Free Republic

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – New York Attorney General Letitia James issued an advisory Monday to landlords, reminding them that they cannot raise rents if they accepted or plan to accept money from the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). Landlords who accept payments from the program, which was recently expanded in the state’s budget, are prohibited from raising rents for a year after they receive funds. Attorney General James is ready to take action to protect tenants if landlords fail to abide by these rules.

In a sign of the times, a fed-up Queens landlord posted two giant banners calling out his allegedly deadbeat tenants for owing him $17,000 in back rent. “MY TENANTS ON THE FIRST FLOOR ARE NOT PAYING RENT” read the bold posters slung above the first-floor rental on 175th Street in Springfield Gardens. Landlords Calvin and Jean Thompson posted the banners — which can be seen from the Belt Parkway — in the hopes of shaming their tenants into paying up. It was also featured in a TikTok video that got more than 14,000 likes — and supportive comments like, “Not...

Horrifying video shows woman shot dead after stabbing cop serving eviction notice Harrowing bodycam footage shows the moment a San Diego woman was shot dead by cops serving an eviction notice — after she went ballistic and stabbed an officer. The newly released video shows Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Bunch knocking on the door of 47-year-old Yan Li at the Acqua Vista Condominiums on March 3. “Here’s a notice to evict,” Bunch tells the woman, who is seen brandishing a large knife at her side, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. “Put the knife down right now or I’m gonna f—-...

An Airbnb user who never intends to leave. Tenants not paying enough rent to keep up buildings. A roommate temporarily renting a room who later decides not to move out. Under the Legislature’s misleadingly named “Good Cause Eviction” bill, these occupants can all remain in their apartments forever and the property owner has virtually no recourse.­ “No Eviction Ever” would be a better name for an absurdly vague, sweeping proposal that would place strict new limits on rent increases and evictions for nearly 1.6 million New York renters.

Roughly $10 billion of a $46 billion pool of federal rental aid has made it to renters, landlords and utilities companies after another $2.8 billion was disbursed by state and local governments in September, the Treasury Department announced Monday. Treasury said that funds from the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program reached more than 510,000 households last month and more than 2 million since the initiative began this year. The department had distributed the entirety of the $46 billion to eligible state and local entities in May to help struggling renters avoid eviction upon the expiration of federal and state moratoria.

We care about tenants and appreciate and understand the challenges faced by those who rent during this pandemic. The “mom and pop” small business owners who rent out housing are also in harm’s way economically as there’s a potential they’ll be out of business due to a lack of revenue. If our small business property owners go out of business, that negatively impacts renters as well as there won’t be enough affordable housing stock available. Sadly, our state has failed those facing housing insecurity during the pandemic — and the Governor and Legislative leaders are admitting it with their extension...

Mary Taboniar went 15 months without a paycheck, thanks to the COVID pandemic. A housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Honolulu, the single mother of two saw her income completely vanish as the virus devastated the hospitality industry. For more than a year, Taboniar depended entirely on boosted unemployment benefits and a network of local foodbanks to feed her family. Even this summer as the vaccine rollout took hold and tourists began to travel again, her work was slow to return, peaking at 11 days in August — about half her pre-pandemic workload. Taboniar is one of millions...

Just thought I'd throw this out there...Hochul has extended the unconstitutional eviction moratorium for New York through 1/15/22. She also stated that she would be "hiring more case workers to process ERAP funds." Well I work for a county in NY (IT dept) and I asked one of my colleagues who works specifically with the state workers/DSS if in fact they are "hiring more caseworkers to process ERAP applications" as he would be the first to know (creating active directory accounts, etc). He said he doesn't know of any expanded rental assistance caseworker hirings so this is all Lucy and...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is calling a special legislative session to extend the eviction moratorium in the state after the Supreme Court blocked the federal eviction freeze put in place by the Biden administration. The special session is set to begin on Wednesday at noon. Hochul had for days been mulling calling legislators back to Albany to address the moratorium, but officially made the announcement on Tuesday. Hochul said her goal is to extend the eviction moratorium until Jan. 15.

Gov. to call special session to address expiring ban after Supreme Court voided federal moratorium. House Democrats representing the five boroughs are pressing Gov. Kathy Hochul to extend the state’s eviction moratorium. The newly sworn-in governor received a letter Saturday by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and co-signed by a dozen lawmakers, including Reps. Nydia Velazquez, Carolyn Maloney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jerry Nadler, urging her to prolong the state-level ban, which is set to expire Tuesday.

