ALBANY — New York could soon lose out on $2.4 billion it was allocated in federal relief funds for tenants and landlords due to administrative delays at an executive branch agency, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer warned Sunday in an open letter to the head of the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.
Included in the omnibus COVID-19 relief package that was signed into law earlier this year was a $46 billion relief fund for people who have been economically harmed by the pandemic and are struggling to pay rent or avoid foreclosure. New York was entitled to $2.4 billion of that total.
New York was the only state that had given out $0 from that fund by July 21, Schumer wrote in his letter, and since then has distributed $117,000. That works out to about 0.005 percent of the total. Texas has distributed more than $450 million, the Associated Press reported earlier this month, and Virginia about $155 million.
“Thousands and thousands of New York tenants could be deprived of critical rent relief checks if the state doesn’t move more quickly on getting this money out,” Schumer wrote in a news release accompanying his Sunday letter. “Today, I am formally asking ODTA to move heaven and earth to fix the mess, pick up the pace and get this federal money out the door before it’s too late for tenants and landlords. The message today is: tenant relief now. No more delay.”
The state set up an online portal to apply for the funds at the beginning of June. Almost half of Americans struggled to pay rent due to economic hardship last year, Schumer's office said, so demand for the rental relief funds is enormously high. The Associated Press reported that the website has repeatedly crashed and thousands have experienced glitches while attempting to apply.
“Test payments were made July 19 and we are now ready to safely and efficiently deliver billions of dollars in rental assistance to New Yorkers after opening the program to applications within weeks of enactment in April," wrote Anthony Farmer, spokesman for OTDA in an emailed statement.
"The program agreed to with the Legislature set a 30-day period requiring the prioritization of more than 100,000 applications in order to target initial payments to those who need it most," Farmer wrote. "That prioritization and review effort continues as new application and eligibility systems make it possible to provide payments only weeks after launch and, in the meantime, tenants who have submitted a completed application remain protected from eviction.”
While for the first month applications were considered based on the degree of their need, now applications for rental relief are evaluated first-come-first-serve.
If the funds don't get into the hands of New Yorkers promptly, the state could forfeit the $2.4 billion as soon as the end of September, Schumer said, with the federal government distributing the money to other states and municipalities. The state's eviction moratorium is also scheduled to end Aug. 31, Schumer noted, meaning there could be some tenants who face eviction while awaiting money they are entitled to.
“How it works with federal funds is that if you don’t use them, you could potentially lose them, and that would be very bad,” Schumer wrote. “New York already sends enough money to the feds. These dollars are meant for New Yorkers."
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Schumer: State could lose $2.4B in federal funds due to administrative delays - Times Union
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