WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JULY 16, 2020 7
mass evictions at Jackson Heights protest
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 suff ering
the deepest economic losses from the
pandemic but have benefi ted the least
from government relief eff orts.
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 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.”
/WWW.QNS.COM
