Coronavirus May Lead To Mass Rent Strikes In NYC: Advocates

NEW YORK, NY — Massive job losses, a moratorium on evictions and anxiety about April rents may result in widespread rent strikes in the coming months among New York City renters, tenant organizers told Patch.

Numerous tenants in Jamaica, Queens who lost wages due to the spread of coronavirus in March either hurting business or resulting in layoffs told tenant organizer Rima Begum that they won't be able to afford groceries for the month of April if they pay their rents. With just a few days until late fees kick in, many tenants said they have had little success in reaching their landlords, let alone working out a payment plan.

Tenants usually launch rent strikes to force landlords to deliver services such as heat and hot water and to make repairs, but when it comes to paying rent or being able to cover basic human necessities, Begum says the choice is clear.

"If there is a building where there are no repairs, there are no concerns, there are no issues — which is very rare in my line of work — if that's the case and the tenant still doesn't have the ability to pay, and they have to choose between food and rent, I'm going to tell them to do what they need to do to survive," Begum said.

Begum's organization Chhaya Community Development Corporation — an organization that advocates for New York City's South Asian community — has been conducting outreach in buildings where they know tenants and encouraging them to organize with their neighbors. The organization's outreach efforts also include translating information on New York's eviction moratorium into languages such as Bengali, Punjabi and Hindi.

The outbreak of coronavirus has made Begum's job more difficult in some aspects — she can no longer conduct crucial face-to-face outreach — but the devastation caused by the virus may end up forcing tenants who may have been averse to measures such as a rent strike to organize.

"There was a housing crisis that existed before this," Begum said. "I think because of the virus it's really showing the crumbling infrastructure of our healthcare system and our housing system. Even though this is an anxious time I think that tenants are feeling fearless and taking the leap in doing a rent strike."

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On Wednesday, two tenant advocacy groups released a 32-page "toolkit" for tenants interested in organizing a rent strike in their buildings. The document provides information on the history of rent strikes in New York, step-by-step instructions on organizing a tenants union and samples of effective rent strike fliers, letters to landlords and petitions to government officials.

"While we are working on fostering a large-scale, coordinated rent strike, we know that many tenants won’t be able to organize their buildings because of physical distancing limitations, or will have concerns and doubts about going on rent strike for the first time. We also know that bold actions invoke increased risk," the toolkit, created by the Right To Counsel NYC Coalition and Housing Justice For All, reads.

An executive order passed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has barred landlords from evicting tenants by closing housing court for three months, but Michael McKee of Tenants PAC told Patch that the governor's inaction on rents could create a "huge issue" for renters. Even though tenants can't be evicted, rents will accrue and housing court could be flooded with evictions during the summer months, McKee said.

"If we don't get a rent cancellation or rent forgiveness you're going to have literally hundreds of thousands of people — and that's just in New York, this is a problem in other parts of the country too — who are going to be subject to eviction for missing four months rent," McKee said.

When it comes to tenant who may be forced into "involuntary" rent strikes due to an inability to afford rent, the number could grow exponentially from April to May, McKee said.

"A [rent cancellation] is going to have to be done," McKee said. "By not doing it now, by you know, dithering around with it, it's scaring a lot of people and creating a lot of stress that people don't need. It's scary enough worrying whether you're going to get sick."

When pressed about protections for renters on Tuesday, Cuomo stood up and left after making a short reply: "We'll deal with that when we get to it."

State Sen. Michael Gianaris and State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou have sponsored bills to suspend rents for residential tenants and small business commercial tenants who have either lost their jobs or been forced to shut down their businesses due to the outbreak of coronavirus in New York.

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