Push for city rent holiday
Chuck: Feds must cover child care
ALBANY — A Queens lawmaker wants to provide some much needed financial relief to New Yorkers impacted by the coronavirus crisis by suspending rent collections for three months.
Sen. Michael Gianaris is proposing a 90-day rent freeze to help abate the economic strain being placed on households and businesses hit the hardest by the pandemic.
“We’re all struggling to react to this as quickly as we can, and I agree with the shutdown orders, but the damage that’s resulting to people who aren’t able to pay their rent and are trying to figure out how to live is significant,” Gianaris (photo) told the Daily News on Thursday.
The suspension would apply to residential and commercial tenants who would have 90 days of rent forgiven if they lose work or are forced to close due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier this week, the state suspended eviction proceedings across the state for the foreseeable future and Gov. Cuomo announced a 90-day freeze on mortgage payments and foreclosures for those facing financial hardship.
Gianaris applauded the governor’s actions and handling of the epidemic and said while he’s preparing legislation to enact the rent suspension, he would welcome an executive order from Cuomo.
“Given the nature of things, through whatever means necessary, I would support getting it done,” he said.
Tenant advocates calling for a statewide rent freeze launched an online petition earlier in the week that has garnered more than 15,000 signature as of Thursday evening.
Cea Weaver, the campaign coordinator with Housing Justice for All, a coalition of advocacy groups behind the petition, said a rent freeze is essential to keep people in their homes when so many businesses are shuttered.
“I think it’s critical that people take into account that over half the state rents,” Weaver told The News. “In this moment right now, we need immediate relief that people can get urgently and it needs to come in the form of not having to pay rent.”
Advocates are also calling for full rent forgiveness for the duration of the crisis so landlords can’t demand back payment or evict tenants a few months down the road.
Gianaris’ fellow Queens progressive, Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, also voiced support Thursday for such a measure.
“Now that New York State has issued a MORTGAGE moratorium, we must also enact a RENT moratorium to prevent mass displacement,” she tweeted. “Relief and protection from displacement shouldn’t just be for homeowners and the wealthy. It should be for everyone.”
In addition to state measures, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson proposed that adult New Yorkers should get $550 each and $275 per child, under a $12 billion relief plan announced on Thursday.
The Trump administration must cover the cost of child care for more than 55,000 city kids whose parents are doctors, nurses, transit workers and other first responders on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer.
In a Thursday letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Schumer urged the feds to kick in about $115 million to help the Big Apple open and operate 100 “Regional Enrichment Centers,” where kids of first responders can go while city schools remain closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Building out a network of child care facilities quickly and efficiently will be costly, but it is a necessary step in ensuring New York is able to effectively combat the COVID-19 outbreak,” Schumer said in the letter, which was addressed to FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor and obtained exclusively by the Daily News.
Schumer said FEMA has the authority to fork over the funds to the city under the national emergency order declared by President Trump last week in response to the coronavirus, which has infected more than 10,000 people in the U.S.
As of this week, New York is the worst-hit state in the country, with more than 5,000 confirmed cases.