An Air Force veteran who owns three upstate New York properties has been forced to live in her car because her tenants have refused to pay rent thanks to the eviction moratorium. Brandie LaCasse told CBS News that she has been living at friends’ homes and out of her car with her young daughter. She said she is owed more than $23,000 in unpaid rent but cannot force her tenants to pay or leave because of federal and state moratoriums on evictions. “I’ve cried many nights, like thinking, ‘Where’s my money?'” the single mom said. “I don’t understand how they...

How three well-educated highly-trained lawyers can achieve appointment and confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States yet believe the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a federal public health agency – has any legal authority whatsoever to cancel or modify a private rental contract governed by state contract law is simply beyond comprehension. If one were a cynic, one might be tempted to think politics has infected the high court. In swiftly striking down this federal overreach, six clear-headed rational jurists laid bare the utter absurdity of the Biden administration's legal argument. The majority point out that...

It's been a particularly bad day for President Joe Biden. On Thursday night, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Biden's unconstitutional eviction moratorium. Justice Stephen Breyer was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in his dissent.BREAKING: The Supreme Court ends President Biden’s eviction moratorium. Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan dissent.https://t.co/VBwbQoqHdJ— Adam Liptak (@adamliptak) August 27, 2021The challenge was led by the Alabama Association of Realtors, which had also won a victory from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The ruling noted that the District Court stayed its judgment, which the Supreme Court on Thursday vacated,...

At least 22 farm animals were discovered in the rented home of a self-proclaimed Santeria doctor from New Jersey, whose landlord suspects he’s conducting animal sacrifices — but says she can’t evict him because of the COVID-19 eviction moratorium. Resident Emilio Otero, who identified himself to NBC 4, allegedly kept goats, chickens and even nailed a dead pigeon to the door of the three-bedroom Jersey City rowhome.

The saga of the illegal renewed eviction moratorium has returned to the Supreme Court. On Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift the stay that has enabled the moratorium to remain in place since May, when D.C. District Court Judge Friedrich found it unlawful. The circuit court’s ruling entitles the landlords to again apply for relief in the Supreme Court and they did so the same day. Jones Day, the law firm handling the case for the landlords, anticipated the circuit would rule against them and had already prepared the papers for the Supreme Court.It is highly...

For thousands of people who get evicted in metro Atlanta, a motel has often been the last chance to avoid a homeless shelter or life on the street. But with many “extended stay” motels nearing capacity, there might not be enough room for tenants who lose their apartments when the federal moratorium on evictions comes to an end. “I don’t see how that is not the case,” said Jennifer Yankulova, managing attorney for Legal Aid Atlanta in Cobb County. “And it was already hard to find housing here.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a new ban on...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday lifted New York state’s ban on residential evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, handing a victory to a group of small landlords that challenged a moratorium that had been slated to expire on Aug. 31. The justices granted an emergency request by the landlords to lift the ban on eviction proceedings while litigation over the dispute continues. The Court ruled 6 to 3 in the case. A lower court in June rejected landlords’ argument that the moratorium violated their rights to due process of law and free speech under the U.S. Constitution. Some landlords in...

When District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich heard a challenge to the CDC’s new moratorium on evictions, I warned that the hearing didn’t go well for landlords or the US Constitution, see Federal Judge Signals She Will Allow CDC’s Illegal Eviction Moratorium Stay in Place. A little earlier today, Judge Friedrich made her ruling, and, as expected, it left the CDC action in place.A federal judge on Friday allowed the Biden administration’s new eviction moratorium to remain in place, saying she didn’t have authority to block it despite her misgivings about the ban’s legality.U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington said...

A Las Vegas landlord accused of shooting dead two female tenants and critically injuring a man in a dispute over unpaid rent allegedly said he’d “handle it his way” instead of trying to evict them. Arnoldo Lozano Sanchez, 78, shot the three victims inside his home early Wednesday after an argument broke out regarding the rent, police say. The landlord, who also lived at the home, allegedly laughed and smiled as he opened fire on the victims in their rooms, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It is not clear how much rent the tenants...

Melton spoke about how many people find themselves in this kind of trouble saying, “There is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 thousand people in the Dallas county area… but it’s a significant number of people.” While the federal government has extended the current eviction ban until October, Melton says people are still being evicted in Texas. He added, “On April 1st the state took the position that this federal moratorium just didn’t apply here in the state of Texas, and they’ve been evicting people at the discretion of the landlords.”