Syracuse residents rally against eviction during COVID-19
By Emma Folts
This article was originally published in The Daily Orange.
To Palmer Harvey, New York state officials are disgraceful for failing to stop evictions before a federal moratorium expires.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium, which protects some tenants from eviction if the pandemic affects them financially, is set to expire on Dec. 31. No one should have to plead for their elected officials to take action, said Harvey, founder of the Syracuse Tenants Union.
Harvey was one of several speakers at a rally held Saturday afternoon to call for an extension of the moratorium and for the cancellation of rent through 90 days after the pandemic. About 20 people gathered at Billings Park in downtown Syracuse to attend the event, organized in part by the Syracuse Tenants Union and the local branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
“Our politicians that are supposed to represent us and act in the best way for us are not doing a good job,” Harvey said. “Any time you wait until the last moment to deal with a situation, that’s a crisis. COVID-19 is a crisis. Syracuse is in the orange zone. What are we doing?”
Landlords can still evict tenants, she said. Under the CDC’s moratorium, tenants must meet requirements and declare eligibility, which landlords may challenge. The moratorium allows landlords to evict tenants for reasons aside from nonpayment of rent, too. Thousands of evictions have taken place nationwide since September, CNBC found.
The New York state Tenant Safe Harbor Act also requires tenants at risk of eviction for nonpayment to prove in court that they experienced financial hardship, according to United Tenants of Albany. Tenants who qualify for the act and were facing eviction prior to March 7 can be evicted after Jan. 1.
With protections set to expire, all people can do now is fight back and call their representatives, Harvey said.
“Syracuse matters,” she said. “We’re real people here, dealing with the same situation as people across the nation and across our state. It’s about time someone tells Gov. Cuomo it’s time you need to act.”
Palmer Harvey (right) was one of several speakers at Saturday’s rally. (Photo by Emma Folts)
Evictions are already happening in Syracuse, and many will follow, said Stephanie Kenific, an organizer with the Syracuse Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Syracuse Tenants Union, before the rally.
Housing should be a right, but it’s essential that housing is provided during the pandemic and in the winter, as evictions will further spread COVID-19, she said.
People are fighting for the bare necessities: food, shelter and health care, said Daisy Wiley, a speaker with both the union and the party, during the rally.
“We are, at a base level, asking not to be ignored,” Wiley said, “Not to die in the street or alone in a hospital bed. The fact that we have to ask for something so basic proves the complete inadequacy of the capitalist system.”
The eviction crisis and the pandemic have disproportionately affected women, especially Black and immigrant women, Wiley said. Landlords file evictions against Black women at double or more the rate of white tenants in 17 of 36 states, the ACLU found in April.
Domestic abuse has also increased during the pandemic. Evictions could force women who have escaped abusive situations to re-enter unsafe homes, Wiley said.
“If we want to fight for our sisters of all colors, the answer is clear: we must demand cancellation of rent and a stop to evictions now,” she said.
James Nellons, a member of the Syracuse Party for Socialism and Liberation and a senior at Liverpool High School, participated in the rally because his father has experienced homelessness. It’s a personal issue, he said.
“I’ve always lived here, and I’ve always seen people without homes,” Nellons said after the rally. That has always touched him. Socialism would particularly help people experiencing poverty, he said.
After the speakers addressed the crowd, attendees returned to their cars and drove in a line through the city’s Southside neighborhood. The drivers honked their horns as they traveled along S. Salina Street, Midland Avenue and Cannon Street with signs taped on some of their cars.
Before those at the rally left Billings Park for their cars, Wiley closed her speech by encouraging the crowd to imagine what Syracuse’s tenants could achieve together.
“Imagine dozens of tenants flooding housing court for one another, hundreds of neighbors standing up to their abusive landlord, tenants and homeowners coming together to stop an eviction,” Wiley said.
“Syracuse, we have the imagination. We have the drive. We have the power. All we need to do is come together in an organized front.”