‘FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!’
BY DEAN MOSES
Bronx residents implored
state Assembly Speaker Carl
Heastie and state Senate Majority
Leader Andrea Stewart
Cousins at a rally on
Wednesday, Aug. 18 to extend
the soon-to-be-expired eviction
moratorium through
June 2022.
Chants of “Fight, fi ght,
fi ght! Housing is a human
right!” could be heard emanating
from outside the Bronx
Housing Court at 1118 Grand
Concourse, where tenants,
members of the Community
Action for Safe Apartments
(CASA) — a program from
New Settlement’s membership
driven tenant organizing
project — and advocates
demanded the state eviction
moratorium be prolonged as
further rent relief money is
distributed to New Yorkers
who are at risk of losing their
homes.
Watched by a blockade of
court offi cers who formed in
the building’s entranceway,
protesters laid out body bags
to symbolize the lives potentially
put at risk with the impending
fl ood of evictions to
come after Aug. 31, if moratorium
laws are not strengthened
and extended.
“We cannot see that virus,
but that virus sees us
and touches us, and it kills us.
What the landlords are trying
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, A 8 UG. 27-SEPT. 2, 2021 BTR
to do today is to kill you
by putting you out into the
street! That ain’t right and we
are going to send a message
to the Supreme Court and to
the landlords, that we are not
having it! You got kids here
today,” said Randy Phillip, a
member of CASA.
Even elected offi cials there
to support the protest were
confronted over the slow distribution,
and some protesters
demanded that they cancel
rent completely — something
that’s not likely to happen.
The eviction moratorium
expires on Aug. 31, which
means that renters who are
behind in their rent are in
jeopardy of facing eviction
proceedings. Some advocates
claim that less than 5%
of those who applied to the
ERAP have received aid.
But Bronx state Sen. Gustavo
Rivera laid the blame at
Bronx tenants rally for
eviction moratorium
extension
Members of Community Action for Safe Apartments state that tenants lives are at risk with the impending
evictions. Photos Dean Moses