NYC Rent Guidelines Board votes for rent freeze; Cuomo extends moratorium on evictions
NEW YORK - In a preliminary vote on Thursday, a majority of board members of New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board voted for a one-year rent freeze and after that a 1% increase for the second year. The motion will be officially voted on at a final meeting in the coming weeks.
Representatives for landlords on the board had called for a rent increase, while tenant representatives had called for a decrease or rent freeze.
“A freeze is really important because we want to ensure that no more tenants become homeless,” said Pilar DeJesus of TakeRoot Justice, a tenant advocacy group.
TakeRoot Justice had said it was outraged that the board was holding remote online meetings, as many tenants did not have the access to watch and would have preferred the board to have waited until 2021 to meet in person.
Meanwhile, landlords say they are suffering too.
“The government has done little or nothing to help owners who have lost most, if not all of their commercial and retail rents and a portion of their residential rents,” said Patti Stone, who represents landlords on the Rent Guidelines Board.
Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday extended New York's moratorium on coronavirus outbreak-related evictions for two more months.
The governor in March had issued a moratorium that lasted through June but said he wanted to reduce the anxiety of families struggling through the economic shutdown. It is now extended until Aug. 20.
"I hope it gives families a deep breath," Cuomo said at his daily briefing.
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The executive order will also ban late payment fees for missed payments and allow renters to apply their security deposit to a payment, though they'd have to pay it back over time.
New York tallied 231 virus-related deaths on Wednesday. Though hospitalizations continue to decrease slowly, the daily death toll has hovered around 230 for four days.
With the Associated Press.