“The recent announcement that the legislature is taking up the eviction moratorium extension is misguided. For over a year, landlords across New York have not been able to collect rent from their tenants because of the failure of the rental relief programs to rollout funding. This is infuriating. Meanwhile, their bills continue to pile up without any sign of relief. Many people are under the misconception that landlords have received assistance during the last 18 months of the eviction moratorium when that is simply not true. It is true that there are funds and programs set up to assist tenants with paying their rent if they lost income due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the complicated application process prevents most tenants from applying and landlords cannot apply for the funding themselves. Consequently, the funding that is available for rental assistance has not been distributed and most landlords have yet to receive assistance of any kind. As of this week, only $200 million of the $2.4 billion that was set aside for rental relief has been released; this is a massive failure and gross negligence and we should be acting to help these landlords and tenants, not further burdening them.”