The Legal Aid Society and housing advocates throughout New York called out the failure of the emergency rent relief program passed by state legislators last May to deliver on its mandate and help struggling tenants pay their rent, as reported by THE CITY.

A new report released by the Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) shows that less than $40 million of that $100 million slated for statewide emergency rent relief was disbursed because too few people met the strict eligibility requirements by the August application deadline – fulfilling the prediction of legal service providers who warned that the program’s rules were too restrictive.

“The program was set up in a terrible way. If you want to ensure that people don’t get help, you set up a program the way it was set up,” said Ellen Davidson, a tenant attorney with The Legal Aid Society.