"The calls are coming in now at a rate we’ve never seen," Laura Felts told Capital Tonight. "They’re coming in at a rate that we don’t know what to do with."

Felts is executive director of United Tenants of Albany (UTA), a tenants’ advocacy organization. The calls she’s referring to are coming in on UTA’s eviction hotline. 

Prior to COVID-19, Felts says UTA would receive between 400 and 450 calls per month on the hotline. Last month, the group received 900 calls.

When asked why, Felts explained that prior to October, New York had a comprehensive eviction moratorium in place, but it expired. Now, the only COVID-19-related state tenant protection in place is called "The Tenant Safe Harbor Act."

But don’t call it an eviction moratorium, says Felts.

"The Tenant Safe Harbor Act is falsely being referred to as an eviction moratorium, so the housing emergency we’re in is being under-played," she argued. "All this law affords is an affirmative defense to an eviction, so landlords have every right to sue tenants no matter what the situation is that they’re in."

Felts offered a few examples of how she says the law fails tenants. 

"We have issues where tenants are showing that their kids were out of school due to the pandemic, so maybe they didn’t lose their job, but they couldn’t work and that’s basically being looked at as 'well that was your decision to not work anymore.'"

Another example.

"A tenant could have been communicating with a landlord throughout the pandemic, informing them that they can’t work or that they lost a job," she explained. "But (under the Tenant Safe Harbor Act) the landlord still has every right to sue a tenant for holdovers, for violating their lease, for staying past the date of termination notice, or staying past the expiration of their lease."

Felts says the state needs is "a true eviction moratorium."

But Jaime Michelle Cain, the coalition leader of "Under One Roof," a group formed by the Capital Region Apartment Association, says that her organization "fully supported" the Tenant Safe Harbor Act.

"The implications of it as well as the applications of it in court, in my legal opinion, has been something that actually is a good thing," Cain told Capital Tonight. "I think it’s making it so that there is no abuse to the system. And that tenants are having the burden of proving that they are COVID-effected. Once they are able to show that, then they are, practically speaking, at least where I practice… getting the help that they need."

Cain, an attorney with Boylan Code LLP, explains that in Rochester, where she works, CARES Act funding has been used to provide tenants with legal counsel in court. Additionally, she says, if a tenant in need is COVID-19-positive, Catholic Charities will assist them.

While she supports the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, Cain is not a fan of the state’s rent relief fund, which she says is creating a debt crisis. 

"There is a $100 million fund that was supposed to be for rent relief, but that has failed because the standards that were implemented…were too restrictive," said Cain. "Only $40 million has been distributed and there’s a deadline for distribution at the end of the year."

Last week, Governor Cuomo announced that he would issue an executive order loosening up the restrictions around the money and expanding the timeframe, but that order has yet to be released.

"It’s still at a stalemate with the executive and legislative. To me, that’s a failure of the government," Cain said. "That money needs to get into the hands of the tenants as soon as possible."

Felts agrees. But she also points to what she says is a ready-made legislative response to loopholes in "The Tenant Safe Harbor Act."

"The Emergency Housing Stability and Tenant Displacement Prevention Act," sponsored by (S.8667/A.10827), sponsored by Senator Zellnor Myrie is the kind of muscular eviction moratorium that Felts says is needed.

According to bill sponsor Senator Myrie, the existing statute ("The Tenants Safe Harbor Act") prevents some, but not all evictions, and still allows monetary judgements to pile up, placing a burden on tenants. He also told Capital Tonight that the law expects tenants to demonstrate in court that their financial hardship is a direct result of the pandemic-- something that can be costly and complicated.

"My bill, the Emergency Housing Stability and Tenant Displacement Prevention Act, would prohibit evictions, new cases, and money judgements for a year after the state lifts its final COVID-19-related emergency restrictions. A real moratorium would keep more people in their homes and out of harm's way," Myrie said.

But Cain’s group, Under One Roof, doesn’t support the Myrie bill.

"We (Under One Roof) did not support any bills that would cancel rent for tenants without a complete dollar for dollar offset for landlords."

Cain explains that her organization wants to get help to tenants.

"We have empathy for tenants who have found themselves in a situation that they have never been in before," she explains. "However, to ask the landlords who are the backbone of the affordable housing industry to become the subsidy in place of the government, will send these landlords off a cliff."

Cain will appear on Capital Tonight on Thursday.