Photo Courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Mayor Adams urged the Treasury Department to reallocate unused Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds from other states to New York, where hundreds of thousands still need help.
By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday called for an immediate infusion of funds for New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program from the United States Treasury Department.
Adams also announced new measures to bolster tenant protections and inform tenants of their rights with significant outreach efforts:
- Adams urged the Treasury Department to reallocate unused Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds from other states to New York, where hundreds of thousands still need help, and get the funds out the door.
- The City will be surging resources to the Mayor’s Public Engagement Unit’s Tenant Helpline, which is staffed by the PEU Tenant Support Unit. New Yorkers can access the helpline by calling 311 and asking for the Tenant Helpline.
- The City’s Right to Counsel program is prepared to provide free legal assistance to any eligible New Yorker, no matter what neighborhood they live in. The program has a proven track record of providing quality legal representation to New Yorkers who need it and boosting their success rate in Housing Court. See the Right to Counsel and Illegal Lockouts webpage for more resources.
- Adams launched a campaign to inform tenants of their rights, connect them to resources, and prepare frontline staff to provide the necessary support, including with a new video released Thursday.
- In the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants COVID-19 Fact-Sheet, tenants can now find all the information they need about the expiration of the evictions moratorium, ERAP, Right to Counsel, illegal lockouts, and City resources available to keep them stably housed. Tenants can also use the City’s Tenant Resource Portal to learn more about the process of eviction in New York City, what to do when getting a Notice of Eviction, and how to access the City’s resources to fight it.
- PEU will be conducting direct outreach to tenants at risk of eviction to inform them of their rights and connect them to support. In order to meet New Yorkers where they are, and ensure every tenant has access to free legal counsel, PEU will run targeted outreach by phone, text, and door-to-door canvasing to tenants who are currently in Housing Court or have a pending case.
- In partnership with PEU, MOPT, the Department of Housing and Preservation Development, and the Human Resources Administration’s Office of Civil Justice (and legal providers), the City is also launching a paid media campaign to help get the word out about illegal lockouts and the right to counsel, and to encourage tenants who are in need of assistance to contact PEU’s Tenant Helpline.
New York State received over $2.6 billion in emergency rental assistance. But more than 500,000 New York families still need help, including more than 50,000 New York City Housing Authority households, while some of the $45 billion in federal emergency rental assistance remains unspent.
“I agree with Mayor Adams. Federal funds shouldn’t be sitting there while both tenants and small landlords are still struggling. Both need to recover if our city is to bounce back from this pandemic,” City Councilman Bob Holden (D-Middle Village) added.
