The Legal Aid Society slammed the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) for its inadequate outreach and a cumbersome online application process in response to the lower than expected number of applications submitted to New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), as reported by Gothamist.

The program went online June 1st with the mission of disbursing $2 billion in federal and state rental assistance to vulnerable New Yorkers who have encountered housing and income insecurity due to the catastrophic economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ellen Davidson, staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society, said they’ve asked OTDA to release zip code and income-level data on tenants who’ve applied for the program to determine whether outreach efforts have worked and who’s being left out.

“When any of these programs are created, oftentimes you see the highest income, most educated people applying before the most vulnerable,” she said. “Sometimes it takes unconventional outreach, directed outreach to make sure that everyone knows about the application.”