On May 1, 2020, the VOLS Microenterprise Project submitted testimony to the New York City Council in support of three currently pending bills: Int. Nos. 1912, 1914, and 1932. These bills will provide some much-needed relief to New York City small businesses by extending the commercial eviction moratorium, suspending personal liability on commercial leases, and expanding the definition of commercial tenant harassment. We also called for the City Council to adopt rent relief legislation for the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that, in addition to the legislation currently pending before the City Council, rent relief is necessary to ensure that our small businesses survive the impact of the pandemic.
VOLS supports Int. No. 1912, which would expand the current eviction moratorium up to April of 2021, and urged the City Council to adopt this legislation to further protect New York City small business owners from eviction.
VOLS also supports Int. Nos. 1914 and 1932, which would expand the definition of commercial tenant harassment to include harassment based on the pandemic and would suspend personal liability agreements, respectively. We believe that these measures are necessary to ensure that small businesses and their owners are able to overcome the financial challenges presented by the pandemic and closure of non-essential businesses. We do not believe that small business owners should be held personally liable for commercial rent obligations accruing at a time when they were unable to access their premises by order of the government.
Finally, although VOLS supports the legislation pending before the City Council, we believe that the Council needs to go one step further in protecting New York City’s small businesses by enacting rent relief legislation for the period of the pandemic. We believe that small business owners will face substantial financial challenges in the aftermath of the pandemic, and rent relief is necessary to alleviate some of those challenges and offer small businesses a better chance of overcoming the obstacles posed by the pandemic.
We represent small businesses in all five boroughs of New York City and we know that many of them are struggling to meet commercial rent payments and other financial obligations. Int. Nos. 1912, 1914, and 1932 are necessary to ensure that our small business clients survive in the face of serious financial challenges. Moreover, rent relief is necessary to ensure that our clients are not pushed into financial ruin.
We thank and acknowledge the members of the New York City Council for acknowledging and attempting to address these issues, and urge them to take these points under consideration.
For further background, our full testimony can be found below:
Read our testimony regarding the proposed extension of the commercial eviction moratorium.