Black folks Now Facing Eviction In NY and across America

The NY Times has an excellent report on how once ‘Very Good Rent Payers’ Now Facing Eviction in NY city. In the article they give heart wrenching reports on how a registered nurse came close to losing her $1,550-a-month apartment on the Upper East Side after being let go from two jobs in three months. A woman found herself dipping into a 401(k) to keep her $3,375 unit in Peter Cooper Village after her husband was laid off in February from his six-figure marketing job. A father of two with an M.B.A. and a law degree owed $5,400 in back rent in Stuyvesant Town after he struggled to find steady work and lent money to his wife’s family.

Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

After Kevin Brewster-Streeks, left, lost his job, he and his partner, Greg Armstrong, fell behind on rent and were forced to move.

The NY Times reports, Lawyers, judges and tenant advocates say the staggering economy has sent an increasing number of middle-class renters across New York City to the brink of eviction, straining the legal and financial services of city agencies and charities. Suddenly, residents of middle-class havens like Rego Park in Queens and Riverdale in the Bronx are crowding into the city’s already burdened housing courts, long known as poor people’s court.

Even some affluent people in high-end places are finding themselves facing off with landlords. One man, laid off by Merrill Lynch, was forced to move out of his $5,700 apartment in TriBeCa, owing $20,000 in back rent. Todd Nahins, a lawyer who represents owners of luxury residential buildings, has been busy negotiating payment plans for tenants in arrears.

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Since an eviction threat, Christine A. Lewis has had to borrow furniture and clothing. Her own things are stuck in storage.

“There’s definitely an uptick of people who were basically very good rent payers until the economic downturn,” Mr. Nahins said. “There’s so many of them. People who at one point had made money are now not earning enough to pay their rent.”

No one knows exactly how many of those kinds of tenants are facing eviction; the city’s five housing courts, and two smaller community courts that hear similar cases, do not keep data on the income level of litigants. More HERE


AAPP: It seems that black folks are losing there homes, apartments and land across America. There will be speculators and gentrifiers coming in shortly to take over the apartments and homes once owned and/or rented by black folks. It's happening across America. Now the question is what are black folks going to do, when will we pull together to protect ourselves and our communities, it's alright to try to depend on our new President, but its better to depend on ourselves.