Housing activists rally in Hudson Yards for tenant protection
BY DEAN MOSES
Throughout four cities
across New York state,
a coalition of housing
activists gathered for a day of action
on Nov. 16, launching their
#HouseNY 2022 NYS legislative
campaign.
Over the past 17 months, the
economic strife induced by the
COVID-19 pandemic pushed
New York State’s housing crisis
over the edge, exacerbating
disparities and insecurities in
communities. Short-term fi xes
like the eviction moratorium and
emergency rental assistance programs
helped for a brief period,
but housing rights advocates
say it was a Band-Aid response
that has left tenants vulnerable
to landlord harassment, unfair
rental increases, and, potentially,
homelessness.
On Tuesday, activists, civil
legal services organizations, and
elected offi cials gathered together
in New York City, Albany, Rochester
and Buffalo to launch the
#HouseNY 2022 legislative campaign,
which is a fi ve-year housing
plan that makes real, long-term
legal changes to protect against
eviction.
Activists called for the governor to enact legislative protections for tenants.
“Our clients and all New Yorkers
deserve these common-sense
legislative solutions to the ongoing
economic devastation from the
pandemic,” said Judith Goldiner,
Attorney-in-Charge of the Civil
Law Reform Unit at The Legal
Aid Society. “With the statewide
moratorium likely set to expire
in January, we are facing a tidal
wave of evictions, which could
leave countless vulnerable tenants
at risk of losing their homes and
exacerbate the public health and
homelessness crisis. Albany must
act now to keep New Yorkers
safely housed in their homes.”
In New York City—at 20 Hudson
Yards—elected offi cials such
as state Senators Brian Kavanagh,
Robert Jackson and Mike Gianaris,
and others joined housing
rights leaders and tenants to call
upon Governor Kathy Hochul
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
to enact Good Cause Eviction,
Repeal of 421-a, Housing Access
Voucher Program (HAVP), Tenant
Opportunity to Purchase Act
(TOPA), and an expanded Housing
Our Neighbors with Dignity
Act (HONDA).
“Evictions are violence! We
can’t talk about public safety
without talking about the housing
crisis. A 50% rent increase is
slow-moving violence. If we are
serious about public safety, we
must be serious about ending the
housing crisis,” Queens Assembly
Member Zohran Mamdani said at
the New York City rally.
Several tenants spoke out
against their landlords who they
say have taken advantage of them
during this diffi cult time.
Hochul’s offi ce noted that the
governor has, since entering offi
ce in August, pushed for greater
housing rights, including working
with the state legislature to extend
the eviction moratorium through
January 2022.
“Governor Hochul has taken
bold action to protect tenants,
from calling a special session
of the legislature to extend the
eviction moratorium, to allocating
$25 million for free tenant
legal services across the State, to
breaking the Emergency Rental
Assistance Program logjam –
bringing New York from the back
of the pack to the front among all
states by committing more than
$2.2 billion to help tenants in
need. The Governor is fi rmly
committed to helping New Yorkers
stay in their homes and will
carefully review all legislation that
reaches her desk,” said Avi Small,
a spokesperson for the governor.
PATH trains to get OMNY-like tap-and-go fare payment in 2023
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey wants to roll out a new
tap-and-go fare payment system on
its PATH trains similar MTA’s OMNY, allowing
interstate straphangers to use their
smartphones or contactless bank cards
at turnstiles, transit offi cials announced
Nov. 15.
The bi-state agency plans to start rolling
out the new technology in 2023 at its 13
stations on both sides of the Hudson River.
“PATH is continually searching for
innovative ways to enhance the travel experience
for all of our riders,” said PATH
General Manager and Director Clarelle
DeGraffe in a statement on Nov. 15. “With
this new system, we’ll be adopting the most
current and effective technology to advance
that goal and make for a more seamless
experience at the turnstile.”
The Port Authority will contract Cubic
Transportation Systems to design and
install the new system for $99.4 million
if the agency’s board of commissioners
A PATH train at the Journal Square Station in Jersey City.
approves the request at its monthly meeting
Thursday.
The company installed the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority’s OMNY tapand
go fare system, which has been at all
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
472 subway stations and aboard all buses
since December 2020.
PATH has six stations in Manhattan and
seven in the Garden State, and riders can
currently use a the system’s own SmartLink
tap card or an MTA MetroCard, as long
as the latter is pay-per-ride and not an
unlimited monthly or weekly pass.
If approved by the board, Cubic will
install the new readers as a pilot at some
PATH stations in mid-2023 and roll out
across the system in the second half of that
year.
There will also be a new PATH fare card
to replace the SmartLink, which will be
phased out in 2024.
MTA’s OMNY accounts for about a
quarter of all fares, agency offi cials said
in October, and a $5 OMNY card hit the
shelves at private retail stores earlier that
month.
The MetroCard is scheduled to phase
out in 2023 after a 30-year run.
OMNY doesn’t yet offer weekly or
monthly passes, but MTA offi cials are
working out how to introduce so-called
fare capping, which allows straphangers
unlimited rides if they hit a certain amount
of taps in a given timeframe, as is common
on other public transit systems, like with
London’s Oyster card.
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