July 28, 2022

As rents increase in New York City, so do evictions

The number of evictions in New York City has increased every month from January to June, according to new city data. The state's eviction moratorium expired on January 15 after officials extended it several times after it first took effect in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The data comes as more bad news for renters, who are facing record-high rents after prices fell early on in the pandemic.
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January 28, 2022

New York requests additional $1.6B in federal rent assistance

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Thursday the state has requested an additional $1.6 billion from the United States Department of Treasury to help fund the state's Emergency Rental Assistance program. Although $1.4 billion has been distributed to New Yorkers struggling to pay rent due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are nearly 174,000 tenants whose applications to the state's program have not yet been fulfilled, according to the governor.
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January 12, 2022

New York’s eviction moratorium will end this week, Hochul confirms

New York's eviction moratorium will not be extended after it expires this weekend, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday. In the meantime, the state’s rent-relief portal will be reopened to give aid to New Yorkers facing eviction. The freeze on evictions was established at the beginning of the Covid pandemic by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to give relief to struggling New Yorkers. Over the past two years, it has been extended multiple times, with Hochul extending it to January 15 during her first week in office.
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September 2, 2021

New York extends eviction moratorium until early 2022

The New York State Legislature on Wednesday extended a temporary freeze on evictions until early next year during a rare special session. Expected to protect hundreds of thousands of tenants who have faced financial hardships as a result of the pandemic, the move comes one day after the state's eviction moratorium expired and a week after the United States Supreme Court overturned the federal moratorium. Lawmakers also modified the moratorium so it complies with the court's decision, which found it inconsistent with due process laws. Most evictions in New York will now be on hold until January 15, 2022.
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August 27, 2021

Supreme Court votes to end eviction moratorium. What does it mean for New Yorkers?

Last night the Supreme Court voted 6-3 (three liberal Supreme Court justices dissented) to end the CDC'c eviction moratorium that covered renters in counties experiencing high levels of Covid-19 transmission, which included all of New York City. "If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it," the Supreme Court said in an eight-page opinion. And with New York State's own eviction moratorium ending in just four days, there is much confusion and fear over what this means for affected New Yorkers.
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August 13, 2021

Supreme Court blocks part of New York’s eviction moratorium

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday partially blocked New York's eviction moratorium, striking down the part of the law which protects tenants who have filed a declaration of hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since December of last year, the state's COVID Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act suspended eviction proceedings if renters declared a loss of income or health risk to protect themselves against eviction. The court said the moratorium, which was set to expire on August 31, was likely unconstitutional as landlords had no way to challenge a tenant's hardship claim.
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August 4, 2021

New federal eviction ban covers renters in areas with high Covid rates, including New York

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a new temporary moratorium on evictions that covers renters in areas with high levels of coronavirus transmission. The new order, which replaces the previous federal ban that lapsed on Saturday, expires on October 3 and applies to renters in counties that are experiencing "substantial" or "high" levels of Covid-19 spread, which includes all of New York City. While New York's most recent state order halted evictions through the end of August, the new CDC moratorium provides renters an extra month of protection from eviction.
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December 29, 2020

New York bans most evictions until May

During a special session on Monday, the New York Legislature passed emergency legislation that temporarily blocks most eviction proceedings until May 1. The eviction moratorium, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo first put in place in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, was last extended through the end of the year. Signed by the governor on Monday night, the new law freezes evictions for tenants and prevents foreclosures for homeowners who have endured hardships related to COVID-19.
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September 28, 2020

Cuomo extends New York’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium through 2020

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday signed an executive order extending the moratorium on residential evictions through the rest of the year. The freeze, which officially began in late March because of the pandemic, was set to expire on October 1. The order extends the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, which protects tenants who can prove they experienced financial hardship during the COVID-19 crisis, to January 1, 2021. According to the governor, the executive order will extend these protections to eviction warrants "that existed prior to the start of the pandemic," which were not previously included under the original law.
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August 11, 2020

NYC launches online portal with free eviction help

An online portal launched on Monday to help New York City renters avoid eviction by providing free resources and legal assistance. The new website comes just days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the state's eviction moratorium for at least another month, only hours before it was set to expire. But with housing trials expected to resume in September in most of the city, tenant advocates say that no law currently in place protects the 14,000 households issued eviction warrants prior to the pandemic.
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August 6, 2020

New York’s eviction moratorium extended by one month

The statewide moratorium on eviction has been extended another month, offering temporary relief to thousands of New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes. The order was set to expire midnight on Thursday, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order extending the rule to September 4. The New York State Unified Court System is expected to announce on Thursday whether it will follow the mandate and issue new guidance on evictions.
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July 1, 2020

New law protects New Yorkers from eviction for unpaid rent during COVID-19

New York tenants cannot be evicted for any unpaid rent accrued during the coronavirus crisis, according to a law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday night. Sponsored by State Sens. Brad Hoylman and Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, the Tenant Safe Harbor Act protects renters who have not paid rent between March 7 and the to-be-determined date when their region fully reopens, as long as they can prove they experienced financial hardship during the COVID-19 crisis.
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April 21, 2020

NYC Council bill wants to block evictions for unpaid rent for a full year

Amidst calls for a statewide rent strike, the New York City Council will introduce a COVID-19 relief package tomorrow that extends the eviction moratorium for those affected by the coronavirus crisis until April 2021. "We must #cancelrent, but in the meantime, the Council is working to give tenants peace of mind so New Yorkers won’t suffer irreparable harms," tweeted Council Speaker Corey Johnson this afternoon. The bill, which the Council will introduce tomorrow at their first-ever remote hearing, extends the amount of time both residential and commercial tenants have to repay rent and blocks debt collection.
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April 7, 2020

Tenants would not be evicted for unpaid rent accrued during state of emergency, under proposed law

Landlords would not be able to evict tenants for any unpaid rent that accumulated during New York's state of emergency and for six months afterward, under proposed legislation introduced by state lawmakers Tuesday. State Sens. Brad Hoylman and Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz announced the "NYS Tenant Safe Harbor Act" that would strengthen the current 90-day eviction freeze put in place by the state last month.
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March 27, 2019

Advocates credit new ‘Right to Counsel’ law with large drop in evictions

As 6sqft previously reported, in August of 2017, the city passed a Right to Counsel law which provides free legal help to low-income tenants facing eviction. In its first year the law, which will eventually guarantee representation in housing court to all low-income tenants, provided free legal services to more than 87,000 New Yorkers, and 21,955 New Yorkers threatened by eviction were able to stay in their homes. A new analysis released this week, conducted by the Community Service Society, shows that the decline in evictions happened more than five times faster in zip codes where the Right to Counsel law is currently in effect than in similar zip codes where the law is not in effect.
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February 5, 2019

City sees an unprecedented 37 percent drop in evictions

The mayor's office announced this week that New York City's residential evictions by marshals had declined by 37 percent since 2013, with approximately 18,000 evictions in 2018 compared to almost 29,000 evictions in 2013. In Manhattan, evictions are down 47 percent since 2013. What that means: Since 2013, more than 100,000 New Yorkers who might otherwise have faced evictions have been able to stay in their homes. And evictions decreased 14 percent in 2018 alone. Maps from the New York City Council show data on where the most evictions happen and allow you to search for a specific address in any borough to find out more.
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