Many small business owners and renters who have lost their jobs because of coronavirus are feeling tremendous financial pressure.

State Senator Michael Gianaris is calling on landlords to temporarily suspend rent payments for tenants who lost work.

“You’re just going to create a massive housing crisis on the back-end of this if we don’t take action right now,” said the senator.

While Governor Andrew Cuomo did suspend evictions for all residential and commercial tenants for 90 days, he did not yet tackle rent payments.

The senator says Governor Cuomo can make this happen as early as today if done by executive order. If not, Senator Gianaris has introduced legislation to provide rent relief.

He’s proposing a 90-day freeze or suspension of rent payments, similar to what the governor has enacted for homeowners.

Cuomo announced a 90-day mortgage moratorium for homeowners earlier in the week, which includes waived payments, no negative credit reporting to bureaus and no late or online payment fees for the three-month period.