New York receives just $119M of the $1.6B requested for rent relief
Photo by Daryan Shamkhali on Unsplash
New York on Tuesday received an additional $119 million in rent-relief funds from the U.S. Treasury Department, a fraction of the $1.6 billion requested by Gov. Kathy Hochul in January. Hochul’s office estimated 8,500 pending applications for rent relief will be fulfilled with this new funding, as Crain’s reported.
This is the second time the Treasury Department’s allocation of funds for NY’s rent relief has fallen short. In November 2021, the state was granted a mere $27 million, or just 3 percent, of the $996 million Hochul requested.
As of March 14, more than 318,000 New Yorkers have applied to receive back rent paid through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). But just 127,000 applicants have been paid, according to the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
“Every dollar is meaningful; however, this falls woefully short of meeting the financial struggles of the nation’s largest population of income-insecure renters,” Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association, said in a statement. “It is deeply disappointing and frustrating that the federal government is failing to come through with the $1.6 billion the state requested in January.”
According to Crain’s, the Treasury Department will soon be releasing information on how states can request additional funds for rent relief. The process is scheduled to begin on March 31. Until then, the state will be forced to take from its own resources to provide relief to New Yorkers in need.
When the state’s eviction moratorium, first instated by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and extended by Hochul in her first week in office, ended in January, Hochul reopened the state’s rent-relief portal to give struggling New Yorkers an alternative support option following a court order. The state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) exhausted its funding and as of now will no longer be able to fulfill applications filed after September 21, 2021, according to the program’s website.
As of March 1, the state has delivered approximately $1.6 billion in rent relief, according to the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
The state budget, currently in negotiations and due April 1, will likely include more money for the program.
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