NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The COVID-19 is threatening to push the city's housing crisis to the brink.
New York City is the nation's largest rental market with two-thirds of residents renting their homes, but according to the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), a quarter of the city's tenants haven't paid rent since March.
On June 30, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the New York Tenant Safe Harbor Act (the "Act"). into law. The law provides tenants who experienced financial hardship during the pandemic protection from eviction for non-payment of rent between March 7, and a date which has yet to be determined.
New York University's Furman Center estimates that over 700,000 renters lost income as a result of the pandemic and there's still no rescue plan in sight for renters.
"It's going to be a mess," Jonas Shaende, chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute told Bloomberg. "There doesn't seem to be any plan and the looming problem is so large."
