EDITORIAL
RENT CRISIS IN NEW
YORK CITY ONLY TIP
OF THE ICEBERG
From the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, there
has been a persistent call to “cancel rent” in New
York state and provide a much-needed break to
cash-strapped, out-of-work New Yorkers. That call
has been kept on infinite hold.
Back in March, Governor Andrew Cuomo enacted
via executive order a moratorium on eviction proceedings,
guaranteeing that landlords cannot boot their tenants
for nonpayment of rent due to the pandemic.
On May 7, he announced an extension of the moratorium
through August, and also cleared the way for
landlords to use security deposit payments in lieu of
rental payments. But these are not long-term solutions
for the turmoil at hand.
The rent is still due for thousands of tenants whether
they can afford to pay it. If you lost your job in March,
have just enough for the necessities but not enough for
your $2,000 monthly apartment rent, you’re now on the
hook for April and May rent, at $4,000.
Factor in missed payments for June, July and August,
and by the time the moratorium ends, you would
wind up owing your landlord $10,000 in back rent.
That’s unfair not only to the tenant, but also the
landlord.
It’s easy to think of every landlord as a faceless,
multimillion-dollar corporation, but the truth is there
are plenty of landlords who live below their tenants and
count on rental income to pay their own mortgages.
If they can’t afford their mortgages, the banks will
foreclose. Resulting short sales and foreclosure auctions
will drive down the value of their buildings, and
that will have a ripple effect on the entire real estate
market.
Does that matter? Yes, because the city assesses
property taxes based on property values. Decreased
values lead to decreased property tax revenue, which
will compound the already staggering $9 billion budget
gap at City Hall.
We’ve got a financial disaster on our hands — one
that, combined with the current fiscal situation, may
drive New York City back to the near-bankruptcy era of
the 1970s if we’re not careful.
So it isn’t enough to just “cancel rent.”
Tenants need cash to pay their rents; landlords need
their cash to pay their mortgages. If the government
can’t provide that in the interim, New York City will be
in even deeper trouble.
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It isn’t enough to just “cancel the rent.” Both tenants and landlords in New York City need financial help to
sustain themselves while also preventing the city’s economy from collapsing even further. REUTERS/Mike Segar
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