Under current state law, you can be paying your rent on time every month, and one day come home to find that you've got less than 10 days to vacate your apartment because the landlord defaulted on the mortgage. State Senator Jeff Klein says nearly 600 New York City tenants are being evicted every month because of foreclosures, and they're usually the last ones to know about it because banks are not required to inform them.
Yesterday Klein held a press conference at City Hall to urge the State Assembly to pass a bill that would force banks to give tenants a heads up that their homes have been foreclosed on, and permit them up to 90 days to relocate. Speaking to reporters, Klein said, "These are people who paid their rent on time, played by the rules, maintained these properties - and one day they wake up and a marshal is at their door ready to evict them." Klein's bill passed in the State Senate on Wednesday by a 37-24 vote.
Lionel Ouellette, executive director of CHANGER, a nonprofit housing organization, told the press, "We're seeing some of the largest financial institutions in the country accessing federal bailout dollars and then turning around and evicting homeowners [and] evicting tenants from their properties." A similar measure sponsored by Senators John Kerry and Kirsten Gillibrand was also passed in Washington on Wednesday as an amendment to the Help Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009. That would also give tenants and families nationwide at least 90 days to find their next home if they are renting in a building that is foreclosed upon.
