This New York City Landlord Just Waived Rent for 200 Tenants Who Are Struggling in the Pandemic

Conscious of the financial strain people are facing, Mario Salerno, a landlord from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, has just told tenants in across 18 properties that they don't need to pay rent this month.

"Due to the recent pandemic of Coronavirus COVID-19 affecting all of us, please note I am waiving rent for the month for April," reads the notice that he left on the front doors of all 80 of the apartments he owns in Williamsburg.

"I've been having in the last 10 days a lot of tenants worried, crying, complaining that they can't pay, and losing their jobs," Salerno told NBC New York . "For me, it was more important for peoples health and worrying about who could put food on whose table."

He added that everybody's priority right now should be staying home and taking care of each other, not worrying about going out to work and potentially endangering themselves and others because they need to make money.

"I had tenants that said they can't work, they didn't have money to pay me," he said. "I say dont worry about paying me, worry about your neighbor, worry about your family... God is good to me and we're successful, and I'm just really concerned about everyone's health."