Tenants in 17 buildings throughout
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Guadalupe Paleta created
a petition in April with her
neighbors, who reside in a
six-floor building in Woodside,
asking their landlord to
cancel rent and utilities for
the next three months.
“We explained we don’t
have jobs, and despite that,
we are living through a psychologically
difficult time,”
said Paleta in Spanish, who
is 42 years old and worked as
a nanny before the COVID-19
pandemic began to take hold
of New York City.
Paleta, an organizer with
Woodside on the Move and
Make the Road NY, said her
landlord denied the petition
and told them they must pay
the rent when it’s due on May
1.
“He said they have utilities
and payments to make, but
they don’t understand that we
have the same needs as them,”
Paleta said in Spanish.
Paleta’s building was one
of 17 buildings in Woodside to
go on strike on May 1, according
to Woodside on the Move
community leader and organizer
Iván Contreras.
“They’re not canceling
the rent, they’re not freezing
it — but we’re in a pandemic,”
Contreras said, pointing out
that the rent strike is out of
necessity for many, especially
the Latin and immigrant
communities in Queens. “The
more people who strike, the
harder it’ll be for landlords to
take them to court,”
But the movement to “Cancel
Rent” extends far beyond
Queens and even New York
state — it’s a national movement
that many are calling
the largest rent strike in almost
100 years.
“We’re asking Gov. Andrew
Cuomo to join the
cause,” Paleta said in Spanish.
“Cuomo, listen to your people
who are asking you to cancel
rent in this difficult time.”
Call to ‘Cancel Rent’ on
May Day
The Cancel Rent movement
in New York is largely spearheaded
by the influential Upstate
Downstate Housing Alliance,
a coalition of more than
70 grassroots groups, including
Housing Justice for All,
advocating for tenants and
A tenant goes on a rent strike at the Cosmopolitan Houses in Woodside. Courtesy of Woodside on the Move
the homeless across New York
City and State.
Housing Justice for All
want Gov. Cuomo to execute
his executive order powers to
cancel rent for four months or
for the duration of the public
health crisis, freeze rents and
offer every tenant the right to
renew their lease, urgently
and permanently rehouse all
New Yorkers experiencing
homelessness and invest in
public and social housing.
For weeks, hyperlocal
groups like Woodside on the
Move have mobilized tenants
across Queens to not pay
rent, even if they can, in order
to show solidarity with those
who can’t afford to during the
COVID-19 crisis.
CAAAV: Organizing Asian
Communities’ Asian Tenants
Union, who advocate for
Bangladeshi, Chinese, and
Korean immigrants living in
public housing, demand Cuomo,
Senators Chuck Schumer
and Kirsten Gillibrans as well
TIMESLEDGER | 2 QNS.COM | MAY 8-MAY 14, 2020
as New York’s Congressional
delegation to cancel rent for
NYCHA residents.
“Nearly 15,000 tenants
across New York State are
unable to pay their rent. The
situation in New York City
Housing Authority (NYCHA)
housing is even more dire. Despite
living in public housing,
tenants who have lost their
jobs are in crisis,” according
to a CAAAV statement.
“Despite living in a state
with the best tenant protection,
the government fails to
see that working-class communities
and low-income
communities now need stronger
tenant protections by cancelling
rent,” said Mohammed
Hasan, a CAAAV member
living in the Ravenswood
Houses in Astoria. “There is
a pandemic going on outside,
everything is on stop, how are
we supposed to pay our rent?
Most of us, tenants, are living
on paycheck to paycheck,
how can we continue to pay
for rent when we barely have
enough to cover food on the
table? Taxi workers are afraid
of leaving their home because
there is no real protection to
continue to work, without
risking the exposure to us or
our families.”
City, state and federal
response
New York City is home to
5.4 million renters, or twothirds
of the population. According
to a survey conducted
by Property Nest in March,
39 percent of New Yorkers
would not be able to pay rent
if they’re out of work due to
the COVID-19 outbreak.
Unemployment rates in
New York state are at the highest
level since the Great Depression,
according to Forbes.
They found data from the New
York Department of Labor
that shows the total number
of New Yorkers filing new jobless
claims has reached 1.4
million — which doesn’t account
for self-employed, gig,
or part-time workers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio
doesn’t agree with a rent
strike, but he has called for
security deposits to be used in
lieu of rent, deferment of rents
for tenants and asked the Rent
Guidelines Board to initiate a
rent freeze during the state of
emergency for the city’s rentstabilized
apartments (more
than one million). The board
is set to decide during their
June meeting.
Contreras said housing advocates
worry they’ll make a
decision that doesn’t benefit
tenants if there aren’t people
there advocating for them
during public hearings.
In mid-March, Cuomo
implemented a 90-day moratorium
on mortgages and
evictions, which he said
solved the issue. The CARES
Act, the federal COVID-19
stimulus package passed in
April, gives landlords with
TIMESLEDGER is published weekly by Queens CNG LLC, 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY.11361, (718) 229-0300. The entire contents of this publication are copyright 2020. All rights reserved. The newspaper will not be
liable for errors appearing in any advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the TimesLedger C/O News Queens
CNG LLC. 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361.
/QNS.COM
