New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized apartments owe their owners $ 1.14 billion. About 50,000 tenants have not paid more than $ 15,000 each. The average debt is over $ 6100. 175 thousand tenants, that is, 19% of the inhabitants of buildings with stabilized rent, did not pay their rent for at least two months. This figure is up 300% compared to February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
All of these figures come from a survey conducted by the Community Housing Improvement Program. Its director, Jay Martin, hopes that the situation will improve somewhat after the state receives assistance through an economic stimulus package from the federal government. But this money, according to Martin, will not be enough.
“To solve a problem, you need to understand its scale,” he said. “It’s quite obvious to me that both tenants and landlords cannot do with additional funds, either from the federal authorities, or from state ones.”
Governor Cuomo extended the ban on evictions of debtors in December. The new law is intended to help homeowners, protecting them during the moratorium from foreclosures and from punishment for late payment of property taxes. However, many landlords complain that they do not meet the criteria of the law and that the measures announced by the governor cannot be dispensed with.
Homeowners pay attention to the fact that some unscrupulous tenants simply hide behind an epidemic in order not to pay rent, although they are actually able to do so.
“There are tenants who are out of work but still pay their rent,” Sharon Redhead, a Brooklyn land lady, told the Daily News. – And there are, on the contrary, people who continue to work, but, taking advantage of the moment, evade payment.
Newspaper headline:
Life on loan