Originally published by Will Parker on January 27, 2021 for Washington Street Journal.
A collapse in apartment rent collection during the pandemic is forging one of New York’s most unlikely political alliances.
The Real Estate Board of New York, the property industry’s main lobbying group, has joined with New York’s Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit association that advocates on behalf of tenant rights.
While these two groups are usually antagonists—and they are currently on opposite sides in a federal lawsuit over rent control—the pandemic has created common ground. Too many New York tenants can’t pay rent right now, which is making it harder for landlords to pay back their loans and causing tenant debt to pile up.
Both sides want to address the issue with more government action, mostly in the form of streamlined rental assistance.
“It’s nothing like a crisis to bring odd bedfellows together,” said Judith Goldiner, attorney-in-charge in the Legal Aid Society’s civil law reform unit. “I guess REBNY thinks they can’t evict themselves out of this crisis. And I would think that would be right.”