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Landlords’ Troubles Deepen as State Evictions Ban Protects Nonpaying Tenants

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Some renters are forced out anyway by owners desperate for income in pandemic

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Jon Hurdle

In New Jersey’s pandemic-driven apartment housing crisis, there are no winners.

Tenants, unable to pay rent because they have lost their jobs or fallen ill with the virus, are accumulating thousands of dollars in unpaid rent that may eventually lead to their eviction; some are being evicted anyway by unscrupulous landlords who are ignoring the state’s moratorium on evictions during the statewide health emergency.

Landlords, deprived of income for months but unable to evict nonpaying tenants, are struggling to pay mortgages and property-tax bills, deferring maintenance on their buildings, and in some cases considering bankruptcy.

And state and local governments are faced with a major shortfall in income from rental properties that may force them to rely much more heavily on homeowners.

“It’s bad and it’s getting worse,” said Derek Reed, an attorney for the Property Owners Association of New Jersey, which represents mostly smaller landlords. “I get calls almost every day from small landlords that are renting out the other half of their duplex and the tenant has stopped paying rent which is 100 percent of their rental income, and they are wondering what they can do. I have to give them the bad news that there’s not much you can do right now.”

Reed estimated that larger landlords are seeing a reduction of up to 30% in their rental income and have no redress.

‘People’s bill’ would help tenants with rental arrears

He also criticized a bill now before the state Senate that would give tenants a lot more time to pay rent arrears.

The legislation, which supporters call the “people’s bill,” requires landlords to offer tenants who have missed rent payments during the pandemic a repayment plan that would give them six months to repay each month owed in back rent, with all arrears payable in 30 months.

Reed said the bill unfairly favors tenants at the expense of landlords. “It’s not the people’s bill, it’s the tenants’ bill because landlords are left out of the equation, to shoulder interest-free loans that may or may not be paid back over an extended period of time,” he said.

Since March, landlords of all sizes have been prevented from evicting nonpaying tenants by an executive order from Gov. Phil Murphy allowing renters to stay in their homes until two months after the official end of the health emergency.

Forcing renters out of their homes

Whenever that happens, tenants’ advocates predict a flood of evictions initiated by landlords who are desperate to find paying tenants and have been filing eviction orders with the courts during the pandemic even though the courts are unable to enforce them while the moratorium is in effect.

In July, a consultant’s report for housing advocates forecast that there could be 304,000 evictions over the following four months — a 600% increase over pre-pandemic levels — unless protective measures are taken. New Jersey courts received almost 35,000 eviction filings from March until the end of August, a number that housing advocates predict will increase sharply when the moratorium ends.

Some tenants are already facing “de facto” evictions by landlords who are trying to get rid of them by harassment, offering to forgive unpaid rent in return for immediate departure, or even locking them out of their homes.

La’Condria Burley, a single mother of two children, recently found herself locked out of her Jersey City apartment by a landlord who changed the combination on the doorway keypad while they were out  and left their belongings on the sidewalk.

Burley, 31, and her children, 4 and 6, spent two nights sleeping in a car that she had rented because her own had been repossessed after she failed to make payments. In March, Burley lost her job as a reimbursement specialist with a pharmaceutical company because of the pandemic, and she has been unable to pay rent since June.

She told the landlord that she had no money to pay, and at first, he sounded sympathetic but then locked them out without explanation, she said.

“He told me that he changed the locks, and my family’s items were outside of the house,” she said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “I knew why but he didn’t say why.”

After two days driving around and sleeping in the car, the family got back into their home thanks to a judge’s order obtained by Amy Albert, an attorney for The Waterfront Project, a nonprofit that provides advice and free legal representation for the poor in Hudson County.

“The judge was appalled and said that if the landlord did not allow her back into her home, he would be arrested,” Albert said.

County will likely step in to help

Now, there’s a good chance the rent of $1,850 a month will be paid by a Hudson County assistance program funded by the federal CARES Act, Albert said, but the family’s trauma could have been avoided if the landlord had recognized that support is available in such cases.

“Neither of them will end up without money; the issue is that there’s a process and her landlord was not respectful of the process,” she said.

Michael Pastacaldi, a lawyer for the landlord, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

That illegal lockout was not representative of the legitimate landlord community, and such actions should be quickly reported to the authorities, said David Brogan, executive director of the New Jersey Apartment Association, which represents mostly larger landlords.

“Any tenant who is being forcibly removed for nonpayment of rent should call local law enforcement,” he said. “The unfortunate reality is that you’ve got slumlords out there who are doing things that are illegal and unethical and painting the industry with one broad brush.”

Financial hardship on both sides

Still, Brogan called on tenants’ advocates to understand that the pandemic is causing significant financial hardship to landlords as well as to tenants, and said some smaller landlords are facing the prospect of bankruptcy.

“There has to be a recognition by landlords that tenants are facing problems, and there has to be a recognition by tenants that landlords are facing problems,” he said. “A lot of times, the tenant advocates create this adversarial relationship between landlords and tenants. The goal here isn’t to pick an enemy; the enemy is the virus.”

The only real solution, he said, is rental assistance from state or federal governments that would allow tenants to stay in their homes and restore landlords’ income.

Without that help, some landlords will go bankrupt, the supply of affordable housing will dwindle, and property-tax revenue will plummet because that’s assessed on the basis of a building’s operating income — which in some cases has simply stopped because of the pandemic, Brogan said.

