There’s no eviction moratorium on NYC storage units. Now the contents of hundreds are being auctioned off.
You can’t be booted from your home yet during the pandemic. But you can still lose all your things in the unregulated, lucrative self-storage industry.
This story was originally published on Oct. 26 by THE CITY. Sign up here to get the latest stories from THE CITY delivered to you each morning.
New Yorkers’ belongings stowed away in hundreds of self-storage units are slated to be auctioned off in the coming weeks, with struggling customers left unprotected, even during the pandemic.
People in dire financial straits and unable to pay their storage bill face an unregulated form of eviction that can lead to the loss of everything from furniture to family heirlooms snapped up by strangers. Meanwhile, the billion-dollar industry is booming as New Yorkers in flux seek places to keep their possessions, movers say.