Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, D-Manhattan, speaks in the Assembly Chamber at the state Capitol on … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
For more than a month, people around the US and world have been discussing the possibility of rent or mortgage ‘freezes’ or waivers, or even rent strikes, in the context of ‘lock-downs,’ loss of life, and economic hardship linked to COVID-19.
In response, a New York State lawmaker has proposed a three-bill package that would waive or suspend rent for individual and small-business tenants impacted by this crisis, as well as allocate funds to help support small landlords at the same time.
The legislation is sponsored by NY Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, whose Lower Manhattan district (like many others in New York City and State) has been home to many shuttered businesses and out-of-work residents in recent weeks. Since mid-March, the number of state residents who filed new unemployment claims has reportedly reached 1.4 million.
“For the people who have lost their jobs and the small businesses that have been forced to shutter, this is an immediate crisis – their income has been cut off, but rent is still due on the first,” Niou said in a statement. “Our action to help them needs to be just as immediate.”
As Grant Lancaster reported last Thursday for amNY, “One bill would waive all rent payments for residential and small business tenants that can prove hardship related to the virus and allow landlords facing hardship to put off some mortgage payments for 90 days. [Another] would suspend rent payments for tenants who lost income or were forced to close their business due to the state of emergency [and] also establish a coronavirus rental assistance fund.”
The third bill would “set up an emergency fund for assisting small landlords,” Lancaster explained. In addition, he wrote, “Niou wants to provide further support for renters by providing property tax relief for small landlords, freezing rent payments at their current level for the length of the crisis and one year after, using emergency funds to sanitize and disinfect NYCHA public areas and more.”
Since March, the notion of waiving or delaying rent for hard-hit tenants has become increasingly popular in New York State and across the US, though most lawmakers have been hesitant to take up this idea (with its many potential facets and impacts).
Exceptions include Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, who called for “a national day of action” on the issue in her April 16 TeenVogue op-ed, and New York State’s Niou. Now that some lawmakers have opted to take a public stance in favor of such steps, however, it seems likely that others may be more willing to follow.
As Kristine Garcia reported for PIX 11 last Friday, for example, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio promoted similar goals to Niou’s for NYC, emphasizing during his Friday morning press conference “[the] need to make sure that every New Yorker can stay in their home during this crisis.”
“A lot of what we saw in the Great Depression is happening right now, right here,” de Blasio said. “Give them a rent freeze. They need it.”
As Garcia reported, “The mayor also called on the state to approve allowing tenants to pay rent with their security deposit, [allowing] tenants who miss rent to repay over 12 months and [extending] the eviction moratorium to 60 days beyond the crisis.”
Speaking in response to de Blasio’s call for state assistance in rent freezes, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa commented that New York City rent rules are “outside of [the] actual jurisdiction” of state Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office.