He said he gets regular calls for help from smaller landlords whose properties represent nest eggs for retirement or college payments but whose income has been reduced to zero because tenants are unable to pay the rent.

“I get calls from people all the time that are literally in tears because their whole life savings went into a triplex or a small building that has six or 10 units and they’ve got 50 percent or more of the people not paying rent, and they are now not able to make their obligations,” he said.

Local government could forgive, defer property tax

A partial solution, he said, would be for local government to forgive or defer property-tax payments, at least until landlords’ income is restored.

“It’s completely unfair to tell a small landlord that we are putting policies in place that remove your revenue stream but at the same time, if you don’t provide payments in full and on time in property taxes, we are going to put a lien on your property,” he said.

Although Murphy’s order bans evictions during the pandemic, landlords can still file eviction orders with the courts, and many have been doing so in the hope that they can find paying tenants when the order is lifted, or that a court-brokered settlement can be reached before that happens.

One such order was filed in July against Mildred Ventura, who rents a three-bedroom apartment in Jersey City for herself and her two children and has been unable to pay rent since May when she became infected with COVID-19.

The virus forced her to leave her jobs as a cashier at two local supermarkets, reducing her $1,800 a month pretax income to zero and forcing her to try to reach an agreement with her landlord. But the landlord rejected Ventura’s appeals, and has now resorted to harassment in an attempt to force her out, she said.

“She has been very rude,” Ventura said. “She has stated that she doesn’t feel pity for me being sick, that she has bills herself to pay. It has been horrible the way she has been acting because she filed an eviction notice.”

Ventura said she told the landlord to use her security deposit to pay a month’s rent but the landlord said she had never cashed the security check, and it was no longer possible for her to use the money.

“She didn’t want any agreement,” Ventura said. “She just wanted me out.”

Turning neighbor against neighbor

Unable to evict her, the landlord now appears to be trying to force her out by telling her neighbors about her health problems and turning them against her, she said.

“Now when I walk in or out of the unit, they are saying things like ‘Move aside before we get contaminated,’” she said.

Ventura, 39, is recovering from the virus but still has trouble breathing and is unable to work because she has to attend weekly appointments with a pulmonologist. She doesn’t expect to go back to work until February.

Her problems were compounded by the denial of state unemployment benefits on the grounds that she had to apply for disability payments instead. With no savings, she’s feeding herself and her children, 16 and 12, on $297 a month in food stamps, and whatever she can get from a local food pantry.

The Waterfront Project’s Albert, who represents Ventura, said there’s a decent chance the county will pay Ventura’s unpaid and future rent until she can get back on her feet. But she accused the landlord of treating her client poorly.

“The combination of dealing with COVID-19 and the potential for losing your home is really highlighted in what Mildred has to say,” she said.

‘Landlords are not in the business of evicting tenants’

But that landlord’s tactics are not representative of the industry, which needs to keep its tenants even under the current strained circumstances, said Reed, representing the Property Owners Association of New Jersey.

“Landlords are not in the business of evicting tenants,” he said. “It is actually counter to their business model. The real goal here is to keep folks in their homes, and also to help make landlords whole, in a timely way, not to burden landlords with giving interest-free loans in a way that would be unsustainable but real direct rental assistance that can help tenants get out from under the rent that they owe and help landlords continue to maintain and operate these very necessary housing options.”

 

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As Key Coronavirus Stat Rises, NJ Limits Indoor Gatherings

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Gov. Phil Murphy points finger at massive house parties as reason for growing coronavirus infection rate

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Lilo H. Stainton

Concern about the rising spread of COVID-19 in New Jersey has led state officials to reinstate earlier limits on indoor gatherings, reducing the cap to 25 people from the 100-person maximum established in June.

Other restrictions are under consideration as well, they warned, if trends don’t improve.

Gov. Phil Murphy said that while some data continues to head in the right direction — hospitalizations and ventilator use are still on the decline, for example — New Jersey is experiencing what he has called a troubling rise in its RT, or rate of transmission. On Monday Murphy said the rate, which indicates how many people are likely to be infected by a single person, now stands at 1.48, roughly twice the level it was in early June.

As a result, Murphy signed an executive order limiting indoor gatherings to a maximum of 25 people, or 25% of capacity, whichever is less; events were previously capped at 100 people or 25% of capacity. The governor said weddings, funerals, religious services and political activities are exempt from the latest change, allowing them to include up to 100 participants.

“I’m exercising this option not out of joy, but out of necessity,” Murphy said. “To be clear, this caps indoor house parties at 25 people, period,” he said.

Knocking ‘knuckleheads’

Murphy has railed against reports of massive house parties — including events in Jackson and on Long Beach Island now linked to nearly 100 COVID-19 cases — which he said endanger police tasked with breaking them up and exacerbate community spread of the novel coronavirus. He blamed the new indoor-gathering limits on the actions of a few “knuckleheads” in private homes, but also reiterated the need for businesses to play within the current rules, which allow for dining outdoors or inside if two of the four walls can open entirely. Full indoor dining, once slated to reopen in early July, remains on pause.

“The only way we can get to where we want to be with indoor activities is if everyone plays by the rules and no one tries to make end-runs around them,” the governor said. “This is not a game. This is about public health and safety.”

