‘Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been called heroes but not treated like them. Due to unsafe working conditions at my job, I have tested positive for COVID-19 not once, but twice.’
The COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act would create a hardship declaration form that tenants can fill out and submit to their landlords, or to housing court, if they’ve experienced economic difficulties due to the pandemic.
‘The program’s eligibility requirements are so stringent that very few tenants actually end up qualifying. The state now runs the risk of losing the remaining available funds to the federal government if it does not distribute them by Dec. 30, as legally required by the CARES Act.’
The legislation dates back to a 2002 tragedy when 8-year-old Jashawn Parker died in a fire in a residential Bronx building, where the landlord had failed to address almost 400 housing code violations for nearly two years.
‘The very presence of ICE in our courthouses and the threat of detention and deportation deters many victims of domestic violence from ever coming to court and seeking the protections that are rightfully theirs.’
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