'Can't Pay May': Making Rent in NYC During Pandemic

The buildings at 18, 20, and 22 Goodwin Place are situated near the border of Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, in Brooklyn, near the Gates Avenue stop on the J/Z train. The complex, where a two-bedroom apartment rents for $2,599 a month, was constructed in 2006, and has a green façade with recessed balconies. On StreetEasy, it is advertised as the Aventurine Condominiums. (“Aventurine, a green quartz crystal with specks of gray, has healing properties and is known as the comfort stone.”) In the early days of social-distancing measures, a few residents put up a sign offering assistance with child care or shopping, or just a friendly ear for anyone who wanted to talk. This led to the formation of an online chat group, where many residents got to know their neighbors for the first time. They coördinated regular cleaning of the complex’s banisters and entry keypads, and put up signs expressing gratitude for delivery and postal workers. One tenant is undergoing cancer treatment, and the group stayed on alert to help her out. As they conversed, they learned about newly unemployed residents who had worked in food service, in early-childhood education, and in consulting. “That was the situation,” Jeremy Cohan, one of the tenants, told me. “And then, relatively quickly, people started talking about how it was crazy that we should have to pay the rent under these conditions.” At the end of March, around two-thirds of the buildings’ tenants decided to rent-strike, a group which included some who had lost their jobs and some who were withholding rent in solidarity. Read Full Article »