More than 182,600 New Jerseyans have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since March, including roughly 14,000 — and likely close to 16,000 — individuals who have died from the disease. “Everyone needs to get it together, folks, and fast. This is not past us yet,” Murphy said.

“I know we all want life to return to normal, but COVID-19 is still circulating and now is not the time to be complacent,” said state Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. She reminded the public to limit the time spent with those outside their household, maintain at least two arms-length of space, chose outdoor activities, always wear a mask when possible and wash their hands repeatedly. Mask use is required outside when individuals cannot maintain at least 6 feet of distance.

Growing pressure to reopen

Murphy has faced growing pressure from business groups, Republican officials and even members of his Democratic Party to reopen additional aspects of the economy, including restaurants, many of which have suffered significant economic losses under the months-long closure prompted by the pandemic. There is also pressure from some officials, like President Donald Trump, to reopen schools in roughly five weeks, something Murphy has generally supported. But the move is prompting a rising tide of questions about safety and logistics.

On Monday Murphy said he would also issue an order clarifying the state’s guidelines about the use of face coverings in school. Essentially, they will be required at all times — except during meals or water breaks — unless the student has disabilities or health issues that prevent mask wearing. “We know that face coverings work, and we will now ensure everyone in school buildings will wear one,” Murphy said.

In order to continue reopening the state’s economic sector, a process originally outlined in April, Murphy said Monday that he’d like to see a faster turnaround time on coronavirus test results, which now take close to a week, and better participation in the state’s online screening process for travelers from state’s with high levels of coronavirus.

In June New Jersey joined New York and Connecticut to order out-of-state visitors — or local residents returning — from states with a certain level of COVID-19 transmission — to quarantine for 14 days; at least three-dozen states are now affected. The three states also created an online form to help identify and track travelers, but in New Jersey participation has depended on individual cooperation.

Persichilli said Monday that fewer than one in 10 of the travelers who should be filling out the online form detailing their quarantine plans are currently participating. Uptake is “not as high as we wanted it to be,” Persichilli added, “so we’re working on the public awareness aspects of that.”

In addition, doing away with other restrictions would require that the RT decline and remain under 1 for close to a week, Murphy said, and the positivity rate — or percentage of positive tests, now at 1.88 — to stick to its current low range.

“If the rate of transmission remains in this neighborhood (of 1.48) for a prolonged period of time, my guess is that leaves us to take more action” to roll back or further delay reopening, he said. “I can’t tell you today what that action would be,” he added, but he said it would likely initially involve more aggressive enforcement of the current restrictions.

 

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With $600-a-Week Benefit Gone, Millions Face Financial Peril

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As Congress wrangles over possible extension, many jobless people face a fresh struggle to pay rent, buy food

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Jon Hurdle

Shaquaza Williams made ends meet with a lot of help from $600 a week in federal jobless benefits after losing her job as a trainee manager in a sports bar when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March. But now the payments have ended, her expenses exceed her income, and she doesn’t know what she will do.

With the expiration of the federal money on Friday, Williams, a single mother of two from Paterson, is left with just $190 a week in state unemployment benefits, and that doesn’t match the approximately $200 a week that it costs for food, clothes, transportation and other items for herself and her children, 12 and 4.

After being laid off, Williams was evicted from her apartment for nonpayment of rent. She first went to live with an elderly relative but that person became ill, so the family moved to a hotel, whose charges she was able to pay because by that time she was getting the $600 a week from the federal government.

But with Congress’s failure so far to agree on how or whether to extend the benefit, Williams was forced to move again on July 27, this time to a single room in a Paterson hotel where she sleeps in the same bed as her children, and has nowhere to cook food that might enable her to save money on takeout.

“The $600 a week helped me out a lot with the kids and housing,” she said in an interview with NJ Spotlight. “It allowed us to stay in a hotel where there was a microwave, laundry and clean towels. Now we’re at the point where we have to go to a low-budget place where there is nothing. It’s really bad.”

Her low income also means she has little prospect of finding even a modest apartment for her family. “A lot of apartments, seeing that I’m only receiving the $190 and the $600 has come to an end, are saying, ‘You don’t have enough income to be placed in an apartment and hold it by yourself without getting any assistance.’ I am currently stuck,” she said.

Williams, 28, hasn’t worked since being laid off on March 24, and has no hope of getting her job back because the bar, a new location in the Buffalo Wild Wings chain, closed when the state ordered the shutdown of all nonessential businesses, and it won’t be reopening, she said. She worked for the company for about a year, and was making about $1,000 every two weeks before taxes, she said.

Living in a hotel room

For now, the family is housed in the Paterson hotel whose cost is paid by a third party — Williams said she didn’t know who — but even without rent, she’s still underwater financially.

Williams is one of millions of New Jerseyans who have received the federal payments since the government started paying them in April, and are now faced with renewed financial peril and a sharply diminished chance of finding employment with the state jobless rate at 16.6% — about five times what it was a year ago.

According to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, payments of the federal benefit totaled $526.2 million in the week of July 19-25, the last week it was paid, indicating that some 877,000 people received the benefit that week. That compared with $197.7 million in state unemployment insurance payments for the same period, bringing the number of New Jerseyans who have claimed state unemployment benefit since March 15 to more than 1.4 million.

