The Building & Realty Institute of Westchester & the Mid-Hudson Region has asked state lawmakers to help landlords by doing whatever can be done to ensure that federal money provided to New York for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) actually gets spent.
ERAP is designed to provide rent relief for tenants hurt by the Covid pandemic by getting federal funds to cover rents into the hands of landlords.
Lisa DeRosa, BRI”™s president, submitted testimony on behalf of landlords and the BRI”™s Apartment Owners Advisory Council to a state Assembly hearing held by three Assembly committees: Housing; Social Services; and Ways and Means.
According to BRI, New York state has received approximately $2.6 billion in federal funding for the ERAP, but as of July 27 had given out less than $1 million. DeRosa said that New York and South Carolina had been vying to be dead last among states in distributing relief funds.
“Throughout the pandemic, landlords have been required to provide housing or a commercial space even when the tenant is unable to pay full or any rent,” DeRosa said.
“Many landlords readily agreed to partial payment plans or other arrangements to fulfill the moment of public emergency while awaiting funding from the state or federal government to provide relief.”
DeRosa said that BRI conducted a survey of its members and found a high degree of frustration because the rent relief program has not delivered on its promises with many issues centered on operations at the state”™s Office of Temporary Disability Assistance (OTDA). These ranged from technical problems encountered when tenants or landlords tried to submit online information, to landlords receiving contradictory, confusing or incorrect information from OTDA.
As an example, DeRosa said, “Landlords that owned multiple properties found that they could not apply as a single owner. At least one landlord who managed three different properties was advised to provide three separate email addresses to track the three properties.”
She said that landlords have been unable to get guidance for dealing with tenants who have skipped out.
“We also cannot help but notice that ERAP continues to provide no direction for landlords whose tenants have moved out without notifying the landlord, leaving behind both substantial arrears and damages,” DeRosa testified. “The landlords have no forwarding address, no ability to reach out to these tenants to ask them to apply for ERAP.”
DeRosa said that a frequent complaint seen in the member survey was that different people at a state helpline gave different answers to the same questions and serious issues often required multiple calls.
“Multiple calls to the help line … yield different answers based on who one speaks to. It has not been uncommon for the online chat to be dropped in the middle of a conversation, causing the applicant to start all over again … particularly during daytime hours,” DeRosa said.
She said that the landlords represented by BRI are not “faceless corporations, fly-by-night investors or people looking to make a quick buck.” She said that they have deep roots in their communities.
“We have deep connections with many of our tenants and we”™re dedicated to investing in our buildings to keep them in good condition and the type of apartments our residents deserve, want, and will hopefully want to live in for a long time,” DeRosa said.
“We urge you to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the ERAP program lives up to its promise.“
