Rents Rise in New York City Even as Eviction Crisis Mounts

According to a report from rental site Zumper, "New York City had surpassed San Francisco and claimed the inglorious post of the most expensive place to rent a one-bedroom apartment in the nation," even as thousands of renters face mounting debt and eviction, reports Mihir Zaveri.

The need for rent relief "is most acute among lower income New Yorkers in parts of the South Bronx or Queens." Meanwhile, the most rapidly rising rents are in the city's most expensive neighborhoods. "But the rollout of New York’s rent relief effort — which is designed to deliver payments directly to landlords and provide broad protections against evictions for tenants, even as their applications are pending — has been slow and riddled with errors."

"On Tuesday, state officials said more than $200 million in payments had been made — less than 8 percent of the $2.7 billion allocated for relief by the state."

New York's newly instated governor, Kathy Hochul, "said the state was conducting a 'rapid review' of the program’s work flow, and reassigning 100 contractors to help landlords complete the paperwork required for payments to be disbursed." The state also plans to fund more outreach to households who may qualify but haven't applied for assistance. 

Zaveri also describes the fluctuation in rent costs in New York–comparing it with San Francisco, another famously expensive city–and how this has played out across different boroughs.