The largest US rent strike in nearly a century began on Friday in New York as protesters descended on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office in Albany with bullhorns, and displaying banners reading #CancelRent outside the State Capitol, RT reported.
Their counterparts in New York City unfurled banners from buildings, and even bridges, in an effort to make public a form of strike that is by nature not as visible as the usual picket-lines and protest marches.
Others, in New York and elsewhere across the economically-stricken US, posted photos of themselves with protest signs. The Action Center on Race and the Economy launched WeStrikeTogether.org on Thursday to rally rent-strikers across the country and bolster virtual solidarity.
A campaign coordinator for Housing Justice for All, one of the groups behind the strike, told the Intercept that over 400 families in New York buildings containing more than 1,500 units are each leading building-wide rent strikes. More than 13,000 people have signed on to a petition pledging not to pay their rent in May, demanding Cuomo cancel the payments for as long as the pandemic lasts, or for four months – whichever is longer. While many of those signing are unable to pay even if they wanted to, the coalition of tenants’ rights advocates and other groups backing the protest has also called on those who can pay to withhold those payments in protest. Only 55.7 percent of New Yorkers surveyed by PropertyNest expected to be able to pay their rent “as usual” in May.
A three-month eviction moratorium is scheduled to expire in late June, potentially putting millions at risk of losing their homes. At the same time, Cuomo has actually increased the financial burden on New York City residents, shuttering the normally 24-hour subway system between the hours of 1am and 4am, ostensibly for cleaning. While the measure is nominally motivated by the coronavirus pandemic, its other target – the city’s large homeless population which often uses the trains as shelter – will not vanish when the virus does. Many New Yorkers do not own cars and fear the trains will remain shuttered, preventing them from commuting affordably at night – a must for many low-income workers.