New Yorkers March Across Brooklyn Bridge to Protest High Rents and Demand Tenant Protections

Shouting “Rent is too expensive,” hundreds of New Yorkers marched from Cadman Plaza to Foley Square, across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn renter Maria Gil says:

“We need Major Adams to listen to us. We are already suffering a lot with very high rentsso with this that they want to go from a very high percentage, this is not convenient for our poor families”.

The protesters were joined by elected officials, non-profit organizations from the city and from different parts of the state, convened by the Housing Justice for All coalition, in order to demand rights and protections for tenants.

Jennifer Hernández, organizer Make the Road New York explains what is happening right now:

“In the state there are many tenants, almost 5 million tenants who do not have protection, so that means that a landlord can increase a tenant 500 dollars, 1000 dollars, 1,500 dollars, the amount he wants…, and technically there is none legal protection for the tenant to be able to defend against those increases”.

Dorca Reynoso, affected tenant states:

“They have raised my rent an exorbitant amount, they raised it 100% and they still want to raise it more, the landlords They’re destroying our communities just because of their greed and what’s even worse, the politicians are supporting that.”

Currently, activists are denouncing that the lack of affordable housing causes many New Yorkers to move to other states.

According to Housing Justice For All, in the last 20 years, nearly 200,000 African American New Yorkers have left the city.

Today they are marching demanding that legislation such as that of

Good Cause, which would prevent landlords from evicting their tenants and raising their rent without any type of control.

The so-called Good Cause bill, which was left out of the recently passed state budget, would make it illegal for landlords to evict tenants unless they violate the lease.

It would also set limits on how much rent can be raised each year.

Marcela Mitaynes, Assemblywoman from New York:

“The most, most, most important thing that will protect more than a million houses is the Good Cause, because currently there are tenants who do not have rights to their lease, the owner can raise the rent by the amount he wants and the owner You don’t have to give a reason to evict someone,” he says.