6 MAY 7, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Tenants in 17 buildings throughout
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Guadalupe Paleta created a petition
in April with her neighbors,
who reside in a six-fl oor 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 diffi cult
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 is one of 17 buildings
in Woodside going 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,” Contreras said.
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
diffi cult time.”
Call to ‘Cancel Rent’ on May Day
The Cancel Rent movement in New
York is largely spearheaded by the infl
uential Upstate Downstate Housing
Alliance, a coalition of more than 70
grassroots groups, including Housing
Justice for All, advocating for tenants
and 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
off er 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,
A tenant goes on rent strike at the Cosmopolitan Houses in Woodside. Courtesy of Woodside on the Move
even if they can, in order to show solidarity
with those who can’t aff ord 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 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 two-thirds 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 fi ling
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 benefi t 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 federally
backed multifamily mortgages
a 90 day forbearance. This means
landlords with a mortgage insured
or guaranteed by the federal government
can’t evict a tenant for not paying
rent for the next three months.
During his daily press briefi ngs on
May 1, Cuomo acknowledged the protests
by tenants and landlords’ fears
that without rent, they won’t be able
to pay mortgages and maintenance.
“What we’re doing is no one can
be evicted for nonpayment of rent
between now and June, period. That
is the law until June,” Cuomo said.
“Between now and June, we’ll see what
happens. We’ll fi gure it out.”
But, many lawmakers and community
leaders don’t think this helps
renters.
City Council introduced a package
of bills on April 22 that included protections
for renters for the remainder
of the pandemic and beyond, including
extending time for all NYC renters
to repay rent, blocking evictions and
collection of debts until April 2021,
and protecting tenants from COVIDrelated
harassment and discrimination
— all sponsored by Speaker
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