The head of a group that represents thousands of New York City landlords reacted on Wednesday to a nationwide push to cancel rent payments amid the coronavirus pandemic, saying the rent strikes will “create an economic domino effect.” |
In May, for the second time since the U.S. locked down its economy to slow the spread of COVID-19, monthly rent was due and as the financial pain inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic deepens, tenants and advocates have called for rent strikes and lobbied for massive government intervention as a housing crisis looms.
Strikes were held in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and California. Organizers of a New York strike said they hope it prods lawmakers into offering more financial assistance during the crisis, including canceling rent for four months and offering tenants the right to renew their lease without rent increases.
Martin said on Wednesday that if renters don’t pay it “will actually hurt tenants as well as landlords.”
“Unfortunately, a rent strike actually is detrimental to many of our owners’ abilities to ensure that their buildings are safe and secure for the rest of the tenants of the buildings,” Martin explained. “After all, 70 percent of our costs are fixed, that’s property taxes, mortgage payments, water and sewer payments, cleaning costs, which are more important than ever now to make sure that these buildings are safe and sanitary for the rest of the tenants in the building.”
More than 7 million, or 43 percent, of renter households “were already experiencing housing cost burdens” before the pandemic and “are likely to be especially vulnerable,” according to the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.
On Wednesday Martin, provided potential solutions to the issue.
“What we’ve been advocating for is for a federal relief package that targets relief directly towards those renters that cannot actually pay their rents,” Martin said. “We hope the federal government will consider specific targeted vouchers to those renters that haven’t been able to get some sort of relief from the advanced unemployment benefits and some of the other benefits that have already passed in additional phases.”
“New York disproportionately has been impacted fiscally and financially by this crisis so we think there should be some considerations paid to the amount of renters that have been impacted,” Martin added.