Tenants rally in Foley Square for eviction ban extension
BY DEAN MOSES
Tenants have three days before landlords
can pursue eviction processes
— but renters at a rally on Monday
say they need at least one more year.
May 1 is the last day of the eviction moratorium,
which has protected thousands
of New Yorkers from landlords pursuing
legal action against tenants who are facing
fi nancial hardship due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Led by the Housing Justice for All,
activists and tenants gathered at Foley
Square demanding that legislators pass
a bill extending the protection until at
least Aug. 31 as they fi ght for rent to be
canceled. State Senator Brian Kavanaugh
and Assembly member Jeff Dinowitz
have put forward legislation that would
provide a four-month extension — but
more than 100,000 tenants are at risk
of eviction after May 1 if the legislation
is not passed on time, and if Governor
Andrew Cuomo does not sign the bill,
before then.
“Eviction is violence!” and “Fight, fi ght,
fi ght, fi ght housing is a human right” chants
echoed throughout the Court District as
protesters marched from Foley Square to
Demonstrators say time is up for elected officials to extend the eviction
moratorium.
Manhattan Housing Court (located at 111
Centre St.), calling for Cuomo, Assembly
Speaker Carl E. Heastie, and New York
State Senator Majority Leader Andrea
Stewart-Cousins to step up and aid their
constituents.
Protesters shared stories of the way in
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
which the novel coronavirus has turned
their world upside down, from losing
their jobs and fi ghting for unemployment,
to facing food insecurity on top of
a devastating health crisis. The last thing
many of them wanted to fear was losing
their home due to the inability to choose
between paying their rent and feeding
their families.
The eviction moratorium protects tenants
who have fi led forms declaring that
they have faced fi nancial hardships due
to the pandemic and small landlords are
shielded from foreclosures due to lost rental
income.
“Everywhere we go, people want to
know who we are, so we tell them: We are
the tenants, the mighty, mighty tenants,
fi ghting for justice, cancel rent,” protesters
chanted.
Protesters also shared that they worry, if
they are evicted, it would be a near-death
sentence amid an ongoing global pandemic.
One man, began to cry profusely as he told
fellow protesters that despite the moratorium,
he was served an eviction notice from
his landlord.
“We are demanding that Albany extend
the eviction moratorium. We are demanding
good cause eviction and on top of that
looking into the future, this city needs to
double down on what Albany did. we need
a tenant protection unit that we can go to
right down the block, rather than having to
go all the way to Albany to get the things
we need,” said Josué Pierre, a candidate
running for District 40 City Council.
NYC doing better than rest of U.S. on second vax doses: Blaz
BY ARIAMA C. LONG
Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed
Tuesday the slight concern that
New Yorkers may not be showing
up for their second doses of the Pfi zer or
Moderna vaccine after getting their fi rst
shot because of a larger nationwide trend.
At this point in the rollout, the city has
vaccinated about 3.4 million adults with
at least the fi rst shot and about 2.3 million
with two shots, said de Blasio in his morning
briefi ng.
“The last I checked, in the last few days,
we were seeing pretty steady results with
second dose appointments, and we defi nitely
want to keep it that way,” said de Blasio.
“And there are situations where people get
a second dose somewhere different than
they got the fi rst one, and we can work
with that under the right circumstances
certainly.”
The New York Times reported that
about “8% of those who got a fi rst shot of
the Pfi zer or Moderna vaccines have missed
their second doses,” which has raised a serious
red fl ag among city and state health
offi cials.
Health Commissioner Dave A. Chokshi
said that New York City is doing “signifi -
cantly” better than the national average and
Empty vials of the second dose of the Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac) vaccine are
pictured at the San Martin hospital, in La Plata, on the outskirts of Buenos
Aires, Argentina.
less than 5% of people are missing their
second doses within the elongated 42-day
period recommended.
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) said that if a Pfi zer or
Moderna vaccine is received, that both
shots are needed and are not interchangeable.
You should get the same product for
your second shot.
For Pfi zer, the second shot should be 3
AGUSTIN MARCARIAN
weeks (21 days) after the fi rst while the
Moderna’s second shot should be 4 weeks
(28 days) out, said the CDC. If necessary,
the second dose can be given up to 6 weeks
after.
“However, we’re not resting on our
laurels with respect to making sure that
every single person who is due for a
second dose is reached out to. We use
multiple channels, text messages, phone
calls, and that’s on top of the system we
have in place to ensure that people leave
their fi rst dose of the vaccine with an
appointment for that second dose,” said
Chokshi.
It’s understood that some people have an
honest reason for missing it, said de Blasio,
and clarifi ed that regardless of provider,
walk-ins, etc., people should be accommodated
for their second shot at different
sites with proper paperwork or vaccination
cards.
Chokshi said there has to be a vaccination
record that’s accessible or the card on
hand in that case to ensure enough time
has passed or they have the right product.
Whether people are fully vaccinated or
not, de Blasio encouraged people to wear
masks whenever they could and to follow
safety protocols.
“The only other thing I’d try to emphasize
is that we’re still in the middle of a very
severe epidemic,” added Senior Advisor for
Public Health Jay Varma. “We are incredibly
excited about the declines we’re seeing,
about 20% declines week-over-week
in cases, hospitalizations and deaths, but
we still have far too many people suffering
from this infection. We need to continue a
lot of the efforts until we get to much lower
rates of disease.”
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