Friday, May 1, 2020

Cancel Rent Protest Sign Displayed From Queensboro Bridge This Morning Seen From Roosevelt Island Tram - RIOC Agrees To Work With Hudson Related To Help Roosevelt Island Commercial Tenants Defer Rent During Coronavirus Pandemic But Nothing For Residential Tenants

According to NY Times article today:

As unemployment soars across the country, tenants rights groups and community nonprofits have rallied around an audacious goal: to persuade the government to halt rent and mortgage payments — without back payments accruing — for as long as the economy is battered by the coronavirus....
The Queensboro Bridge was the site

this morning for protest signage by the Cancel Rent movement

as seen from the Roosevelt Island Tram

How does the Cancel Rent movement impact Roosevelt Island?

During the April 23 Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board Of Directors Meeting Public Session, I asked:
Will RIOC work with Hudson Related and other Roosevelt Island residential landlords to defer/reduce rents for tenants impacted by the Coronavirus  as is being done for commercial retail tenants
Margie Smith asked:
When will we know if RIOC will be deferring ground rent in this difficult time.
RIOC President Susan Rosenthal replied that to date, none of the Roosevelt Island residential building owners have asked for any rent deferral.

Here's video of the RIOC Board meeting. The rent deferral question starts at 3 minute 10 second mark of video


RIOC Board Meeting April 23 2020 from Diva Communications on Vimeo.

and here's Governor Cuomo speaking on issue at today's press briefing.



NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio discussed the rent issue during an AARP Tele-Town Hall meeting today.
... Question: Yeah, good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity. My question is regarding to rent. We hear all these different statements about people with difficulties paying rent, but I have yet to hear what the decision is from the City or from the State.

Mayor: Michael, great question. And I'll give you a couple of things that we do know and some other things we don't know yet. So, first of all, look, there's two kinds of people right now in New York City. There are people who still have the ability to pay the rent because they still have an income and there's people who don't. And there's no judgment when I say that or no negativity, there are just so many people who have lost the ability to pay for the basics in life because to begin with, you know, hundreds of thousands of people are unemployed as a result of this crisis. And paying their own rent is a problem. Or maybe if they're helping a loved one. So every, you know, there's so much disruption right now. So here's what we do know. We do know there is a ban on evictions and obviously if someone just cannot pay the rent, doesn't have a way to pay they can at least know that they're not going to be evicted. That it's not legal for evictions to proceed during this crisis. If anyone has a landlord who's attempting to evict them or even attempting to temporarily remove them for any reason, including if they're claiming someone's sick and needs to leave the building. That is not the landlord's choice. That's something for doctors to decide. Anybody with that kind of problem, call 3-1-1 and you can talk to our tenant protection specialist. And if it is a situation where you require legal help, we can get you legal help for free. So that is one thing we do know. No evictions and definite help available if anyone attempts, if any landlord attempts an eviction or removal.

The second thing we know is that I've called upon our Rent Guidelines Board, which covers over two million New Yorkers. So, anyone in rent stabilized housing. I've called upon the Rent Guidelines Board to initiate a rent freeze for leases going forward starting in this fall. They're going to vote soon on that and it's for all leases that go from October 1st on. And they have to take that vote, but I'm pushing them very intensely to get to a rent freeze. We've done a rent freeze twice previously in my administration. When the facts warranted it. And I think the facts warrant it very, very intensely right now given how much pain people are going through economically and humanly. So, I'm very hopeful we'll get that rent freeze in place soon. Then, what we don't know – what the state of New York is going to do. Now, I'll make a parallel, Michael, the State of New Jersey did something very important. I called from New York to do it, they haven't done it yet, but New Jersey went ahead and did it. They passed a rule that said any tenant who could not pay the rent could use their security deposit to pay the rent, and it had to be released to make that possible. I'm hoping New York State will do that. I think AARP – if AARP agrees with that position, your extraordinary influence in Albany could help us a lot to get that done. Then there's other ideas, Michael, including allowing people a payment plan of up to a year if they cannot pay the rent, which I think also makes sense and also extending that eviction moratorium not only to the end of the crisis, but two months beyond just to protect people so there's time to get back on your feet. So that's the state of play – not perfect by any stretch, but definitely there's different ways that people can be helped. And if you have a specific situation where you cannot pay the rent and those other options are not available to you, you can also call 3-1-1 and see if you qualify for emergency assistance. For certain individuals, depending on income level and all, we might be able to get you some immediate assistance with the rent. So, that's another option if you're in that situation, call 3-1-1 and they can assess if that's something available to you.
More info on the Hudson Related Main Street Retail rent deferral matter which the RIOC Board approved during April 23 meeting at this prior post.

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 7:15:00 PM

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