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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
By Forum Staff
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday called on the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance to move heaven and earth to get much-delayed federal rent relief into the pockets of people who need it before it’s too late. Schumer made public a formal letter to the state agency and said the more than $2 billion he secured for the state and tenants—as part of the larger COVID relief bill he pushed through the Senate—cannot be delayed any further and that the program being utilized by the State of New York to get the dollars out needs to be improved immediately to move even faster, especially as the State of New York’s eviction moratorium deadline of Aug. 31 and U.S. Treasury’s mandated date for beginning to reallocate funds at the end of September approaches. As reflected in the data released by the Department of Treasury for the month of June, New York State was one of only two states that had given out $0 in federal rent relief. Schumer is demanding swift action to reverse this deeply concerning status report.
“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 said. “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.”
Schumer lamented with tenants and state lawmakers that only a pittance of the federal funds have gone out—in light of vast public pressure. He said it is good the State is finalizing its process for disbursing dollars and some funds are trickling out, but that we will need a waterfall of funds to avoid the looming deadlines, both related to evictions and Treasury mandates at the end of September.
“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 added. “New York already sends enough money to the feds. These dollars are meant for New Yorkers. That’s why I fought so hard for them, and our tenants, in the first place.”
Schumer explained that these dollars were a hard fight at the federal level and that they were fought for so people who needed them could get the assistance they needed fast to avoid the threat of eviction or overwhelming debt piling up. Schumer said more than 100,000 New York City residents and about 1,000 on Long Island have already applied for these funds and need the dollars flowing and that further delay could cost New York. According to a survey of rent-regulated apartments by the Community Housing Improvement Program, NYC renters owe over a billion dollars in rent. New York lags far behind other states in delivering rent relief, with Texas already having distributed 388 million to 61,100 households, according to the Associated Press.
