing the work of organizers and housing activists across the state, there is a growing support amongst my colleagues for reconvening session immediately and addressing this,” Mamdani said. “That being said, we have yet to speak about it as a body. And as much as I wish, I have no power to call us together as a body – that is the power of the speaker of the body. What I'm going to do as a member of the conference is continue to make my case in every which way possible, because we cannot simply wait and hope – we must act and organize.”

Speaker Carl Heastie’s office did not respond to request for comment for this story. 

Assemblymember Ron Kim is also in favor of bringing the legislators back together to discuss extending the moratorium on evictions, a spokesperson from Kim’s office told the Eagle. 

Assemblymembers David Weprin and Brian Barnwell said they are in favor of reconvening, but not just to discuss the eviction moratorium. 

“I'd like to see the moratorium extended again,” Weprin said, adding that he’d like to see it amended to make sure that only those in true financial need apply for the moratorium under the law. 

The Eastern Queens lawmaker said that he was confident that he’d soon be back in the State Capitol discussing the moratorium and other bills that were left on the table when the legislature went on break in June. 

“We're going to reconvene, I think,” he said. “There's a lot of issues. I have my own issues of legislation that kind of didn't get finished and we had a lot of bills on third reading that weren't completed in June.”

“I've always been an advocate for coming back to deal with this artificial deadline at the end of session,” he added. 

The conversation around the moratorium is complicated, Weprin said. 

The Supreme Court’s block on New York’s moratorium centers around a provision that requires tenants to file a declaration of hardship. Landlord groups say that because the tenant is the sole determiner of their financial hardship, the application lacks due process.

And then there’s the state’s lagging rent relief program, which has united tenants and landlords in frustration. Less than 5 percent of the allocated $2.7 billion for the program has been paid out, THE CITY reported. New York’s rent relief program has given out far fewer funds than states like Texas and California.

Landlords, especially those who own only one or a few smaller units, have particularly felt the squeeze with as many as 58 percent having tenants behind on rent, the AP reported.

“It’s a little complicated, because you have issues from the federal level and the Supreme Court case,” Weprin said. “Certainly, we should be doing everything we can at the state level to help our constituents who are in danger of eviction.”

The Legal Aid Society said on Friday that lawmakers must reconvene to clear up the provision to prevent the law from facing further legal challenges.

"We call on the NYS legislature to return to work and amend the law to allow a hearing on the tenant declaration of hardship,” said a Legal Aid spokesperson. “The state legislature can make this minor fix and prevent thousands of New York residents from losing their homes. We further call to extend the eviction moratorium until the state gives out all of the $2.3 billion in rent relief money. Our elected leaders must advance these measures quickly and decisively.”

Stanislav Khaldarov, a staff attorney at Queens Defenders, said that he’s been directing clients to the CDC’s declaration of hardship, which like New York’s hardship declaration prior to the legal challenge, prevents eviction. 

On Friday, a federal appeals court declined to block the CDC’s federal moratorium on evictions, which is set to expire Oct. 3, Politico reported. That case, which is being brought by a group of realtors, is likely to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

The CDC’s eviction moratorium applies to places with high rates of COVID-19, which currently includes all of New York City. 

“It's really it's really difficult time,” Khaldarov said. “There's so many pending cases right now and nobody really knows what's going to happen.”

“There's a large cloud looming over everybody's head and so far, the legislature hasn't really done anything substantial,” he said.