Advocates for a restoration of the federal benefit predict that, without it, there will be a surge in demand for help with essentials like food, transportation and health insurance. For now, the unemployed are shielded from eviction or foreclosure by Gov. Phil Murphy’s Executive Order 106, issued in March, which prevents evictions for nonpayment until two months after the end of the public health emergency. But whenever the order ends, housing activists fear a spike in evictions and other dire consequences like being unable to afford food.

“When that eviction moratorium is lifted, a lot of people who have built up so much debt on their rent will not be able to stay where they are,” said Greg DeLozier, senior director for advocacy and government relations for the Food Bank of South Jersey, one of the state’s three major food banks. “That will put them in our lines almost immediately.”

A newly amended bill in the Legislature would extend protections for renters and homeowners who have been hurt by the pandemic, and has been passed by both houses, but the measure is awaiting a further vote in the Senate, and is not expected to go to Murphy for his signature until late August or early September.

Christine Lee, a spokeswoman for Murphy, said the federal supplement has paid $7.5 billion to New Jerseyans since it began in April, and helped to bolster the state’s struggling economy. She urged congressional negotiators to restore the funding as soon as possible.

Up to Republicans, Democrats in Congress

For now, the supplement is the only part to be ended among a wide-ranging package of pandemic-relief measures that are being debated in Congress, Lee said. Republican and Democratic lawmakers were reported over the weekend as being far apart on other items including aid to state and local governments; business tax breaks, and help with health care.

The $600 payments were filling the gap between the $190 a week in state benefits and pre-pandemic wages for “many, many families,” said DeLozier of the South Jersey Food Bank. He predicted that without the $600, many more people will be unable to feed themselves, and so will sign up for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but that typically only feeds a family for three weeks of the month, and so people will be forced to turn to food banks to fill the gap.

The food bank served 92,000 people in June, more than twice its pre-pandemic level, and although it expects a gradual decline by the end of 2020, that number is still projected at about 60,000 higher than normal, DeLozier said. There were 102,000 people officially receiving jobless benefits in the four counties served by the food bank as of July 30 but the actual number is likely about 24% higher because that proportion of claimants is typically rejected for different reasons, so the true number of unemployed is assumed to be 127,000, he said.

Other food banks including the Community Food Bank of New Jersey have reported sharply higher demand for food assistance since the pandemic started.

Even if demand for food assistance gradually declines as expected, the economic effects of the pandemic will last for “years,” DeLozier said, citing a Congressional Budget Office forecast that by 2030 the national jobless rate will still be almost a percentage point higher, at 4.5%, than it was before the pandemic.

“You take a look at these numbers and you start to cry,” he said.

 

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School Parking Lots

Resident Parking in Jersey City School Parking Lots to End July 31 at 6 p.m.

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Parking in Jersey City public school parking lots will end on July 31 at 6 p.m. when gates will be locked.

As the school district prepares for fall opening, parking can no longer be provided.   Resident parking had previously been permitted in the lots listed – here.

Should one’s car remain in one of the school parking lots after being locked, please call (201) 915-6320 or (201) 915-6330.

Please see our prior Jersey City Covid-19 updates.

 

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Track COVID-19 in New Jersey: Maps, Graphics, Regular Updates

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[Updated: July 29, 2020] Follow the progression of the disease, with case numbers by county and city, demographics and other metrics

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Colleen O’Dea

On Wednesday, the state reported a total of 180,766 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. That marks the 10th day that the number of new cases reported daily has risen by less than 0.4%.

New COVID-19 cases over the past week. Click on a county for more details, including total cases and deaths, one-day changes and cases per 1,000 residents. Scroll down to county data in tabular form. Source: NJ Spotlight analysis of NJ Department of Health data.Lab-confirmed deaths attributed to COVID-19 totaled 13,923, marking a decrease of 0.2%. Starting June 25, the state has also reported probable deaths due to the novel coronavirus, updating the number to 1,875 on July 29. About 7.7% of all known cases in New Jerseyans have resulted in lab-confirmed deaths. The rate of transmission is 1.14 for the second day in a row.

The rate of New Jerseyans testing positive for the virus is more than 20 in 1,000. Bergen County, where the state’s first case was diagnosed, continues to have the most cases, with 20,391. Essex continues to have the greatest number of deaths, 1,857 lab-confirmed and another 243 suspected to be due to the virus. Among large municipalities, the infection rate in Paterson (Passaic County) remains the highest, at about 56 positive cases per 1,000 people.

Long-term care facilities have been especially hard-hit and their cases comprise a significant portion of all cases. The state released updated data for individual facilities on Wednesday. Cases among long-term care residents alone make up nearly 14% of all cases in the state; including staff, nearly 21% of all cases derive from these settings. Deaths attributed to long-term care residents and staff account for about 44% of lab-confirmed and probable deaths in the state.

The U.S. Department of Labor has reported that more than 37,000 New Jerseyans filed for unemployment in the week ending July 11. Close to 1.4 million New Jerseyans have filed for unemployment since the start of the pandemic in early March, with a total of $10.7 billion in benefits paid.

Every week, NJ Spotlight updates the map that tracks the change in cases week-by-week since the start of the pandemic. To see the growth in cases, click on the arrow in the green box beneath the map.

Demographic data shows the virus is hitting some age groups, races and ethnicities harder than others, while there is little difference between the sexes. NJ Spotlight updates this every Tuesday.

