6 JULY 16, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Calls to cancel rent becomes plea to prevent
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
The movement to cancel rent has
shift ed 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, and the 89th
Street Tenants Union 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 aff ord 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 fi nancial
hardship according to Cuomo’s executive
order.
Housing rights advocates predict
up to 50,000 new eviction cases might
be fi led 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
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 offi cials to
cancel rent so those who can’t aff ord
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.
Photos by Angélica Acevedo
“We’re tired of this,” Sokolof Diaz
said. “Week aft er 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
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