NY’s Rent Relief Program Only Helped 7K Families, Audit Reveals

By Ilana Siyance

New York State received $2.6 billion from the federal government to fund the rent relief program and help families facing eviction due to the pandemic. NY has yet to payout most of those funds.

On Monday, a new audit revealed that so far less than $100 million of the funds have been delivered to only 7,000 families. The report by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli indicates that less than 4 percent of the funds were doled out, though some 168,000 families have already applied for the aid. The worst part is that New York stands to lose the federal aid to other regions, unless it delivers the funds before September 30—which is just six weeks away.

The report comes amid heavy criticism for the program and calls on exiting-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fix the problems and accelerate payouts. “There is enormous need from tenants who fear losing their homes and landlords who need rental assistance to keep their buildings running,” said Judith Goldiner, the top attorney at the Legal Aid Society. “And it’s simply horrifying that months after applications began only 7,000 households have gotten rent paid.”

As reported by the NY Post, DiNapoli’s audit also showed other problems in the program, including that Gov. Cuomo’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance failed to simplify the lengthy application paperwork, by leaving out the instructions. Also, the report said the OTDA did not translate the application into important languages, including Korean, Bengali, French and Italian. On the plus side, the report did applaud Cuomo for adding 350 ‘”volunteer” state employees to the program in an attempt to bolster the program’s efficiency.

OTDA spokesman Justin Mason defended the program, saying it provisionally approved another 38,000 applications, worth $525 million, though payments have not yet been made. Those payments will bring the state closer to meeting the feds’ $780 million threshold, to keep from losing the aid. “While we will review the Comptroller’s findings and are always searching for ways to improve this program, we are dismayed that this report does not accurately reflect the stabilizing impact the program is having for renters and landlords alike,” said Mason.

As per the Post, on Monday, several lawmakers called for an emergency session for legislators, so that a new eviction moratorium in can be passed following last week’s supreme court decision which dealt a heavy blow to the state’s current eviction moratorium.