There’s no couching their discontent.
Dozens of tenants and housing activists took to the streets Thursday — setting up a mock living room complete with armchairs, coffee tables, and even carpets in the middle of the street outside City Hall — to demand stronger eviction safeguards during the coronavirus pandemic.
Protesters blocked the intersection of Broadway and Park Place around noon until cops moved in and cleared the roadway at least 15 minutes later, arresting several demonstrators.
They held signs and wore T-shirts with the “CancelRent” slogan — the trending hashtag for the tenant rights movement.
“We’ve been fighting for #CancelRent and an #EvictionFreeNY for more than 6 months now and we won’t stop until we win,” the group Housing Justice For All posted on Facebook. “Our state government has continued to fail us during the worst crisis many of us have ever experienced.”
The demonstration came as a 90-day moratorium on evictions in the state was set to expire — and despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement this week that he would extend the moratorium until January.
In June, the governor also signed the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, which gives tenants limited protections from eviction for nonpayment of rent if they can prove financial hardship during the pandemic.
But critics call the measure too landlord-friendly and say it is replete with legal loopholes.
About two-thirds of Big Apple apartments and homes are rentals.
The NYPD did not immediately have a number on the number of people arrested or what charges they face.
