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March 27-Apr. 2, 2020
Queens senator calls for rent suspension
for residential and commercial tenants
NYC IN NEED
New York City needs more supplies as Queens leads city in coronavirus cases.
SEE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE INSIDE. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris
is calling for a 90-day suspension
of residential and commercial rent for
tenants as well as small businesses
that have been impacted by the coronavirus
pandemic.
After Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced
a 90-day moratorium on evictions
on Friday, March 20, Gianaris
took to Twitter to address the issue of
rent payments.
“Eviction moratorium is good but
tenants without income won’t be able
to pay accumulating rent in 90 days
and will then face eviction,” he wrote.
“We need to #CancelRent for 90 days.”
Gianaris, who represents Senate
District 12 — which includes Astoria,
Long Island City, Sunnyside and
Ridgewood — is drafting legislation to
enact a proposal to provide residential
and commercial tenants with 90 days
of rent forgiveness if they lost their
work or had to close their business due
to COVID-19.
As a result of the outbreak and the
state’s precautionary stay-at-home
order, thousands of New Yorkers and
people in the tri-state area have already
lost their jobs.
Many other Queens lawmakers
have joined Gianaris’ call for a rent
freeze, including Assemblywoman
Aravella Simotas, Senator Jessica Ramos
and Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez.
“Two-thirds of New York City residents
are renters. Now that New York
State has issued a mortgage moratorium,
we must also enact a rent moratorium
to prevent mass displacement,”
Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “Relief
and protecting from displacement
shouldn’t just be for homeowners and
the wealthy. It should be for everyone.”
Last week, Queens Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney led a request for
a moratorium on all foreclosures and
evictions with a letter signed by 106
Congress members.
The letter called for the immedi-
ate, nationwide moratorium on all
foreclosures and evictions from properties
owned, insured or overseen by
the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA), the Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
and federally backed agencies including
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Shortly after that letter was sent,
the White House’s administration announced
HUD would suspend foreclosures
and evictions insured by FHA
for at least 60 days.
Cuomo’s moratorium announcement
came afterward and provided
more guidelines, such as waiving
mortgage payments based on financial
hardship, no negative reporting to
credit bureaus, grace period for loan
modification, no late payment fees or
online payment fees, and postponing
or suspending foreclosures.
While Gianaris praised Cuomo’s
leadership and said New York is doing
an “excellent job of managing this
crisis,” he believes more needs to be
done.
“The devastation caused by coronavirus
will be far-reaching and longlasting,”
he stated. “We must stay on
top of the fast-changing consequences
of our efforts to contain the virus, and
the millions of tenants in our state cannot
be left behind. Suspending rents is
a critically important step to help New
Yorkers survive this unprecedentedly
difficult time.”
Vol. 8, No. 13 36 total pages
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