Brooklyn Coronavirus Update and Open Thread: Good News on Rents (5/1/20)

We’re in the seventh week of sheltering in place and the 29th day of home schooling for New York City schools.

We’ve flattened the curve but lack the tools we need to open up — yet if the shutdown goes on much longer, the U.S. is flirting with financial collapse from failures cascading through the system, particularly in New York City.

As rents and mortgages come due today, May 1, Labor Day — and tenant activists and some politicians are urging the government to cancel rents and mortgages for the duration of the crisis — we see more than a glimmer of hope for financial stability. When unemployment checks finally started flowing in late April, a large percentage of renters paid their delinquent April rent.

Some 30 percent of tenants nationwide missed their April 1 rent. “But by month’s end, after stimulus payments and unemployment checks started flowing, the nationwide nonpayment rate was only three percentage points below where it was a year ago,” reported The New York Times.

Experts estimate true unemployment is higher than official figures — perhaps 40 percent of the workforce is out of work. Brooklyn small businesses received 18 percent of NYC aid to small businesses, which is more than the other outer boroughs. Manhattan got 66 percent even though small businesses are concentrated in the outer boroughs, Gothamist reported.

Police have been breaking up more funerals and worship services in Borough Park and Williamsburg. Short-term and furnished rentals are on the rise, even as other real estate activity in the city has slowed, StreetEasy’s data shows. Macys said it plans to open all its stores this month, even in Brooklyn and other areas in New York City.

What are your thoughts, and how are you weathering the shutdown? What do you think should be done in Brooklyn to combat the spread of the virus and blunt the damage to local businesses and jobs? Please feel free to comment in a respectful manner (please, no personal attacks, nothing libelous). If you are not already logged in, go up to the top right hand side of the page and log in to be able to comment.