ITHACA, NY Rent reform is a rightfully hot topic in Ithaca and around the country. As the COVID-19 pandemic fuels job loss and people struggle to make ends meet, keeping a roof overhead becomes a significant hurdle. This is particularly problematic in Ithaca, where over 70% of the community is composed of renters and the affordable housing crisis looms like a dark cloud.Â
Rent has been continually rising in Ithaca for the past decade, but the pandemic has brought the issue to the forefront. The creation of movements like the Ithaca Tenants Union (ITU) and the Solidarity Slate in 2020 and 2021 are just a few examples of how the increased push for rent reform has been forged in the fire of these intense circumstances.
A federal judge has ruled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority by issuing a nationwide moratorium on evictions. The fate of millions of renters rests on appeal.
The pace of disbursement of the new housing assistance has been slow. Four months after Congress approved its first tens of billions of dollars in emergency rental aid, only a small portion has reached landlords and tenants, and in many places it is impossible even to file an application.
Landlords and real estate agents downplayed concerns that lifting the moratorium will create an eviction crisis. “With rental assistance secured, the economy strengthening and unemployment rates falling, there is no need to continue a blanket, nationwide eviction ban,” a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors said in a statement.
Owners of residential apartment buildings have long argued that the moratorium is based on legally shaky ground, and questioned the constitutionality of tethering a major intervention in the nation’s housing market to a federal statute intended to stop the transmission of disease.