Cuomo: No one in New York can be evicted until Aug. 20

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that no one in the state can be evicted for not paying rent due to the coronavirus until August 20. “New York State will extend the moratorium on evictions for those facing COVID-related hardship for an additional 60 days — until August 20,” he tweeted.

“The No. 1 issue that people talk to me about probably is rent, and fear about being able to pay their rent, and this just takes that issue off the table until August 20,” he said at his daily coronavirus briefing.   

Cuomo also said officials will ban any late-payment fees and allow renters to use their security deposits as payment.

“Everyone is just making do, and everyone has hardships, et cetera,” he said. “We just want to make sure that those people who are most vulnerable are protected.”

Cuomo said he doesn’t know what is going to happen two or three months down the road. “But I can tell you: Whatever happens, we will handle it at the time. And that’s what we’ve been doing with this situation all along, literally in two-week increments.”

He said the state is working on relief from banks for landlords. 

“There is no doubt a tradeoff between the tenant and the landlord,” he said. “We are helping the landlords also, but on a human level I don’t want to see people and their children being evicted at this time, through no fault of their own.”

Cuomo also announced an additional 231 deaths in the state due to COVID-19.