Ithaca’s city council allowed the resolution on June 3 to petition the state government for approval to cancel unpaid rent during the pandemic. An estimated 70 percent of the city’s residents are renters, and the city is believed to be the first in the nation to approve such a resolution. However, the details of how rent cancellation would work are still unclear.

“We would have a chance to structure something more fully once we know we could move forward with rent cancellation,” Mayor Svante Myrick told USA Today for an article published on Saturday. “Even if granted these powers, would I cancel rent tomorrow? I wouldn’t.”

The resolution would grant Myrick the authority to cancel unpaid rent from residents and small businesses from April through June. But the resolution must first be approved by the state’s Department of Health. Newsweek reached out to Myrick and the health department for comment, but they did not respond by the time of publication.

New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo on March 20 issued an executive order barring the enforcement of any eviction amid the pandemic. While that order was initially set to expire this month, Cuomo later extended it in March so it would go through August. But the protections against eviction will be eased somewhat moving forward, allowing landlords to serve eviction notices and requiring individuals to prove their finances were harmed by the pandemic.

Many activists and progressive lawmakers have called for nationwide rent cancellation, as millions have lost their jobs during the pandemic. Groups have also worked to organize rent strikes amid the lockdown measures implemented in New York and across the country.

“When it comes to these rent strikes, to echo what each and every one of you have said, people aren’t striking because they don’t feel like paying rent, they’re striking because they can’t,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said during an April virtual town hall meeting. “It doesn’t matter how many threatening messages a landlord sends … you can’t coerce people to do something they cannot do.”

On April 17, Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that would cancel all rent and mortgage payments during the pandemic. The legislation was co-sponsored by several progressive colleagues, including Ocasio-Cortez.

“Congress has a responsibility to step in to stabilize both local communities and the housing market during this time of uncertainty and crisis. In 2008, we bailed out Wall Street. This time, it’s time to bail out the American people who are suffering,” Omar said at the time in an official statement.

The Ithaca resolution was put together in collaboration with the Ithaca Tenants Union.

“Ithaca is the first city in the country to do this. If the State Department of Health approves this #cancelrentlegislation, then we begin working with the city to implement it. While there’s still work to do, this is a huge and historic first step,” the organization tweeted after the decision passed.

But even if the plan is approved by the state government, the details wouldn’t be determined until July.

“What I would do is put together a working group that would allow us to find real rent relief that likely would include rent cancellation, but it would only come in partnership with relief for small landlords and homeowners,” Myrick told USA Today.