New York State has just six weeks left to distribute tens of millions of dollars in rent relief before a federally-imposed deadline could force the state to return the cash.
The $100 million COVID-19 rent relief program was designed to reduce the burdens on renters by providing payments to their landlords, but just $40 million of the $100 million has been distributed so far.
To qualify for the relief, tenants must earn less than 80% of the area median income—which in New York City is $90,960 for a family of four—and pay more than 30% of their income towards rent before the pandemic, regardless of how coronavirus has altered their circumstances. The strict requirements have created a scenario in which $60 million in rent relief could be returned to the federal government under a December 30th deadline set up by Treasury Department under the CARES Act.
“[The] program was really set up to make it very difficult for any tenant to qualify,” Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told Gothamist.
About 57,000 renters have been denied aid in the rent relief program, as of October 28th, according to Homes and Community Renewal's most recent report. The department’s report said about 15,000 were accepted across the state. Another 22,000 are pending. The deadline to apply was initially set for the end of July, but New York extended it by one week into August.
Those receiving unemployment are also ineligible, although the jobless payments have been drastically reduced since the federal CARES Act's $600 weekly pandemic payments lapsed. Undocumented New Yorkers also cannot apply directly.
“It never made sense to me other than creating all sorts of obstacles for people who are in crisis to get help,” Davidson said.
Longtime Crown Heights resident Cecilia was among 94,000 renters who applied for the program, after she lost her lifeline when federal pandemic aid was cut in half and the second round of payments expired. The 65-year-old, who asked that her full name be withheld, applied this summer, but has yet to receive word on whether she’ll get some aid. The Legal Aid Society expects she’ll be denied since she’s receiving unemployment, about $260 a week.
“It’s like, save bit by bit and come up with the month, as I did in June, July. Since then, I haven’t paid anything,” said Cecilia, who had worked part-time for Hallmark Cards before the pandemic but fears returning to work because of her health conditions. Unemployment benefits and disability insurance from a bad fall two decades ago weren’t enough to cover rent and her other bills. Now, she’s four months behind rent.
“I can’t sacrifice my light and my gas and the car, because they will repossess my car," she said.
Across the five boroughs, the median rent award was about $1,900 spread over four months of rent under a formula in which tenants’ rent is reduced, but not eliminated.
That’s far from enough to cover Cecilia’s $1,200 in rent, or make up from the past four months. But it would help, if she qualified.
“I could balance it out,” she explained. “Because, I’ve been doing that for years. Just taking from here, and there. One month, I wouldn’t do much groceries or now that my light bill is down because winter is back, so no air conditioning.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office did not respond to questions.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Homes and Community Renewal, the state agency charged with administering the program, said, "The state has fully allocated CARES Act funding, which can only be used for narrowly defined COVID-related costs and the state will spend every dollar on eligible costs related to the pandemic response, including personal protective equipment, testing statewide, and contact tracing." They have not provided a breakdown of the remaining $60 million in the rent relief funds.
The state insists all of the CARES Act money for the state—some $5.1 billion—will be spent by the federal deadline.
"We are continuing to evaluate the remaining applications to determine if there are any more that meet the Legislature’s specific requirements," the spokesperson said in an email. "To ensure additional protections for tenants, the Tenant Safe Harbor Act was enacted to prohibit any tenant from being evicted for non-payment of rent if they have suffered financial hardship due to the COVID-19 public health crisis."
State Senator Brian Kavanagh, the lawmaker who sponsored the bill to get the program up and running, has previously noted the rent relief was inadequate. But the legislature is out of session, and a bipartisan bill in Congress to extend the deadline remains stuck in the Senate.
Under guidance from the Treasury Department, the money from the CARES Act provided to local and state governments must be incurred by December 30th. What exactly that means is unclear, and if the state would just move the intended rent relief funds towards another program to avoid sending cash back to the feds is also unknown.
Kavanagh said eligibility restrictions should be altered, admitting they were "more stringent than necessary." He said he's committed to ensuring the funds are spent by deadline on rent relief, but conversations on how to do that are ongoing, as are conversations on how to roll out billions in funds should Congress pass more coronavirus relief. (That doesn't appear likely under a Trump administration, but could shift under a Biden administration.)
Kavanagh didn't have a timeline for any changes to ensure this $60 million goes to helping tenants in NYS. For the legislature to do anything, a special session would have to be called.
“The governor through the executive order power does have the ability to alter existing programs," Kavanagh noted. "But whether that is a better way to do or whether it is better to have the legislature alter the program or HCR to use its administrative authority is an open question at this point.”
The rollout of COVID relief funds and looming federal deadline is a national issue. Some states have reworked the program to expand the relief to more tenants.
In Connecticut, more people are processing paperwork and the amount of required paperwork has been reduced to work through a backlog. Delaware added more funds and extended the deadline to December 4th.
“They designed the program so badly that they were not able to do what they said they were, [what] their intention was,” Davidson said. “There’s still time to make this better.”
Some eviction protections for tenants on a state and federal level will also expire January 1st, while protections under the Tenant Safe Harbor Act don't cover all renters.
The HCR spokesperson added the department is "acutely aware" the pandemic has exacerbated housing insecurity and the state is "working around the clock."
Davidson says Cuomo should consider an executive order to speed the distribution of funds before it's too late.
Another renter in the East Village, Lauren Isaacs, was doing well for herself as a self-employed art conservator for 12 years after recovering from a lay-off during the 2008 Great Recession. But when the city shut down, thousands of dollars in contracts were cancelled.
She applied for the rent program, but didn’t qualify due to her pre-COVID income.
“There was no middle ground,” she said, acknowledging the most needy of renters had received the relief, but it didn’t help renters like her who suddenly had to wait in food lines in order to make ends meet.
“When all of this came up and I got thrown into unemployment, suddenly my ability as someone who can always go out and find a way to make things work, was no longer allowed,” said Isaacs. “No matter what I did, no matter how hard I worked, no matter what jobs I could find, I couldn’t make that happen.”
Isaacs is now relying on food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to help with groceries—a reality she never envisioned previously. A trickle of contracts are coming through again, but she fears more coronavirus restrictions as NYC could become an "orange zone."
Unemployment benefits are set to dry up for some 12 million people next month, most who are freelancers or gig workers like herself.
“I’m stuck in a Manhattan apartment I’ve been able to afford 15 years, and suddenly, the only income I can make through unemployment doesn’t come close to doing that."
This article has been updated with additional information from HCR.
