China News Service, August 17th. According to the American Overseas Chinese News Network, on the afternoon of August 15 local time, thousands of Chinese landlords walked onto Main Street in Flushing, New York, asking the state government to protect the rights of landlords and open their houses as soon as possible. The housing court deals with tenants, land tax reductions and fines.
At 5:30 pm on the 15th, about 2,000 Chinese landlords from Queens, Brooklyn and other places set off from the gate of the post office on Main Street in Flushing, all the way up and down with the words "Fighting Unscrupulous Tenants" and "Quick Court Closing" ", "Reduction of land tax", "Reduction of housing tickets", "Increase school police department funding", "Land tax increase less than 4%" and other slogans, and chanted "equal housing rights for landlord" all the way. To the North Avenue. The associations participating in the parade include the Asian American Housing Rights Association, the New York Chinese Landlord Owners Alliance and so on.
Michael Wang, the founder of the Asian American Rights Defense Association, said that New York State’s new "Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act" leaves landlords who wish to expel unscrupulous tenants nowhere to redress. Especially in the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many tenants take advantage of the loopholes in the law to avoid paying rent even if their wages are business as usual. But at the same time, landlords are still facing problems such as paying land taxes and miscellaneous fees. Without rent collection, many landlords cannot pay expensive mortgages.
Ivy Lee, a Flushing resident, said she has also recently faced rents from tenants. She said that the rented house is located in downtown Flushing, and the rent is $2,000 a month. Even if the tenant's work and salary are not affected by the epidemic, the tenant has not paid the rent for four months. But now the court is not open and the case cannot be accepted, and she has no choice but to take the "Laolai" tenant.
Jeff Ray said he lives in Brooklyn and went to Flushing to express his support on the day of the parade. He said that it is very difficult for Chinese immigrants to earn money in the United States. After saving money, most people choose to buy a house and become a landlord. The phenomenon of rent dependence has always existed, but the epidemic has made this phenomenon more common.
Huang Youxing, chairman of the 24th School District Committee in Queens, New York, also showed up in the parade. He said that he rented his apartment in Elmhurst to a tenant who worked in a restaurant in The High Line. Affected by the epidemic, few tourists went to the High Line to eat and play. , So the tenant lost his job and income. Huang Youxing has not received the rent for six months, but at the same time he has to pay land tax. Huang Youxing said that the New York City and State Governments should exempt the property tax in 2020, otherwise a large number of landlords will not be able to bear the multiple pressures of property taxes, mortgages, various miscellaneous fees and fines, and they will have to face the dilemma of confiscated houses. As a result, the government will lose land tax revenue, and the school district and governments at all levels will go bankrupt. (Zhang Fan)