Freeze it! Mayor calls for no rent increases
for more than 2 million New Yorkers
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
Amid economic challenges during
the coronavirus outbreak, Mayor
Bill de Blasio repeated on April
10 his previous call for a rent freeze for
over 2 million New Yorkers living in rent
stabilized apartments.
During a press conference at the USTA
Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in
Queens, de Blasio reiterated his March 27
call to place a rental freeze for 2.3 million
New Yorkers. He pledged to work with the
state to place the Rent Guidelines Board
(RGB) process of pause for the remainder
of the year.
Social distancing rules in the city have
put thousands out of work. According to
Governor Andrew Cuomo, 350,000 unemployment
claims were fi led this week and
600,000 unemployment claims have been
processed over the last three weeks with
200,000 still in limbo.
During an interview with WNYC’s
“Ask the Mayor with Brian Lehrer”
Friday morning, de Blasio promised
to speak with federal offi cials about
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
Tuesday that New York City
will start creating its own
coronavirus testing kits.
Beginning in early May, New York
City-based manufacturers, laboratories
and 3D printers will produce 50,000
coronavirus test kits a week.
“We said, well if people can make
them around the world why not us?”
said Mayor Bill de Blasio during his
daily coronavirus briefi ng. The city
recently received news that components
to 50,000 test kits would be donated to
New York City from Aria Diagnostics in
Carmel, Indiana.
During his April 14 briefi ng, the
mayor said that an additional 50,000
test kits per week will be sent from Aria
to New York city every week, beginning
April 20, bringing the total number of
available tests in the city to 400,000 a
month.
Recently, the mayor touted progress
on the battle against the novel coronavirus
as the number of cases continues
to fall. The Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene reported that there are
106,813 cases of the novel coronavirus in
the city as of 9:30 a.m. April 14.
suspending rent payments for NYCHA
residents after speaking from Jackson
Heights who lost his job because of the
pandemic.
“I still have to pay rent, and I’m just
wondering why can’t we get that? At the
very least, NYCHA residents are some of
the poorest residents in New York City,
the most vulnerable residents in New York
City. Let’s get the rent canceled for the very
least until June,” one caller said.
The mayor responded by stating that
City works to expand
COVID-19 testing capacity
Mayor Bill de Blasio holds a media availability on COVID-19. City Hall.
Saturday, April 11, 2020.
In order to ensure that the number
of cases continues to decline, de Blasio
emphasized the importance of testing in
order to appropriately quarantine people.
The mayor emphasized that although
the soon to be available tests were good
news, the city would not “let its foot off
the gas.” New York City would keep
the power of a rent moratorium lies in the
hands of the state but that he was devising
a way to freeze rent by suspending the
RGB, his appointed 9-person committee
in charge of determining yearly rent
adjustments.
De Blasio also promised the Jackson
Heights caller to give him an answer on
federal offi cials’ responses to NYCHA rent
payment by end-of-day Friday.
The U.S. Department of Housing and
Development and the Rent Guidelines
PHOTO BY ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE
social distancing and shelter in place
strategies active in order push the number
of new novel coronavirus patients
further down.
As capacity in city hospitals opens up
medical personnel will be freed to help
more with testing New Yorkers, de Blasio
added.
Board have yet to respond to a request for
comment from amNY.
“Lord knows that people do not need
another burden right now,” de Blasio later
said in at the tennis court turned makeshift
hospital in Queens.
At Friday’s coronavirus press briefi ng,
the mayor also announced that the tennis
court received its fi rst novel coronavirus
patient and would soon expand its bed
count to 470 and 20 Intensive Care Units.
Originally, FEMA planned to equip the
temporary hospital with 350 beds for noncoronavirus
patients.
The mayors calls for a rent freeze come
weeks after lawmakers, advocates and
some groups representing landlords pushed
for legislation that would pause evictions.
In mid-March, state Senator Michael
Gianaris introduced legislation that would
cancel rent for 90 days.
Along with being the mayor, de Blasio
is also the landlord of two Park Slope
buildings. When asked by a reporter on
Friday on whether he has frozen rents for
his buildings, he explained that none of
his tenants were out of work and therefore
were capable of paying rent.
Post-pandemic
rental market
could mirror 2008
recession: study
BY GRANT LANCASTER
Although it is too early to say what effect
the COVID-19 pandemic will have on the
city’s rental market, a study by real estate
site StreetEasy looked to the post-recession rental
market of 2008 for possible clues.
The Great Recession was the last time rents
in the city fell, with pre-pandemic rents reaching
record highs.
During the recession, rent fell as much at 10%
due to increased unemployment and vacancy
rates, with the least-expensive options falling the
most, the study found.
In 2008, rent fell the most in Manhattan and
stayed more stable in outer boroughs like Queens
and Brooklyn, but StreetEasy predicted that in 2020
the outer boroughs will see rental drops as rapidly
growing service-industry jobs in these areas suffer.
Manhattan has largely offi ce jobs, which are not
expected to be greatly affected.
At the moment, only the supply and demand has
changed in the city, with the number of new rentals
listed down by about 54% from the beginning of
March to the end, according to the study.
Read the full study at streeteasy.com.
Schneps Media April 16,2020 3
/streeteasy.com
