Upper East Side Evictions On The Rise After Moratorium Ends, Data Show

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — After dropping to virtually zero during the pandemic, the number of people and businesses being evicted on the Upper East Side has climbed in recent months to the highest level since 2020, according to city data.

Across the Upper East Side, at least 27 households and two businesses have been evicted so far in 2022, according to data kept by the Department of Investigation.

June saw the most so far, with 12 evictions — the most the Upper East Side has seen in a month since February 2020, before COVID-19 arrived and an eviction moratorium took effect statewide.

But New York's moratorium expired in January, and evictions have steadily risen since then, even as other protections and legal hurdles remain in place. Across the city, legal evictions have increased every month during the first half of 2022, City Limits reported last month.

The real number of evictions is likely even higher, since city marshals sometimes take days or weeks to report an eviction after it is carried out, according to City Limits.

On the Upper East Side, evictions have been happening throughout the neighborhood: an eighth-floor tenant on East 86th Street, a fifth-story resident on First Avenue, a penthouse on East 66th Street.

Two businesses have been hit, too: a store on Second Avenue near East 89th Street, and an unspecified business on Third Avenue and East 62nd Street.

The end of the eviction moratorium coincided unhappily with a huge jump in rent prices as New York's tenants contended with surging demand, limited supply, and the end of the "COVID deal."

Homeless shelters, too, have also seen rising numbers of entries, according to data compiled by City Limits.

"This is exactly what we expected when the moratorium ended and that's an increase in evictions," Judith Goldiner, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told the nonprofit news outlet

The eviction moratorium barred landlords from evicting residents or businesses for non-payment of rent — though evictions for endangering other tenants or breaking the lease terms were still allowed. (That may explain the nine evictions that happened on the Upper East Side in 2021.)

On the Upper East Side, evictions still remain well below where they stood before the pandemic — in 2017 alone, at least 177 tenants were evicted from their homes in the neighborhood, as well as 34 businesses.

A growing number of tenant advocates are now pushing for the state to pass "Good Cause" eviction — a law that would mostly guarantee a right to lease renewal and cap annual rent increases. The legislation failed to pass the state legislature earlier this year.