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Cuomo Allows Courts To Continue Pausing Evictions, But Thousands Of Tenants May Still Be At Risk
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 6, 2020
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JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Aug 6, 2020
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Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed an executive order that allows the courts system to suspend eviction proceedings—but final word on how the courts will carry out that order remains an open question, as thousands of tenants facing pre-COVID-19 eviction warrants hold their breaths.
Some 14,000 families face eviction warrants from before the pandemic, in January, February, and March, meaning they are not covered by a state law protecting tenants who suffer financial hardship during the pandemic. Those thousands of families, identified by the Department of Social Services, are further at risk, due to a lack of documented legal representation, the agency and tenant attorneys say.
The latest order, which lasts until September 4th, gives the courts the power to suspend deadlines on civil litigation, which include eviction warrants.
"The order signed last night continued provisions giving the courts and litigants the leeway to suspend deadlines related to civil litigation," Cuomo's press secretary Caitlin Girouard said in a statement. "How and if they use this authority when it comes to eviction proceedings is up to them."
The Office of Court Administration is expected to issue guidance Thursday. We'll update when that information becomes available.
At a press conference Thursday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio called on state lawmakers and Cuomo to come up with a payment model to help tenants go into a payment plan for owed-rent.
"No one should be put onto the street because they can't pay, they literally can't pay," de Blasio said.
The Department of Investigation confirmed city marshals cannot carry out evictions currently due to a court order that "continues in effect until further notice," DOI spokesperson Diane Struzzi said, though she added the department is guided by the court on this issue "as it has been throughout the pandemic."
Tenants continued protesting, demanding more substantial fixes to the looming eviction crisis, carrying "CANCEL RENT" banners outside Brooklyn's housing court on Livingston Street.
Housing courts are slowly but surely reopening for pre-pandemic cases in which both the plaintiff and the defendant have legal representation for cases that cannot be hashed out virtually. In Brooklyn, the housing courts partially re-opened July 27th in two different locations, on Jay Street and Livingston Street, to allow for social distancing. In Staten Island, housing courts open August 10th, and in Manhattan and Queens, September 8th, the courts spokesperson Lucian Chalfen said.
De Blasio said he is looking into if the city could legally keep city marshals from carrying out evictions should the court order lapse. The Law Department said it would look into the matter when asked for elaboration.
"We're looking at that right now," de Blasio said. "We gotta follow state law, but I also want to make sure we are being as smart and flexible as possible to avoid economic evictions. There may be some evictions under certain circumstances for totally other reasons that are pertinent but the economic ones I want to see us avoid."
Cuomo's office did not respond to a question about the potential move's legality.
Cuomo claimed on Thursday there would be "no evictions" during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing a new law called the Tenant Safe Harbor Act that he signed in late June.
But that law does not protect people who faced eviction before the coronavirus, or cases involving holdovers, which is another type of eviction case related to violating the lease or failure to resign a lease.
The law is a layer of protection to prevent people who accrued rent during the pandemic from getting evicted, though landlords can still take tenants to court for that money. The protections last until COVID-19 restrictions are fully lifted—or "until I say COVID is over," as Cuomo put it during the press call.
NY1 reported it had found about six eviction petitions that appeared to violate the Tenant Safe Harbor Act in June, among hundreds that had been filed. One renter, Joshua Penafiel, and his family told the news channel they are facing eviction because the lease expired, leaving them without protection under the new law.
"We're stuck between where are we gonna live and are we gonna have a roof over our head," Penafiel told NY1
With WNYC's Beth Fertig and Gwynne Hogan.
Tagged
COVID-19
evictions
coronavirus
tenants rights
Sydney Pereira
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