New York lawmakers eye extending state’s COVID eviction moratorium
ALBANY — A pair of New York lawmakers want to extend the state’s eviction moratorium until Oct. 31 as billions in COVID rent relief funds remain unspent.
The state’s current eviction moratorium is set to expire Aug. 31, prompting Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx) and Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan) to call on their colleagues to return to Albany and push back the ban.
A state-run rental relief program set up using $2.4 billion in federal funds has barely gotten off the ground since applications were accepted beginning in June.
The Emergency Rental Assistance Program, created in the state budget, is meant to cover a year’s worth of rent and utility bills for tenants at or below 80% of area median income and have been financially impacted by the pandemic.
Renters have complained about the cumbersome and glitch-prone online portal and critics say the state is taking too long to disburse funds and prevent a flood of evictions next month.
“We cannot let hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers risk homelessness due to the negligence of our own government,” Biaggi said. “The Executive [branch of state government] has failed New Yorkers, and the Legislature must reconvene to deliver for the people that we were elected to serve.”
Gov. Cuomo promised to overhaul the problem-plagued program last month, vowing to relax documentation standards for tenants and landlords and make it easier for building owners with several tenants behind on payments to make claims.
Still, hundreds of thousands of struggling households have applied and are anxiously awaiting word from the state with the end of the eviction freeze rapidly approaching.
“I can’t imagine anything worse for our renters or our economy than evicting thousands of families just as the pandemic surges back with deadly new variants,” said Niou. ”(This) isn’t the fault of renters, but it is renters who will pay the price unless we act now to protect those whose only crime was trusting in the promises of our government at a time of crisis.”
The Biden administration earlier this week extended a federal eviction ban through Oct. 3. It applies only to counties with substantial or high COVID transmission, which includes the five boroughs.
It remains to be seen if legislative leaders in Albany are willing to come back for an emergency session to address the issue before the end of the month.
Landlords, who have supported the rent relief program, pushed back on the idea of further extending the eviction ban. Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association — a landlord group — noted that there’s no repercussion for tenants who ultimately fail to pay.
“Prolonging the eviction moratorium gives tenants — especially the hundreds of thousands who have remained employed — license to stop paying rent because they can simply declare COVID hardship without showing proof,” Strasburg said.
