Amid a growing spike in new COVID-19 cases, advocacy groups representing low-income New Yorkers are calling on Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to hold an emergency session of the state legislature to enact a COVID-19 relief package.

In an open letter to Stewart-Cousins and Heastie, more than 60 advocacy groups argue that waiting until 2021 is too long for New Yorkers who need immediate help.

They are calling on Stewart-Cousins and Heastie to reconvene the state legislature before the end of 2020 and enact a universal eviction moratorium, a hardship fund for small landlords that can enable cancellation of rent, a relief fund for excluded workers, elder parole for the incarcerated, an end to solitary confinement, rent relief to re-house the homeless and higher taxes on the wealthy.