Faith beat: Equality Act Guts Religious Liberty

If the Equality Act, passed by the House last week, becomes law, it would “cause incalculable damage to our society — with a particular assault on . . . religious believers,” warns Kenneth Craycraft at First Things. It imposes “a controversial sexual-ideological scheme on the American public” and forbids “any religiously based objections to that agenda.” Its radical redefinition of sex to mean subjective “gender identity” would extend to every realm of American public and even private life — including churches, mosques, synagogues and other religious institutions. Deviously, “the bill’s sponsors, recognizing that it is an infringement on the free exercise of religion, explicitly deny application of the most important statutory security of the free exercise of religion, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.” Orthodox believers, beware.

Pandemic lockdowns have left all too may New Yorkers unable to pay the rent — and deeply in debt to landlords who themselves are often in deep peril. Yet the state government is sitting on over $1 billion in emergency relief that the feds sent to alleviate the crisis.

In December, Washington OK’d a second major COVID-19 rescue package that included $1.3 billion for rental assistance here: funds to cover tenants’ back rent, providing landlords with desperately needed cash.

Yet Albany has dithered, raising the possibility that it’ll fail to hand out the funds by the federal deadline — again. The feds could then channel them to states with better records.

New York muffed its first go-’round with federal rent aid: Of $100 million from last spring’s CARES Act, it’s disbursed just $41 million. If not for a last-minute extension by the feds, the state would’ve had to return an unused $59 million. Even now, it remains on a shelf, along with the new $1.3 billion.

Meanwhile, landlords are “at the edge of the cliff,” pleads Rent Stabilization Association President Joseph Strasburg. On Wednesday, the Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 city building owners, reported that unpaid rent (by 17 percent of tenants in February) and high vacancy rates (12 percent) have left hundreds of landlords “running out” of reserves and “struggling to pay their bills.”

Yet state powerbrokers want to keep sitting on the cash until passage of a new budget and possibly a new law, with more “guidelines.” Landlords need that cash now.

Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature need to move fast to OK release of the funds.

Hoarding emergency money that’s needed to prevent a housing-market collapse: Can New York’s leaders sink any lower?