ALBANY, New York (WWNY) – Not everyone is happy with another temporary ban on evictions.
The Democrat-controlled state assembly and senate on Wednesday extended the temporary ban another four and a half months, to January 15, 2022.
New York’s new governor, Kathy Hochul, who will sign the extension Thursday, blamed the need for another extension on the continuing pandemic.
“The pandemic has created unimaginable stress for tenants and landlords who are struggling through no fault of their own. Many of them have lost jobs, lost the ability to make their bills,” Hochul said as she called legislators back to Albany.
But Hochul’s fix – another temporary ban on evictions while the state rolls out more than $2 billion in rental assistance – got a thumbs down Wednesday from Republicans and some landlords.
“The issue is we have a ton of property owners, many of whom are not wealthy, they are middle income folks – they are cops, business owners, moms and dads, military veterans – who haven’t received rent in almost two years,” said Senate Republican leader Rob Ortt.
“And this does nothing to solve that crisis.”
Republicans say the state did a poor job of distributing the more than $2 billion under former governor Andrew Cuomo. Only a small fraction of that money – which can cover up to a year of back rent and three months going forward – has been paid to tenants and landlords.
Hochul agrees and has pledged to do better.
“The state of New York failed in its responsibility to get the money that was allocated by congress out to the people in need earlier this summer,” she said.
Watertown landlord Stephen Byers, of the Forte Management Group, was blunt Wednesday.
The moratorium on evictions is “killing a lot of property owners,” he said.
“We’ve got tons of people who are tens of thousands of dollars behind in their rent,” he said.
“These property owners are taking it, they still have to pay their property taxes, a lot of them are still paying utilities on these properties.”
And Byers said there is a catch with taking the state’s rental assistance money, one which could put a landlord further in the hole.
“If you agree to take any of that money, you have to agree that you won’t evict for a whole year,” he said.
“So if I have somebody who’s six months behind, and I take this deal and take that six months rent to get caught up, now they can live in my home for another year without paying any rent.”
Byers rejects the notion that COVID is still a major factor in why people aren’t paying.
“People need to start paying their rent,” he said.
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