PHOTO: NYC Landlord's Banners Call Out Tenants Allegedly Owing $17K in Rent

Amy FurrMarch 21, 2022

A Queens landlord placed two banners drawing attention to tenants who reportedly owe him $17,000 in rent as inflation has driven rent higher across the nation.

The signs were hung on the building at 175th Street in Springfield Gardens, the New York Post reported Saturday, and a photo showed the white banner with black letters:

NYC landlord posts giant signs calling out non-paying tenants https://t.co/0U6cFdL06a pic.twitter.com/dWQqVMJ2rD

— New York Post (@nypost) March 19, 2022

Meanwhile, social media users voiced their opinions on the matter.

“Lots of progressives siding with squatters, yet oddly i don’t see any of them asking the squatters to move in with them, into a spare room(s), or letting them squat at their vacation home(s)? weird,” one person commented.

“Make it affordable. Work out a payment plan….. Something is better than nothing,” another replied.

According to the Post, the landlords hung the signs to urge the tenants to pay their bills.

“The Thompsons, who are married, have owned the two-family home since 1989. They began the process of trying to evict Marie and Eugene Lamour and their daughter Kathia in Queens Housing Court last month,” the article states.

Inflation has caused rents to rise across President Joe Biden’s America, with an average 20 percent increase in the largest 50 cities over the past 12 months, Breitbart News reported February 21.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC, on March 14, 2022. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

“In New York City, rent prices increased 22.8 percent year-over-year, while Los Angeles saw a bit more subtle 14 percent increase, all as prices for gasoline, used cars, food and other goods continue to climb,” the outlet said.

When the Thompsons decided to increase rent for the Lamour’s apartment, they did not want to pay the five percent increase.

The Post report continued:

The state’s eviction moratorium, which ended in January, gave wide latitude to renters suffering hardship from the pandemic, but left many landlords in a lurch. The moratorium also allowed renters to put the brakes on an eviction case against them by claiming financial hardship without having to prove it.

The outlet also noted the Lamour family had not filed any coronavirus pandemic hardship forms.

In September, a Nassau County housing judge moved to evict a Long Island man who failed to pay his mortgage in 23 years, citing the man was not protected by pandemic housing protections due to the fact he was an illegal occupant, Breitbart News reported.