Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney with The Legal Aid Society’s Civil Law Reform Unit appeared on WNYC’s The Capitol Pressroom to discuss New York State’s struggles in distributing billions in pandemic rent relief.

Davidson explained that New York was one of the last states in the country to open applications for rent relief and that from the beginning the program was plagued by a cumbersome application process and a glitchy online portal. And while applicants have been able to complete the process, very little money has been paid out.

“Remember there are 2 billion dollars in federal money that the State has,” said Davidson. “And they’ve sent out less than 1% of that money in two months.”

“It’s been disappointing from beginning to end,” she continued. “The other problem is that the agency has not been transparent with the public or stakeholder about what’s going on. There are no real processes or procedures that people can look to to understand how to do this application process.”

Davidson also expressed her support for extending the State’s eviction moratorium which is set to expire on August, 31st, to allow time to ensure rent relief is processed, but also as a matter of public health.

“As the Delta variant is taking hold in New York State, and as our cases, and hospitalizations, and deaths are continuing to rise the eviction moratorium is needed because we need to get a hold of the coronavirus surge,” she said. “If we’re going to be sending a lot of people inside to court to defend their eviction cases, that’s going to be bad for the state in terms of the virus.”

Listen to the full segment below.