Editorial
Op-ed
Feeling the squeeze
Tenants across New York are in
even more of a squeeze nowadays
than they were at the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
New York State’s current eviction moratorium
is set to expire on Aug. 31. The staterun
rental relief program, which provides
hundreds of millions in federal relief to debtridden
tenants, began accepting applications
in June — but the funding is only trickling
in currently to those who need it the most.
The federal government provided $2.4
billion for New York’s rental relief program.
Eligible tenants making 80% or less of their
area’s median income can get enough relief
to cover one year’s worth of rent and utility
bills.
It’s an absolute blessing for cash-starved
tenants, many of whom were hit hardest by
the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of illness
and job loss. The funding should be raining
down upon them like manna from heaven
— instead, it is frustratingly bubbling up
from New York’s coffers at a hellishly slow
pace.
The funds have been slow to disperse
to tenants, and with the deadline looming,
lawmakers Alessandra Biaggi and Yuh-
Line Niou want to push back the eviction
moratorium until Oct. 31. Embattled Governor
Andrew Cuomo had promised to
overhaul the program last month, but tenants
are still having issues.
Cuomo’s office reported that more than
$20 million in rental payments were released
just last week, and they expect that number
to only increase in the weeks ahead. They
must be held to that promise, and there
should be an investigation as to why it’s taking
so long for the state to turn the spigot and
let the relief flow into hard-working tenants’
pockets.
Meanwhile, anxiety continues to grow for
tenants who depend on the relief program
and have no other recourse to keep their
landlords from soon slipping an eviction
notice under their doors.
New York should extend the eviction
moratorium through the end of October to
put their minds at ease, and provide enough
time for everyone to get their relief.
No question, the state must right this
wrong before it’s too late.
One more thing: Small landlords who rely
on the rental income from one or two tenants
to pay their mortgages also need their relief,
and they need it today. New York must do
what it can to help them, too.
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
ROBERT POZARYCKI
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DEAN MOSES
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NYC must do more
about homeless
amid COVID-19
BY ASSEMBLYWOMAN LINDA B.
ROSENTHAL
It has been more than a year since
the City of New York hastily moved
thousands of people living in the DHS
congregate shelter system into temporary
hotels to protect them against COVID-19.
While the move likely saved countless
lives, few would argue that the plan was
not executed in total disarray. To be sure,
the City was in the midst of what we would
soon learn was an unprecedented, yearslong
pandemic that would claim the lives
of more than 53,000 New Yorkers (to date).
Just because the move out of congregate
shelters was chaotic does not mean that a
move back in should be as well. The City,
which has long maintained that it has been
guided by the science, continues to rush to
move thousands of people who have been
kept safe from COVID-19 in hotels back
into congregate settings at the same time
that the Delta variant has us bracing for
round two, or perhaps it’s three.
The City itself admits that it has no idea
how many people currently living in temporary
hotels have been vaccinated and that
it has no plans to require or track vaccinations
among this vulnerable population,
being rendered more so by the City’s own
policies. Virus mitigation in congregate
shelters is non-existent, as unsheltered, and
potentially unvaccinated, New Yorkers are
crammed 20-plus to a room, separated by
little more than hope and a prayer.
In a short time, we have learned a lot
from COVID-19. We have learned the
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
importance of being near friends, family
and loved ones.
But it seems the City has not learned a
thing when it comes to homeless policy in
the time of COVID-19.
The City was sued by the Legal Aid Society
because it was not following its own law
with respect to moving unsheltered people
with disabilities. The City then agreed to
temporarily pause future moves, but Legal
Aid was forced back into court when the
City began moving people once again, haphazardly
and without a plan. This time, a
federal judge sided with the advocates and
ordered the City to cease all moves and
gave it until Aug. 19 to devise a plan.
It should not take multiple court orders
and this much pressure for the City to do
the right thing.
Nevertheless, the City persists. It persists
in implementing a wrongheaded move that
will endanger the lives of New Yorkers who
have done nothing wrong, if you don’t
consider homelessness a crime, of course.
I will reiterate now what I said at the
beginning of COVID: unsheltered New
Yorkers are not chattel, and they cannot
be shuffled around in a political game,
especially not during the potential third
wave of a deadly pandemic. Their very lives
are on the line.
The chaos that reigned supreme at the
beginning of the pandemic was forgivable,
excused by a deadly learning curve. The
chaos now, after more than a year of experience,
is simply inexcusable, and is needlessly
endangering the lives of thousands
of innocent and unsheltered New Yorkers.
88 August 12, 2021 SScchhnneeppss MMeeddiiaa
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