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RSA President Joe Strasburg (Jefferson Siegel) and Governor Cuomo (Getty)
New York is back to normal. Landlords feel abandoned.
Tuesday marked a major milestone for the state as Governor Andrew Cuomo lifted nearly all remaining mandates for social distancing and other security measures, some 16 months after the pandemic-related lockdowns began.
To go out for dinner? Feel free to huddle next to strangers. Running a gym? Hourly disinfection is now optional.
Why, then, ask New York landlords, do tenants need another 10 weeks of an eviction moratorium?
Following Cuomos’ announcement, the Rent Stabilization Association, a group representing New York City landlords, called on the governor to end pandemic protections for tenants by immediately reversing the moratorium on evictions, calling housing courts reopen and encourage tenants to pay their rent.
In May, state lawmakers voted to extend the deportation moratorium until August 31. That measure required Cuomo’s signature, though any change to the ban would likely have to go through the state legislature as well.
While tenants have struggled during the pandemic and arrears have racked up more than $2 billion in federal funds, it aims to alleviate those debts that landlords say have also been injured but have received little help from the government.
Property owners, some staring at 12 or more months of unpaid rent, are buried in delinquent property taxes, water bills and mortgage payments, said RSA president Joseph Strasburg.
Landlords were kept out of the economic aid equation during the pandemic, Strasburg and RSA chairman Aaron Sirulnick said in a joint statement. Now the government says everything is back to normal except for rental property owners and that is totally unacceptable.
Life has not returned to normal for many tenants in New York. The states’ rental aid program got off to a late start and finally opened on June 1, months after neighboring states. The portal was launched with glitches and high demand. Nonprofits that helped with applications created callback lists for tenants in the first week.
If the volume continues like this, we may not be able to reach everyone, said Lakisha Morris, director of operations at Catholic Charities, one of the nonprofit organizations helping tenants through the program.
Relief checks should reach tenants four to eight weeks after their application is filed, meaning many tenants won’t see those funds until August or later. The deportation moratorium currently expires on August 31.
Until the end of June, the state will prioritize applications from the most vulnerable tenants, such as those who are unemployed or have household incomes less than 50 percent of the area’s median. After that, the portal will open to anyone who is eligible. But some nonprofits say the money doesn’t last that long.
Assuming most people are about $20,000 in arrears and based on a $2.4 billion statewide pot, that would mean relief for about 200,000 people, said Scott Short, CEO of the nonprofit RiseBoro. . There were just 22,000 people in New York City who signed up on the first day. So yeah, it looks like the money is running out.
Tenant advocates fear that the end of the moratorium, even on the expected date of termination, will bring a flood of eviction applications and an increase in homelessness.
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