The number of people infected worldwide since the outbreak of the disease late last year is more than 16.8 million, and the number infected has surpassed 4.3 million in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus COVID-19 global tracker. The number of deaths in the United States is nearly 150,000. While state health officials are not reporting data about recoveries in the general population, Johns Hopkins’ tracker shows 32,313 New Jerseyans as recovered, which would represent nearly 18% of cases.

Readers can check here for more information about COVID-19 daily.

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Crunch Time for Bill to Avert Feared Surge in NJ Evictions as Landlords Push Back

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Report predicts 300,000 New Jersey renters could be evicted for nonpayment in next four months

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Jon Hurdle

New Jersey housing advocates are pressing state lawmakers for final approval this week of a bill that would extend protections against evictions of renters and homeowners who are unable to make payments because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid some predictions of a surge in evictions as the $600-a-week extra federal jobless benefit comes to an end on July 31, and with the expiration last Friday of a national ban on evictions from federal properties, the bill would require mortgage lenders to offer forbearance agreements to borrowers in need for at least 90 days if their income and savings are below specified levels.

Courts would be allowed to order a mortgage lender to retract any negative credit-reporting filing for nonpayment of rent, and to fine landlords up to $5,000 per tenant for violations.

The bill would prevent landlords from evicting people for nonpayment of rent sooner than 60 days after the end of a public health emergency and would stop courts accepting complaints for nonpayment of rent. It would also forbid landlords from filing negative credit reports or imposing late fees on tenants who pay late or not at all.

If a tenant surrenders a property while the lease is still in effect, he or she would still be responsible for paying any arrears, and the landlord would retain the right to recover those payments, the bill says. But it gives tenants up to six months to repay for each month of arrears, or to spread repayments in equal installments over the term of the lease, up to 10% of household net income, whichever is lower.

The measures would codify and expand Gov. Phil Murphy’s Executive Order 106, issued in March, which bans evictions and foreclosures until 60 days after the end of the public health emergency. The order allows courts to accept filings for nonpayment of rent or mortgages but prevents enforcement of any eviction or foreclosure order.

Big pressure to get the bill through

The measures are needed because of the devastation caused by the virus to New Jersey’s economy and public health, the bill, now pending in the Assembly, says. An identical bill has already been approved by the full Senate.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee advanced the bill on Monday. Its sponsors later issued a statement saying the state needs to defend the interests of landlords as well as tenants. “People must stop looking at this housing crisis as landlords vs. tenants, as both are important to the housing ecosystem. If homeowners do not succeed, renters will be displaced; if renters do not succeed, homeowners will foreclose. It’s critically important for both to receive an equal opportunity to keep a roof over their heads,” they said.

Advocates are hoping the bill will get final legislative approval this week and be sent for the governor’s signature amid predictions that the state could face a flood of evictions and foreclosures whenever Murphy’s executive order expires.

“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure to get this done by the end of this month,” said David Smith, policy coordinator for Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington), the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate. “It’s something that really desperately needs to get done, and I think there is finally, hopefully the impetus for the legislature to finish it up and get it to the Governor.”

But the New Jersey Apartment Association, representing large professional landlords, opposes the bill, and predicted it will be amended before getting a final vote in the Legislature.

Nicholas Kikis, vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs for the trade group, said it understands the need to provide relief for tenants, and has urged its members to work with those whose income has been cut or eliminated in the pandemic . “Most have been doing just that,” he said.

Landlords criticize ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach

The bill’s flaws include a “one-size-fits-all” solution to repaying rent or mortgage arrears, and the fact that it applies to almost any tenant who is making less than $150,000 a year, as long as he or she has suffered a negative financial impact, Kikis said.

“We want to provide relief to those who actually need it, not to create an incentive for tenants to simply stop paying rent,” he said.

Under the bill’s plan to give a tenant six months to repay each month of rent arrears, that would mean apartment owners who received no rent from March to December of this year would have to wait up to five years to be fully repaid, Kikis argued. He predicted his members would be financially “devastated” if the latest version of the bill becomes law.

The impact of the crisis has been cushioned by the federal government’s $600 a week in extra jobless benefits, as well as state unemployment payments, he said, resulting in an overall reduction in rent payments to NJAA members of about 15% since the crisis began.

“We were bracing for much worse when this began, and I do think that the expansion of unemployment benefits and the one-time stimulus checks helped tremendously,” he said. Kikis said the group is eager to see what kind of substitute Congress agrees as the July 31 deadline approaches for the expiration of the $600 payments.

“If Congress ends without putting in an adequate substitute, I think we’re going to see conditions get significantly worse,” he said.

Forecast of how many renters unable to pay in August

Last week, a consultant’s report forecast that 40% of New Jersey renters, or about 450,000 households, would be unable to pay rent in August, and that there could be 304,000 evictions over the next four months — a 600% increase over pre-pandemic levels — unless protective measures are taken.

The report by Stout Risius Ross for a coalition of housing advocates, based its estimates on “Household Pulse,” a weekly national survey that has been conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau during the pandemic. The New Jersey projections are based on the number of people who told officials that they will be unable to pay next month’s rent, and whether they are already in arrears.

For those in arrears for a number of months, Stout estimated they would start to become subject to eviction orders after three months of nonpayment, and that delays to the eviction process could push that to four months — the period over which the 304,000 evictions are expected.

