NYC Coronavirus Crisis: First Rent Day Sparks Fear Among Tenants

NEW YORK CITY — Ana Piccinino called New York’s unemployment agency 300 times Monday trying to get some help before rent day arrived April 1 and never got through.

The Crown Heights tenant is among hundreds of thousands of desperate New Yorkers who won’t be able to pay rent after a stay-at-home order triggered mass layoffs and shuttered businesses.

“People are choosing to pay child support or rent,” Piccinino said. “My plan is maybe hold up a little bit until someone says something about this.”

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While plenty of lawmakers have said something, the one with the power to actually issue a rent moratorium for the duration of the new coronavirus outbreak has been loathe to speak.

“We’ll deal with that when we get to it,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, when a reporter in Albany quizzed him about protections for renters. Then the governor stood up and left.

Cuomo — who has issued a 90-day ban on evictions — remains quiet despite calls from several city lawmakers urging him to issue the same protections he did for homeowners.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to “The Brian Lehrer Show” on Tuesday to plead with Cuomo to consider an order similar to the mortgage and foreclosure suspension he granted homeowners.

“We’re kind of creating a class and race issue, we’re offering preferential treatment to landowners,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“Even just from an economic perspective, it’s not responsible to ignore this problem.”

New York State Sen. Michael Gianaris has introduced legislation to suspend rent for 90 days that’s earned support from City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

“Rent payments due to coronavirus/COVID-19 hardship must be reduced — or, in some cases, canceled — now,” Johnson said.

“We must also ensure that those tenants aren’t hit with exorbitant back rents they won’t be able to afford after this crisis is over.”

Rent has become the grim focal point of many lives and, in one Washington Heights apartment, the hallway.

New Yorker Diane, 33, recently found a letter from the landlord — pressuring all tenants to pay full rent on time — tacked up in her apartment hallway.

Her recently laid-off 62-year-old father, whom she lives with and who has paid his rent on time for 30 years, put the letter there as a reminder, Diane said.

“He said he wanted everyone to see the letter so that we all know what kind of ruthless landlord we are dealing with,” Diane said. “My dad has been a loyal tenant for 30 years … so have a lot of other people in this building, and this is how their loyalty is repaid.”

But city landlords say pressure is mounting on them as well.

Despite Cuomo’s mortgage moratorium, homeowners still must pay property taxes and bills for utilities that keep their buildings habitable.

“If people want rents to not be paid, there has to be thoughtful discussion on where funds will come,” a property management worker named Regina told Patch. “It’s not as simplistic as ‘Let’s not pay rent.'”

Realtor Bryan Ware, 54, said he understands the need, which is why he’ll empty out his $11,000 savings account Wednesday to pay rent on his Hell’s Kitchen apartment and juice shop, “Fresh From Hell.”

“The worst part of the whole thing is that there’s no communication,” Ware said. “All [Cuomo] can say is you won’t be evicted.”

“But when the 90 days are up, I will be evicted then, because I won’t have three months’ rent. ”

What’s his plan for the months ahead? “To get one.”

New Yorkers across the city — both landlords and renters — are clamoring for a better understanding of how lawmakers will protect renters and homeowners in the months ahead.

“Everyone is scared right now,” said Brooklyn renter Jennifer Cariddi. “We’re just waiting for the state or the government to reassure us a little bit.”

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