Getting stiffed on the rent relief

 

6 Sq. Ft. 

New York on Tuesday received an additional $119 million in rent-relief funds from the U.S. Treasury Department, a fraction of the $1.6 billion requested by Gov. Kathy Hochul in January. Hochul’s office estimated 8,500 pending applications for rent relief will be fulfilled with this new funding, as Crain’s reported.

This is the second time the Treasury Department’s allocation of funds for NY’s rent relief has fallen short. In November 2021, the state was granted a mere $27 million, or just 3 percent, of the $996 million Hochul requested.

As of March 14, more than 318,000 New Yorkers have applied to receive back rent paid through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). But just 127,000 applicants have been paid, according to the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

“Every dollar is meaningful; however, this falls woefully short of meeting the financial struggles of the nation’s largest population of income-insecure renters,” Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association, said in a statement. “It is deeply disappointing and frustrating that the federal government is failing to come through with the $1.6 billion the state requested in January.”

According to Crain’s, the Treasury Department will soon be releasing information on how states can request additional funds for rent relief. The process is scheduled to begin on March 31. Until then, the state will be forced to take from its own resources to provide relief to New Yorkers in need.

When the state’s eviction moratorium, first instated by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and extended by Hochul in her first week in office, ended in January, Hochul reopened the state’s rent-relief portal to give struggling New Yorkers an alternative support option following a court order. The state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) exhausted its funding and as of now will no longer be able to fulfill applications filed after September 21, 2021, according to the program’s website.

 

Governor hires homeless non-profit fixer to lead rent relief agency

 

 City Limits

 Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday nominated longtime homeless services administrator Daniel Tietz to lead the state agency tasked with overseeing New York’s tapped-out rent relief fund and administering key social service programs amid an historic homelessness crisis.

Tietz, a policy expert, nonprofit head and former top official in New York City’s Department of Social Services under Mayor Bill de Blasio, would become commissioner of the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). He has most recently served as a fixer for two of the city’s problem-plagued service organizations.

In February, he took control of the Bronx Parent Housing Network following the arrest of the group’s CEO on corruption charges and a New York Times investigation that revealed allegations of sexual assault and coercion against residents of the group’s women’s shelters. A year earlier, a state judge appointed Tietz to steer scandal-scarred shelter provider Childrens’ Community Services after its administrators were accused of defrauding the city through a network of phony subcontractors.

Tietz’s nomination as OTDA commissioner was confirmed by Hochul’s office ahead of a formal announcement Wednesday. Tietz did not respond to multiple calls, emails and direct messages, but he describes his leadership perspective in his exhaustive LinkedIn profile.

“With me are high-performing teams and diverse constituencies whom I rally around shared goals,” Tietz wrote.

Several advocates and policy experts who spoke with City Limits ahead of Hochul’s announcement described Tietz as an effective administrator who isn’t afraid to clean house—even if that means making some enemies.

“He doesn’t suffer fools,” said one veteran advocate who has worked with Tietz and asked to remain anonymous. Another called him “abrasive” but “competent and committed to” low-income New Yorkers.

If confirmed as commissioner, Tietz would take over OTDA’s vacant leadership position. Former agency head Michael Hein resigned in October following a creaky rollout of the state’s $2.4 billion Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and the departure of his boss, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Tietz would oversee ERAP at an especially challenging moment: The state’s eviction protections will expire on Jan. 15, but OTDA has allocated or earmarked nearly all of its rental assistance funds. Hochul and OTDA decided to shut down the application portal last month and now face a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society demanding that the state resume accepting applications.

Hochul is seeking about $1 billion in additional funds to cover unpaid landlords, and the state could soon redistribute $250 million of the existing fund that has yet to be claimed or sent to landlords.