Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island will receive $160,000 in New York State funding to help residents get money from the state's Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
The program, known as ERAP, is an economic relief program that helps low and moderate-income households to request assistance for rental and utility arrears accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic. It will also help landlords to collect back rents.
Approved applicants living at their primary residences may receive up to 12 months of payments for rents accrued on or after March 13, 2020; up to three months of additional assistance in the future if the household spends 30 percent or more of its gross monthly income on rent and also applies for rental arrears, and up to 12 months of electric or gas utility arrears dating from March 13, 2020, if the household also applies for rental arrears.
Payments on the tenants' behalf will be made directly to the landlord or property owner and utility company. Tenants, landlords or property managers, and utility companies will be notified of the amounts paid on their behalf. If a landlord is difficult to locate or does not otherwise provide information needed to complete the application after initial outreach efforts, the money will be held for 180 days to allow time to find the landlord and collect the information, as well as to provide tenant protections and maximize landlord participation.
OLA will receive the money as part of a partnership with Suffolk County, the Family Service League, and Nassau Suffolk Law Services. The organization must ensure that immigrant and nonimmigrant Latinos and others are aware of the program and will receive assistance upon applying. (ERAP assistance is available to all eligible New York residents, regardless of immigration status.)
"Immigrant community members, especially if they are undocumented, can be extremely vulnerable to exploitation by landlords," Sandra Dunn, OLA's associate director, said on Monday in a statement. "The pandemic has created further insecurity, with landlords threatening to evict tenants, in some cases even when tenants have been paying their rent. The pandemic is also prompting landlords to sell the properties that they have always been renting out. For our longtime local residents, this means the place where they've lived, for over a decade in some cases, is suddenly no longer available. We are looking at an acute housing shortage as a result of the pandemic and want to do everything possible so that people will not be out on the street and homeless. We strongly encourage tenants and landlords alike to participate in ERAP. If landlords don't participate, they won't be able to get the back rent they are due from the state."
OLA held a Facebook Live event on June 8 to inform Spanish-speaking residents about the availability of ERAP and eligibility criteria and to answer questions about the program. The organization also held an in-person ERAP clinic at its East Hampton office last Thursday, helping several community members fill out applications for emergency rental assistance.
OLA plans to train volunteers and organizational partners who work with immigrant community members, as well as those who work with other vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and the disabled. It is also assembling a team of attorneys, in addition to the tenants-rights attorney Jack Lester, to provide pro bono legal counsel or representation for the most challenging cases, and to take the continuing legal education seminars offered by Nassau Suffolk Law Services in order to better assist OLA's clients.
