Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took aim at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state officials by slamming the decision to suspend mortgage payments but not rental payments during the coronavirus pandemic.
“If you called for a suspension or moratorium on mortgage payments, then we should also call for that same treatment on rent payments,” the New York Democrat said Tuesday on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show. “We’re kind of creating a class and race issue. We’re essentially rewarding and offering preferential treatment to landowners and folks who are more wealthy, and we’re not offering that same kind of relief to renters.”
Last month, Cuomo said the state would be suspending all mortgage payments and foreclosures, calling it a “bold but necessary” step to provide “real-life economic benefit and be a stress reliever for many families.” The mortgage relief will remain in place for a 90-day period.
“We’re not exempting people from the mortgage payments. We’re just adjusting the mortgage to include those payments on the back end,” he said.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, said the move might fuel the “racial and class inequities baked into the crisis.”
“If you are able to stay home, you are a privileged person in this moment,” she said, adding that those required to continue working outside of their homes “are overwhelmingly lower-income. They’re black. They’re brown … and they still have to pay rent tomorrow.”
At the federal level, President Trump last month ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development to suspend all evictions through April. More than 199,000 people in the United States have confirmed cases of the coronavirus. So far, nearly 16,000 have recovered, and more than 4,300 have died.
