OPINION: Hunger, homelessness and Covid deaths are policy decisions
/
Mark Papish is a housing justice advocate. Photo courtesy of Papish
By Mark Papish
If you’re one of the millions of New Yorkers who have lost work during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of New York has decided that your life is worth less than what you owe in back rent.
For the past three months, we’ve been lucky to live in a state without evictions. On Monday June 20, the eviction mill that is housing court opened back up for new cases. The state tells us, “Don’t worry. Cases will only proceed if X and then Y are satisfied, and no one will be evicted until July.”
These words are hollow, and here’s why:
In the next week, we believe that landlords will file anywhere from 50,000 to 60,000 evictions. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget has already decimated support for low income and homeless New Yorkers, and Mayor Bill De Blasio was dead set on funding cops over social services. Where will the hundreds of thousands of newly homeless New Yorkers go?
Delaying evictions for a month will not help those communities hit hardest by a pandemic. These are communities where joblessness has skyrocketed. These are communities where resources were scarce and cops were plentiful before COVID-19. The Black and Brown communities where New York City and state have invested more money in punishment than they have in people for decades will not recover by July.
Reopening housing court during a pandemic is not only unsafe, it’s evil. The State of New York has decided that the poorest among us, mostly Black and Brown communities in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens deserve to die. Whether it’s from contracting COVID-19 from the crowds at court, or from the hardships to come when they find themselves homeless after an eviction.
Housing courts should never reopen. Evictions are state-sanctioned violence against the poor, and evictions disproportionately affect our most vulnerable New Yorkers. Neighborhoods like Corona and East Elmhurst, which have more COVID cases than almost any other zip code in New York City, also have one of the highest poverty and eviction rates in the borough. To make matters worse, our friends in the Bronx will experience even more evictions.
Our leaders tell us that they stand with New Yorkers through the pending eviction crisis, particularly people of color. Yet, they have proven that they truly don’t care what happens to Black and Brown New Yorkers, they only engage in performances designed to distract us.
Mayor De Blasio painted “Black Lives Matter”, on a few streets, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that we “don’t need to protest” anymore, because he had ‘solved racism’ by doing the bare minimum in signing a few bills that should have passed years ago. Both of these shameless men will do nothing while our neighbors are thrown from their homes, onto streets where the police will do nothing but harass them.
As protestors march in honor of unarmed Black men and Black women killed by police, we have to understand that the police are just one element of systemic racism that actively kills our neighbors. Make no mistake: The state is actively killing Black and Brown New Yorkers through their decision to reopen housing court.
Why does our government prioritize the building of jails, the funding of police, and embracing austerity measures rather than investing in its people? Last year, the New York City Council allocated $11 billion alone to build new jails. When coupled with the $6 billion NYPD budget and the $1.3 billion budget for the Department of Corrections, police and prison spending amounts to more than what we invest in housing our homeless (Department of Homeless Services budget), caring for our sick (NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation Budget), and funding jobs for our youth (NYC Youth Budget), combined.
Here’s what the governor should do: He should cancel rent, and invest in a homes guarantee.
It is shameful that the mayor and governor will celebrate the continuation of DACA but still allow housing courts to reopen knowing full well that our immigrant communities have been decimated by COVID-19, losing lives and livelihoods at rates unmatched by wealthier, whiter communities.
Here’s what the Mayor and the City Council should do: Defund the NYPD by at least $3 billion (to be clear, we will not stop until every single dollar allocated to punishment is instead invested in Black and Brown communities in ways that will allow them to thrive), and follow the path laid out by the organizers here.
For those asking why a housing op-ed discusses defunding the NYPD, here’s why: The issues are intersectional and you can’t have one without the other, as laid out by the movement #8toAbolition, and many others.
Once we’ve freed up funds from policing, we can use that money to build more housing, to keep folks in the homes they have now, and to ensure that every New Yorker has a safe place to sleep.
We can have a better world, but only if we choose to invest in one. The NYC Council must divest from policing and punishment. The Council must reinvest in housing, healthcare and people.
Homelessness is not an inherent aspect of society, it’s a policy decision. Hunger is not a naturally occurring phenomenon, it’s a policy decision. Black and Brown New Yorkers dying at higher rates from COVID-19 is not a naturally occurring phenomenon, but a result of decades of racist policy decisions.
It’s time that our city and state make better policy decisions.
Mark Papish is a housing justice advocate who helped author The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. He lives in Sunnyside.
