Albany, NY – In response to new legislation passed this week by the state legislature to fix and extend New York’s eviction moratorium, Rosemary Rivera, Citizen Action Co-Executive Director, released the following statement:
“Today marks yet another month that rent is due for tens of thousands of tenants who are waiting on promised relief from the state. We thank the Senate, Assembly, and Governor for taking action to protect New Yorkers following the Supreme Court ruling against the temporary eviction ban. New York is in this crisis because of the failure of the Cuomo administration to release billions of dollars in Emergency Rental Assistance Program funding. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and Governor Kathy Hochul have put correcting this error at the top of their priorities to protect New Yorkers as we battle the highly transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant.
“It’s been an agonizing year and a half for renters, homeowners, and small landlords who have been struggling to make ends meet while falling deeper into debt. New Yorkers who were financially impacted by the pandemic can now get the help they need without having to be dragged through the dangerous and unnecessary eviction process. This extension affirms the right to housing, and we thank state leaders for siding with tenants in order to avoid an increase in the existing homelessness crisis in the middle of a pandemic. We hope that this important legislation is a sign that the 2022 legislative session will be a shift from Cuomo-era policies that favor the ultra-wealthy towards ones that center low-income, and Black and brown New Yorkers and invest in our communities.”