Albany, NY — In response to Governor Cuomo’s decision to extend the eviction moratorium, Stanley Fritz, Political Director of Citizen Action of New York, released the following statement:
“Governor Cuomo’s decision to extend the eviction moratorium is a positive step in the right direction. However, his executive order must prohibit all evictions and eviction filings. Anything less would only sell the people of New York short. We cannot have an executive order that repeats the mistakes made in the Tenant Safe Harbor Act and drags tenants across the state into unsafe courtrooms while excluding the 5 million unregulated renters in this state from any protections at all.
With over 1.5 million renters in this state struggling to repay nearly $2.5 billion in back rent since April, the scope of Governor Cuomo’s order must reflect the crisis tenants in this state are facing. We need a full eviction moratorium to ensure we don’t have mass displacement during a pandemic.”