‘Heads in the sand’
Advocates push state pols on housing issues
ALBANY — Uncertainty has plagued renters throughout the coronavirus pandemic as they’ve had to contend with monthly updates from Gov. Cuomo and the courts extending eviction moratoriums.
Tenant advocates, describing the current situation as a paltry and piecemeal approach, are growing increasingly frustrated with state lawmakers as they warn of a looming housing catastrophe.
Protests calling for rent to be canceled or evictions to be paused well past the COVID-19 crisis have increasingly targeted legislators in recent weeks as advocates and tenants facing dire straits accuse legislators of sitting on the sidelines.
“We need the eviction moratorium to cover everybody,” said Cea Weaver, the campaign coordinator with the Housing Justice for All coalition. “It’s that simple. It really feels like they’re all just putting their heads in the sand and pointing to the federal government, which is totally unacceptable because there are things that they could be doing.”
Weaver and others support a bill sponsored by Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) that would prevent all eviction and foreclosure proceedings for both commercial and residential tenants for an entire year after the state’s disaster emergency finally comes to an end.
Other bills on the agenda call for the sweeping cancellation of rent and expanding vouchers for low-income tenants. Protests, ads and billboards have targeted Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) as well as Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers).
But there’s been little movement on legislation in Albany since lawmakers concluded a rare July session in which they passed a smorgasbord of bills covering absentee ballots and environmental issues.
Advocates say they’re disappointed in the apparent lack of urgency on housing issues as the economic impact of the pandemic becomes increasingly clear and are taking aim at Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D-Manhattan), the chair of the housing committee in the upper chamber, who some feel has not done enough to address the issue.
“We have to figure out how to convince him to take what we’re talking about seriously and that’s proven to be a challenge,” Weaver said.
Jonathan Westin of New York Communities for Change, went further, calling Kavanagh an “impediment” to real reforms that could assist struggling New Yorkers.
“Where we’ve been pushing for big, bold solutions like canceling rent, he’s been throwing cold water on them,” Westin said. “I think its been a big challenge for millions of tenants that aren’t going to be able to pay rent and will face eviction pretty quickly.”
Kavanagh, who is a cosponsor on the Myrie bill and helped usher major rent reforms through the Democratic-led Legislature last year, said he has been working tirelessly on behalf of renters.
“There has been no lawmaker who has been more focused on trying to address the crisis from the perspective of tenants than I have,” Kavanagh said. “The principal tool that we’ve had so far has been the eviction moratorium.”
Kavanagh has penned a separate bill that would create a moratorium on all evictions and court proceedings until Jan. 20, 2021, when the Legislature will be back for a new session and can take further action. He also wants to see if Congress provides more housing funds via a stimulus package .
He also sponsored the Emergency Rent Relief Act, which was passed by the Legislature in May. The measure directed $100 million in federal funds to be used towards rental assistance for low-income New Yorkers.
Some advocates panned the bill as a landlord bailout.
Since then, lawmakers also approved the Safe Harbor Act, which prohibits courts from evicting residential tenants who experience financial hardship for nonpayment of rent that accrues or becomes due during the COVID-19 crisis.
Housing groups have called for more from the Legislature as Cuomo’s blanket ban on evictions, instituted at the height of the outbreak in March, ended in June. Since then, as the governor has reupped his emergency executive orders, it has fallen on the courts to extend the pause on evictions, with the current ban expiring on Oct. 1.
Frustrated judges also urged lawmakers and the state to step up and take action last month during a legislative hearing.
“We need you, the legislature and the executive to make a plan,” Judge Daniele Chinea, president of the Housing Court Judges Association, told legislators. “This is a natural disaster, a global pandemic, the effects ongoing and far-reaching. Whose struggle shall I continue, or alleviate, at the pain of the other?”
The courts have already said they will not be moving forward on COVID-19-related evictions until 2021, but there are 14,500 New Yorkers now facing eviction for noncoronavirus-related reasons should the pause expire.
While it remains unclear whether the Legislature will reconvene before the end of 2020, sources say it appears as if the state is working on a plan to extend the current ban through the end of the year.
Complicating matters last week, the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance published an order extending the eviction moratorium through Dec. 31 online, only to wipe the guidance from the web on Friday.
An OTDA spokesman told the Daily News the posting was made in error.
“[It] has been taken down and is being clarified,” the spokesman said.