Small businesses outside Manhattan helped fuel the city’s recovery from the pandemic. Their rents have soared, and people of color are bearing the brunt of the increases.
Her story is also an example, housing advocates say, of how some landlords skirt rent stabilization laws despite 2019 state reforms intended to protect tenants.
The process, called an administrative dismissal, is enshrined in state law. The Office of Court Administration wiped out a category of older eviction cases that property owners started before the end of 2020 seeking to recover unpaid rent, in which tenants never filed a response and the landlords took no further action.