But the company’s managing director, Neil Steinkamp, acknowledged the evictions estimate is uncertain because of unknown variables like the number of tenants who reach agreement with their landlords to repay late rent, and to what extent unemployed people are borrowing from friends and relatives, or even using credit cards to pay rent.

“We’re starting to see more and more people use credit cards to make rent payments,” he said. “Historically, renters wouldn’t do that but in the current climate you’ve got such high unemployment and little access to capital.” Borrowing from friends and relatives is also harder now because those people, too, are more likely to be financially stretched, he said.

The report said communities of color are much worse affected than white communities. Forty-nine percent of African American renter households in New Jersey said they will be unable to pay their rent next month, contrasting with 18% of white renters.

Fair Share Housing Center, an advocacy group, said that unless more protection is given to tenants and homeowners who have been unable to pay rent, the state will end up spending more on social services like homeless shelters, Medicaid, and foster care.

“If New Jersey renter households face increased housing instability and eviction, they will rely more heavily on expensive social safety net programs, often paid for in part by state and local governments,” the group said in a statement.

 

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Fine Print: Virtual Back-to-School Checklist

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State guidance defines what’s needed for families to stay all-virtual when school starts in September

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

Title: “Clarifying Expectations Regarding Fulltime Remote Learning Options for Families in 2020-2021”

Author: New Jersey Department of Education, sent to all public school districts and charter schools

Date: Friday, July 24, 2020

What is it: The new guidance for the all-remote option was added last week to the state’s existing guidance for what schools needed to do to physically reopen schools in September. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues – even at relative stable levels in New Jersey – schools are facing pressures from families who want to be allowed to stay at home with remote instruction if they so choose. This three-page supplement is the state’s rules for that option, including requirements for specific online learning plans, request procedures and communications.

What it means: The guidance was released several days after Gov. Phil Murphy announced that families would be allowed to stay all-remote if they so choose. He had initially said that schools would need to provide at least some in-school instruction for all students. This latest guidance was inevitable. But it also speaks to the near-certainty of still more guidance and changes coming in what has been a fluid situation, to say the least.

Flexibility key: Murphy said on Friday in releasing the guidance that districts will be afforded wide flexibility in how they want to address each need.

Quote: “We have heard from numerous parents and families who have asked for this, and we have heard them loud and clear. Our top priority is keeping students, their families and educators safe. And to do that, flexibility, local decision making and empowering parents and educators are all critical,” Murphy said.

On the ground: As many as a third of New Jersey families have said in polling and surveys that they may opt to stay home as schools reopen. About 18% of surveyed parents in the Freehold Regional district said so even before this new guidance came out. Superintendent Charles Sampson said now districts can plan for it. “I’m sure every district at this time is working with their families on how they will do this. That is a good chunk of families.”

Six key pillars:

  • “Unconditional eligibility” for full-time remote learning: Any family can opt for all-remote instruction, regardless of medical condition.
  • Procedures for submitting requests: Minimum requirements will be in place for submitting a request to a district, including the span of time being requested and plan for transition to full in-person.
  • Scope and expectations of remote schooling: The guidance says “any student participating in the board’s fulltime remote learning option must be afforded the same quality and scope of instruction and other educational services as any other student otherwise participating in district programs.” That includes the length and time of instruction, equal access to materials, and a multitude of other schooling components.
  • Procedures to transition to in-school: A minimum amount of time for remote instruction will need to be defined by the family and district before being able to transition back to in-school. The process also includes specific services that would transition back.
  • Data collection: Districts will be required to collect data on their remote instruction option, who is using it and how it is implemented. The required categories include the number of students participating in full-time remote learning by each of the following subgroups: economically disadvantaged; major racial and ethnic groups; students with disabilities; and English learners.
  • Communication: The districts will be required to develop full communications programs that will inform all families of their options, including in all home languages of the district. The communications must include the full scope and expectations of the instruction, procedures for making requests and transition planning.

What’s not answered: Basically leaving it up to districts, the new guidance does not detail next steps in how districts will develop remote programs for students who request it. The districts’ plans are due to the state and then the public within four weeks of the opening of school, basically early August.

Teachers, too: The latest guidance does not speak at all to teachers and other employees who may seek a remote option as well. The administration has said that would be left to local personnel decisions and collective bargaining.

Quote: “The health and safety of our educational communities is paramount, and with this guidance we are providing districts with even greater flexibility to ensure that they can meet this need,” Murphy said. “We are not mandating any one specific way to move forward.”

Digital divide: District-by-district counts remain elusive, but state officials continue to say that as many as 230,000 students statewide – a sixth of the state’s total enrollment – do not have the necessary tools to take advantage of remote instruction. Murphy last week announced an additional $50 million in federal relief, but that is half of the need by officials own count.

What’s next: The Legislature has continued to press for a host of issues related to schools reopening, with some leading lawmakers calling for the start of school to be pushed back so districts can better prepare. Short of that, the districts’ plans will be coming out over the next two weeks, previewing what the fall will look like.

 

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Murphy Offers ‘Virtual-Only’ Option for 2020 School Reopening

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Governor yields to pressure from all sides, steps back from requirement that students, teachers must attend in-class instruction some of the time

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

New Jersey’s attempts to come up with a plan for reopening its schools in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a frenetic whirlwind.

