State rent relief program picks up speed; more applicants sought

Federal rent relief has started reaching Long Islanders, with the state announcing Tuesday that more than $100 million — or 4.2% — of $2.4 billion in aid has been sent out.

Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance Commissioner Michael Hein said the state agency has made strides in streamlining the application process and will allocate enough money by late September — $780 million dispensed or in the pipeline — to avoid the risk that officials in Washington will claw back funds.

But Hein said more New Yorkers should seek assistance, since trends suggest the 158,000 households who have applied will not use up the $2.4 billion allocated over the long run.

The program will accept applications until all money is spent. New Yorkers may qualify if they lost income because of the pandemic and earn no more than 80% of their area's median income — currently $94,900 for a family of four on Long Island.

"The numbers just won't work. We need more applications," Hein said. "We're going to be working with everybody across the board to be able to garner the number of applications necessary to allocate the dollars."

Besides the $100 million sent to landlords, another $360 million has been set aside, mostly for some 31,000 tenants, who have been preliminarily approved, but whose paperwork requires landlord action, Hein said. He noted that those with uncooperative landlords will be able to use that inactivity to fight evictions in court.

"Even if the landlord never comes forward, those individuals are shielded," Hein said, adding that OTDA will reserve money for such tenants for up to a year.

Although the state's eviction moratorium expires at the end of August, both Long Island counties currently have high enough COVID-19 transmission rates to fall under the federal government's moratorium, which lasts through Oct. 3.

Courts are hearing eviction cases, but the number of cases filed remains low and few evictions have been authorized, according to data from the state Office of Court Administration and local sheriffs.

OTDA received about 2,730 rent relief applications from Long Island by the end of July, according to an agency report. Hundreds more have been submitted to three towns that opted to distribute federal money independent of the state, including Oyster Bay, Islip and Hempstead.

The state has paid landlords on behalf of about 7,070 New York households. And Long Islanders are starting to get word that assistance has reached property owners, according to social service groups that help with applications.

The nonprofit Housing Help Inc. worked with 62 clients in Huntington to submit applications, and heard last week that the first filing submitted — on June 7 — had resulted in a payment, Executive Director Pilar Moya-Mancera said. The Family Service League has assisted more than 200 clients and has "slowly" seen payments make the rounds, according to Division Director Robyn Berger-Gaston.

"The system has improved," Berger-Gaston said, noting last week that self-attestation forms were now available for those struggling to gather traditional documentation of their hardship. "It really cuts out a lot of red tape for people."

He noted OTDA has moved to reinforce the rent relief effort with 1,400 workers from the state and private contractors.

"We are confident that this upward trajectory will continue," Hein said.

The program's rollout did not inspire confidence among landlords, who saw a prior state rent relief effort distribute less than half the $100 million budgeted, Moya-Mancera said.

"They're questioning if this program is legit," Moya-Mancera said. "We have to go through the process of explaining how this time around it's different."

Estimates show the need dwarfs the number of applications submitted on Long Island. Surgo Ventures, a nonprofit focused on solving health and social problems, estimates that 14,700 households are in arrears in Suffolk County, and about 13,420 in Nassau County.

Moya-Mancera said many landlords are confused about their rights. If they accept the aid, owners cannot raise the rent and must continue housing the tenant for a year. However, landlords can file an eviction case if a new issue, including missed rent, arises within that year.

By Sarina Trangle

sarina.trangle@newsday.comSarinaTrangle

Sarina Trangle covers affordability and cost of living issues and other business topics. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at amNewYork.