Corporations exist to make profit. In the housing context, corporate landlords extract as much profit from their investments as possible. The results are rent increases, cost-cutting on building maintenance, reductions in building-wide services, low-cost or inadequate repairs, and evictions.
“Two years into the pandemic, the city is moving ahead with a return to ‘normal,’ but the pre-pandemic real estate market’s ‘normal’ is not something to which we should aspire to.”
ANHD’s 2022 Housing Risk Chart highlights the compounding pressures, and risks, to affordable housing in dozens of neighborhoods. Indicators of speculation, gentrification, and displacement pressure are distributed throughout the city and show the necessity of tenant and homeowner counseling and support programs that defend affordability in every neighborhood.
The State Senate and Assembly included a quarter-billion dollars to fund the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP), which would create a new rent voucher for New Yorkers experiencing or at-risk of homelessness—including immigrants without legal status—with values pegged to fair market rent levels.
“Our goal is to intervene and disrupt the eviction process,” one organizer said at a rally outside Bronx Housing Court Thursday. “We’ve always known the eviction moratorium is a temporary measure [but] it made it possible for our members to dream of a world without evictions.”
New York City’s new housing commissioner is returning to public office after a years-long stint working with a quick-to-evict Bronx developer recently subject to a state investigation, raising concerns among tenants and advocates in the borough.
Eviction records for two large NYCHA developments converted to private management under the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program show a higher eviction rate compared to the system average, Human Rights Watch found.
“What we need to do is to ensure that, no matter how much money you’re making, you can access a free attorney if you’re at risk of eviction,” North Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler said during an appearance on WBAI’s City Watch Sunday.
For the first time in nearly two years, New York’s expansive COVID-related eviction protections have come to an end for tenants who owe back rent. Landlords are rejoicing, renters are feeling the heat and city officials are bracing for impact.
New Yorkers who owe back rent can once again apply for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) after judge ordered the state to reopen applications, citing what could be a substantial second round of funding in March. But the federal government has yet to approve a new round of cash for the tapped-out fund, and eviction protections end Saturday.
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