And we’re still six weeks out.

Facing pressures from all sides, Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday created a bit of a stir and said families that want to sit out the physical reopening of schools now will have a choice to stay with virtual instruction after all.

He didn’t say much beyond that, saying state guidelines were forthcoming and leaving open many questions about exactly how his announcement would work.

“The details will be coming out later this week, but we wanted everyone to know now that we will allow for this step,” Murphy said at his daily media briefing.

The latest announcement from Murphy of a “virtual-only” option for families came suddenly, as concerns were mounting about how to address those who may not feel comfortable going back to school, even with all the precautions of screening, masks and distancing.

No time for full reopening?

Murphy’s statement came after the head of the state’s powerful teachers union last week said she doubted there is enough time for a full reopening anyway. And Murphy himself  said an initiative to close the digital divide has already left hundreds of thousands of students behind.

The swirl of developments — all in late July — has left superintendents and others with their heads spinning as they prepare their districts’ reopening plans, which are  due in the next two weeks.

At least that’s the current timetable.

Brick-and-mortar instruction

Murphy had said that all districts would have to have at least some in-person instruction, leaving to districts how to design that but promoting there would likely be at least a couple of days a week of remote or virtual instruction.

But the questions grew about whether that meant all families had to participate in in-school instruction. The state has been unclear in its guidance so far, with some hearing that families may even have to withdraw their children from the school system altogether.

The state’s 104-page package for reopening schools currently does not include any provisions for parent choice, only a handful in the country without such provisions, according to one study by Johns Hopkins University.

Reacting to the news on Monday, some superintendents and other school advocates welcomed the opportunity for as much flexibility as possible. A letter to the governor signed by scores of superintendents had asked for a remote option and clarification from the state.

“We were heartened that Gov. Murphy was responsive to the voices in the field and has moved forward on clarifying a remote option for parents which will assist all of us in our planning for reopening,” said David Aderhold, the West Windsor-Plainsboro superintendent who has been outspoken in calling for better guidance from the state.

“There was great advocacy for this option,” Aderhold said in an email. “We appreciate the willingness of the governor and his administration to listen and consider issues faced by school districts across the state.”

No details yet

The department said guidance would be coming by the end of the week, although it provided no details at all about what would be covered.

A host of questions arise: Will those insisting on virtual instruction be put at any disadvantage or a possible advantage? Could it be a fluid decision to be made by parents or for a set time? What about busing; is that a separate choice?

“Districts and parents need reliable assurances from the Department of Education that it counts for enrollment and attendance purposes, and that we’re not just relying on some informal nonbinding guidance,” said school board attorney David Rubin, whose Metuchen law firm represents more than 50 districts.

“Will students whose families have opted to keep them home for the school day be permitted to take part in on-campus extracurricular activities or sports, perhaps displacing students who’ve committed to be fully present?”

Murphy on Monday would not take further questions on the issue, but acknowledged there will be many to come.

“There are a lot of moving parts to this,” Murphy said. “We want to get it right. We want to do it responsibly.”

 

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Murphy to Use $54M in Federal Aid to Help Bridge Digital Divide in State’s Schools

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But Department of Education says the full cost of equipping schools, families for remote instruction is likely close to $115 million

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

Hosted at an elementary school in one of the poorest cities in the state, Gov. Phil Murphy last week presented a plan that he said would help close the gaping digital divide for New Jersey public education in this COVID-19 pandemic world.

His plans only confirm just how gaping a divide it is.

Murphy traveled on Thursday to Irvington’s Madison Avenue School to announce a plan to target $54 million in existing federal aid to help buy the thousands of Chromebooks, laptops, Wi-Fi hotspots and other tools for schools and families in need if remote instruction is again to be a big part of the mix in the fall, as expected.

He said 4,800 students in Irvington alone — more than half the district — were left out of full use of remote instruction in the spring due to technology needs and in peril for the same for the fall.

“It is an untenable divide,” Murphy said Thursday. “It is not a cost we can ignore, we must address this now.”

It was an inevitable acknowledgment from the governor that whatever schools look like in September, computers for remote instruction have become the new paper-and-pencil of basic school supplies — and tens of thousands of New Jersey kids are without them.

DOE has more work to do

But despite the promise to fully close the gap, this looks to be only the start. The state Department of Education on Friday said that the full need is likely close to $115 million, and Murphy himself said as many as 230,000 students — a fifth of the state’s public school enrollment — were without the needed devices and connectivity this spring.

That’s even more than previously reported, when officials in May said about 90,000 families were without connectivity and 130,000 without adequate devices. But the state’s numbers have also always been loosely reported, and the department said it would release updated ones this week.

The DOE on Friday maintained that districts have already started to close the gap, and the additional public investment — along with an undefined public pledge drive for corporate philanthropic support — will go a long way toward closing it entirely. It cited a rough estimate of about $500 per student.

The plan would include three main components:

  • $10 million in existing federal funds to districts to purchase and provide the technology;
  • $44 million in other federal emergency funds provided by the state; and an
  • unidentified sum in business and other philanthropic funds.

The federal money that districts could receive anyway would be available in a grant process through the state education department. In what is an unusual outreach, Murphy’s plan for philanthropic support would have the state’s Economic Development Authority open a formal process for private funds to be donated from organizations and corporations.

“Any help we can get from our business community will allow us to stretch our state funds even further and offset other costs face in reopening,” Murphy said.

