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QUEENS WEEKLY, JULY 12, 2020
Calls to cancel rent becomes plea to prevent
mass evictions at Jackson Heights protest
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
The movement to cancel
rent has shifted to demands
for a stop to all residential
evictions and a pause on
housing courts proceedings
as New York’s eviction
moratorium nears its deadline.
Woodside on the Move,
a grassroots advocacy organization
based in western
Queens, led a protest
in Jackson Heights on
Tuesday, July 7, to demand
Gov. Andrew Cuomo pass
legislation that would prevent
renters impacted by
COVID-19 from getting displaced.
“We’re not going to allow
a person to be thrown
on the street because they
can’t afford to pay rent,”
said Iván Contreras, an
organizer with Woodside
on the Move. “Even if we
have to chain ourselves to
the apartment of someone
who’s at risk, we won’t let
them kick them out of their
home. Kicking you out of
your home now would be
the same as sending you to
a hospital in the time that
we’re living.”
More than 50 residents
of Jackson Heights
and Woodside joined the
march, which began at 89th
Street and 34th Avenue
and ended at Travers Park,
where community leaders
spoke about the “wave of
evictions” predicted to take
place once the state’s eviction
moratorium fully ends
on Aug. 20.
The eviction moratorium
ended on June 20, but
was extended to August
for those who are eligible
for unemployment and can
prove financial hardship
according to Cuomo’s executive
order.
Housing rights advocates
predict up to 50,000
new eviction cases might
be filed in New York’s
housing courts once they
reopen. With courts opening
last week, the Right to
Counsel NYC Coalition set
a list of demands for housing
courts that includes
an extension to the universal
eviction moratorium
and a slow down of case
proceedings.
The protest in Jackson
Heights was one of several
that took place on Tuesday
throughout the city.
At Travers Park, Maria
Segura, a member of Woodside
on the Move, spoke in
Spanish about Cuomo’s refusal
to cancel rent.
“I feel desperate. I feel
sad because we see how
Governor Cuomo is acting
in an inhumane way, almost
irrational. I feel desperate
because I see a wave
of evictions for the whole
community, a working
community that has helped
this city move forward,”
Segura said. “We’re here to
tell the courts to not dare
receive cases to evict the
community.”
Segura lives in Cosmopolitan
Houses, where
tenants staged a strike
months ago to pressure
officials to cancel rent so
those who can’t afford to
pay their bills as a result of
job loss wouldn’t be faced
with eviction notices from
their landlords.
Angélica Acevedo/QNS
Andrew Sokolof Diaz,
co-founder of the 89th
Street Tenants Union, said
an unclear path forward
has made it harder for folks
living in uncertainty.
“We’re tired of this,”
Sokolof Diaz said. “Week after
week, we hear of delays
and deadlines extended
and moratoriums and we’re
being thrown scraps, like
we’re supposed to be grateful
for this. That’s not right.
It’s criminal.”
Sokolof Diaz said they
have tenants who have been
on rent strike since April.
State Senator Jessica
Ramos joined the march
as a “tenant and neighbor,”
she said. She addressed
protesters first in Spanish
then in English, saying her
and other colleagues in the
Senate sent Cuomo a letter
asking him to reconsider
opening the courts.
“Even though we passed
some reform last year, we
weren’t prepared for this,”
Ramos said. “We’re expecting
20 million to be essentially
eligible for eviction by
September 30 in the United
States of America, the richest
country in the world, in
the state where the income
inequality is the greatest.”
Ramos then mentioned
her excluded workers bill
that would tax New York’s
billionaires — which
she said there are more of
now than there were before
the pandemic — in order to
create a fund for folks who
didn’t qualify for federal or
state COVID-19 stimulus.
“This is money that can
go to pay for rent, to buying
food, to getting medicine
that perhaps your family
needs, to buying your own
PPE because your employer
doesn’t provide it for you,”
she said.
A study by the Center
for an Urban Future found
that half of New York City’s
immigrants, many of whom
are essential workers, are
suffering the deepest economic
losses from the pandemic
but have benefited
the least from government
relief efforts.
Assembly candidate Jessica
González-Rojas also
attended the protest, and
noted that 66 percent of
District 34 (which encompasses
Jackson Heights,
East Elmhurst, and parts
of Woodside and Corona)
are “worried about putting
food on the table for their
families, jobs and earning
money.”
“And yet they have
to think about whether
they’re going to have a roof
over their heads at night,”
González-Rojas said. “That
is unacceptable in this moment,
in this country.”
There are several bills
introduced on all levels of
government to address rent
and mortgage fears as a
result of the pandemic, but
they are still waiting to be
signed into law.
Cuomo recently signed
Photo by Angélica Acevedo
the Emergency Rent Relief
Act of 2020, introduced by
Manhattan Senator Brian
Kavanagh, which would
provide rental assistance
vouchers to landlords on
behalf of tenants who experienced
an increase in rent
burden because of a loss of
income as a result of the
pandemic.
But supporters of
Queens Senator Michael
Gianaris’ bill to cancel rent
altogether for residential
and commercial tenants
say the bill is a modest version
of what tenants need.
Advocates say it’s ultimately
up to Cuomo to stop
evictions from taking place
en masse come August.
“I laugh when they say
we want hand outs,” Contreras
said. “We have two,
three and sometimes four
jobs to be able to live in
this nation. Nobody wants
handouts; we want fair distribution
of wealth. It’s not
fair that we work, but in
the time of a pandemic they
turn their backs on us.”