landlords
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Valentino calls $207M lawsuit for breaking Fifth Avenue lease \u2018baseless\u2019
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Left for dead: Landlord allegedly kidnaps tenants, leaves them tied up in cemetery
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Despite bleak real-estate market, signs of hope are building
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Some NYC restaurants using cheap rents to expand during the pandemic
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Pandemic lockdowns have left all too may New Yorkers unable to pay the rent \u2014 and deeply in debt to landlords who themselves are often in deep peril. Yet the state government is sitting on over $1 billion in emergency relief that the feds sent to alleviate the crisis.<\/p>\n
In December, Washington OK\u2019d a second major COVID-19 rescue package that included $1.3 billion for rental assistance here: funds to cover tenants\u2019 back rent, providing landlords with desperately needed cash.<\/p>\n
Yet Albany has dithered, raising the possibility that it\u2019ll fail to hand out the funds by the federal deadline \u2014 again. The feds could then channel them to states with better records.<\/p>\n
New York muffed its first go-\u2019round with federal rent aid: Of $100 million from last spring\u2019s CARES Act, it\u2019s disbursed just $41 million. If not for a last-minute extension by the feds, the state would\u2019ve had to return an unused $59 million. Even now, it remains on a shelf, along with the new $1.3 billion.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, landlords are \u201cat the edge of the cliff,\u201d pleads Rent Stabilization Association President Joseph Strasburg. On Wednesday, the Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 city building owners, reported that unpaid rent (by 17 percent of tenants in February) and high vacancy rates (12 percent) have left hundreds of landlords \u201crunning out\u201d of reserves and \u201cstruggling to pay their bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet state powerbrokers want to keep sitting on the cash until passage of a new budget and possibly a new law, with more \u201cguidelines.\u201d Landlords need that cash now.<\/p>\n
Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature need to move fast to OK release of the funds. <\/p>\n
Hoarding emergency money that\u2019s needed to prevent a housing-market collapse: Can New York\u2019s leaders sink any lower?<\/p>\n