The details were posted last week, and proposals are due by July 31.

Sweeney, Ruiz back governor

Standing with Murphy on Thursday were Senate President Steve Sweeney and state Sen. Teresa Ruiz, inarguably the two most influential legislators when it comes to education policy. Sweeney’s attendance especially didn’t go unnoticed, given his often-contentious relationship with Murphy.

“These are tough times and there is not a lot of money, but it’s critically important that the governor will insure that all children – that’s a big word, all children – are going to be ensure the opportunity for an education,” Sweeney said.

“How many Einsteins have we lost, how brilliant kids did we lose because they did not get a good education,” he said.

Ruiz has been among the state’s most outspoken when it comes to the digital divide, and she said this investment was a start.

“The pandemic uncovered an ugly truth that many of us always knew,” Ruiz said. “It is not something that happened over the last five months, it is something that we have been screaming about for decades.

“We do not know what September will bring, but we know that many districts will be going hybrid [in-person and virtual], so let’s equip every child with that they need,” she said.

When contacted afterward, Ruiz said more investment will be necessary, citing the needs and training for teachers, as well.

“This was the easiest part to do,” she said in an interview with NJ Spotlight. “It’s just the beginning.”

 

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Another Reopening Dilemma for NJ Schools: Students, Teachers Afraid to Come Back

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School districts struggling to balance in-school/virtual instruction face another problem — educators, students unwilling to return to brick-and-mortar classrooms

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By John Mooney

Reopening schools in New Jersey may  be more than a month away, but districts and families are already facing some fundamental first-day questions.

When the doors open, will families have to send their children if the COVID-19 pandemic is still here, as is all but certain? What about teachers? And how will schools deal with decisions by parents and teachers about coming back?

Those are some of the wild cards that districts are contemplating as they develop reopening plans for September, regardless of the form they take.

The quandary is clear. Gov. Phil Murphy has declared that come September schools must be open for in-school instruction, at least to some degree. But it’s up to local districts and communities to decide how they meet that requirement, as long as they follow health and safety rules that include social distancing and wearing face coverings.

Districts are hammering out their plans, which are not due for another several weeks, and they are looking at all kinds of intricate combinations of in-person and remote instruction to ensure that schools are safe. Some are staggering schedules across days; others, weeks. What they have in common is that all are logistical jigsaw puzzles.

Basic questions left unanswered

But in its 104 pages of guidance and resources available to public schools, the state Department of Education has so far provided no path about how much choice parents and educators have in participating or not. Districts have been left to come up with their own criteria for that, too.

Jersey City this week said families will have the discretion to keep their children at home if they choose. Other districts are taking a harder line, requiring students to come in at least some of the time.

The only guidance the state has provided so far was then-Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet saying in June that whatever the choices, neither students nor teachers would be penalized if they chose to opt out.

That leaves a lot of leeway, however, and school board attorney David Rubin, whose firm serves dozens of districts statewide, said he has clients on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to whether families will have a choice.

And what’s his legal advice so far?

“Clearly districts will have to offer something in person, but what that looks like and whether there are those who will be skittish about showing up, districts will have to accommodate that in some way,” Rubin said.

“I think most would allow for some flexibility, as long as it is manageable,” he said.

Michael LaSusa, superintendent of schools in the Chathams, said there is no hard-and-fast policy in his district for a situation that will likely remain fluid for a while. So far, he said the district is trying to accommodate both teachers’ and families’ concerns.

“We have advised parents that we intend to allow them to opt for virtual instruction, if they have a concern about their child attending school,” he said in an email. “As our plans are preliminary at this point, we have not gone further than that.”

Options are not unlimited

As for teachers, LaSusa said that staff are being told they should individually raise the issue with the district to discuss the options, of which there are several but not limitless ones.

The state’s sick-leave requirements for all employees were relaxed early in the pandemic, under a new law that allowed more time for those at risk of the virus or with vulnerable members of their households. And under previous workplace and disability laws, accommodations must also be made to minimize the risk for educators and others.

The New Jersey Education Association, the teachers union, has already raised alarms about its members being required to go into buildings where they may be at risk of contagion. There has been discussion of also requiring daily screenings, for instance, on top of required masks and distancing.

“We are already seeing a wide range of (teacher) requests,” said Rubin, the school board attorney. “Some have disabilities, and some are just nervous.”

But his advice is that just being nervous will likely not be enough for a teacher to opt out.

The fear factor

“To my knowledge, you have no right to stay at home just because you’re scared,” Rubin said. “But sifting through all of those will be a complex and time-consuming task.”

The department is so far staying mum on whether more guidance is to come. But the school boards association said that acting education commissioner Kevin Dehmer in a conference call with the association said additional guidelines may be forthcoming for parental choice, while leaving teacher choice to individual districts and their staffs.

As of Wednesday, there has been nothing yet, with the department only repeating that the guidelines have been drawn from input from all stakeholders.

“New Jersey’s school-reopening guidance is really a culmination of listening to many voices over the past four months,” said spokesman Michael Yaple.

“The department held, quite literally, hundreds upon hundreds of meetings with people and organizations in the school community, ranging from educators and school administrators to parents, students, support staff and health specialists,” he said. “These meetings helped identify areas where schools faced the greatest challenges, and they helped shape our guidance.”

 

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