The Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) is exhausted and as of Sunday night, the New York State Office of Temporary Assistance and Disability Assistance (OTDA) is no longer accepting applications.
But what will happen to the thousands of applications in process? Will New York succeed in extending the program?
Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that the state had requested a reallocation of $ 996 million from the Treasury Department to fund existing applications.
Most members of the New York Congressional delegation sent a letter to the Treasury hoping that it would heed the state’s request for an additional $ 1 billion in federal funding to relaunch the program.
However, for now at least, a favorable response from the Treasury is uncertain, leaving the thousands of pending applications in limbo.
According to OTDA figures, of the 278,700 applications submitted by tenants since June 1, more than 113,000 remain unprocessed. So far, some 165,000 requests have been handled by the agency. That figure alone spans $ 2.1 billion, nearly the entire $ 2.4 billion fund. However, of that sum, the state has made only 81,209 payments to the owners, that means that 70% of the landlords still do not receive their money.
The situation is exacerbated for tenants and landlords and places the Hochul administration at a tipping point, as eviction protections expire in just over two months.
“While New York accelerated rent relief going out the door and moving from the back of the package to the front between other states, there are still a lot of people who need help,” Hochul said Friday.
The state was the target of severe criticism when the relief program was framed by delays, errors and inefficiencies, but it began to gather momentum in August, when the governor accelerated the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars to New York homeowners on behalf. of low-income tenants who were unable to pay their rent as a result of the pandemic.
OTDA warned several days ago on its website that new applicants would not have the funds secured, except for eight specific counties “where allocations have not yet been exhausted,” including Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester.
Beginning Sunday, November 14 at 10 p.m., OTDA will no longer accept tenant applications, although it will receive forms from households with 80% of the area median income, which equates to approximately $ 86,000 for a family of three. That program is supported by a separate fund that the New York State Legislature designated in September.
Homeowners with buildings outside of New York City also meet the criteria for assistance from a $ 250 million state fund.
Residents outside of New York City facing eviction will also qualify for free legal help under a program announced by Governor Hochul on Friday.
Now, the only hope for the thousands of tenants on the brink of eviction is for the Treasury to approve the state’s request for funds.
At least 17 members of the New York Congressional delegation sent a letter to the US Treasury on Friday in support of Hochul’s request for more funds. However, for now, the answer is uncertain.
“As New York continues to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers face significant rental debt and are at risk of housing instability,” the letter reads. “We strongly urge the Treasury to prioritize the State’s request as the reallocation process progresses and urge it to provide New York with the additional resources necessary to continue providing critical relief through its rental assistance program. of emergency”.
Twenty months after the pandemic, New York State’s moratorium on evictions appears to be in its final stages.
Until a few months ago, New York tenants facing eviction were able to prevent their court cases from progressing by filing a form stating that they were unable to pay their rent because they had lost income during the pandemic.
Then, in August, the US Supreme Court struck down this measure, arguing that the form denied the owners due process in court. The ruling prompted lawmakers in September to rescind a new eviction moratorium that would comply with the court’s ruling.
The new moratorium, effective until January 15, 2022, allows landlords to challenge a tenant’s declaration of hardship by filing an affidavit stating that the tenant has not lost income during the pandemic.
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