COVID Rent Relief Program can help New York renters who were financially affected by Covid-19. It relaunched today with new eligibility guidelines. This could be very helpful to some, but many won’t be eligible.
The program pays towards rent for income-eligible people who paid more than 30% of their income as rent during any of the months between April-July 2020.
Rent Relief first ran back in July of this year. It now relaunched with tweaked eligibility rules. You are now eligible even if your rent before March 2020 was less than 30% of your income (during the first round, one of the requirements was that your rent before March was more than 30% of your income).
If you already got Rent Relief during the first round, you are not eligible to get it again. If you applied during the first round and were declined, they will automatically reassess your application based on the new rules – there is no need to apply again.
Income Criteria
To be considered ‘income-eligible’, your household income must be below 80% of the area’s median income. In NYC, the maximum household income to be ‘income-eligible’ is: 1 person – $63,700, 2 people – $72,800, 3 people – $81,900, 4 people – $90,950, 5 people – $98,250, 6 people – $105,550, 7 people – $112,800, and 8 or more people – $120,100.
This program considers all income, including unemployment, and the extra $600 a week Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC). It does not include SNAP benefits.
Are You Eligible?
At least one member of the household needs to be a U.S. citizen.
Then, to be eligible, 3 separate conditions must apply. They ALL need to apply.
- You were ‘income-eligible’ before March 2020.
If you are unsure of your income, you can use your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) from your 2018 or 2019 tax return.
AND
- You lost income between March 1st and one of the months from April-July
In other words, your household income was less in either April, May, June, or July than it was in February.
AND
- Your ‘rent-burden’ during one of the months from April-July was more than 30% of your income.
‘Rent-burden’ means that your monthly rent is anything more than 30% of your salary. Percentagecalculator.net is a nifty tool to help you with percentages.
To be clear: If your income during April-July, including all unemployment benefits, is more than your household income was in February, you are not eligible.
Live in NYC? Use our Eligibility Calculator to help you see if you are eligible. If you live out of NYC, use ChaiPlus1’s Calculator.
What Will You Get?
Each month’s eligibility is judged separately. You can be eligible for one, two, three, or four months (April-July).
You will receive Rent-Relief to make your rent-to-income ratio the same as in February.
Every month each household pays a percentage of their income as rent. For example, if your monthly household income back in February was $4,000 and your rent was $2,000, then your rent was 50% of your income. If your household income dropped between April 1 – July 31, say from $4,000 a month to $3,000 a month, and your rent stayed the same at $2,000 a month, then your rent is now 66.6% of your household income, instead of 50%. In this example, this program will pay $500 a month towards rent for 4 months (totaling $2,000), leaving you to pay $1,500 a month for the months of April-July, which would be exactly 50% of your April-July income (and that matches the exact percentage of income you paid for rent before March).
If you were not ‘rent-burdened’ before March 2020 (say you were paying 20% of your income towards rent) and during April-July you were ‘rent-burdened’ (say you were paying 40% of your income as rent), then this Rent Relief will reimburse you so that you will have paid 30% of your income for each eligible month from April-July. In other words, the program will calculate your Rent Relief as if you paid 30% of your income as rent before March, even though you only paid 20% of your income as rent.
They only consider rent amounts that are less than 125% of the “fair market” rents in your county. In NYC, for example: studio = $2,081, one-bed = $2,143, two-bed = $2,439, three-bed = $3,090, four-bed or more = $3,304. If your actual rent is higher, they will only consider the above maximum in calculating your Rent Relief.
How to Apply
Click here to check your eligibility and apply.
After You Apply
If you’re eligible, you’ll have to send in proof of prior income, current income, and rent amount (lease or letter from landlord is fine). Payments will be sent directly to your landlord.
Additional Notes
- Your primary residence must be in NY State.
- An additional eligibility condition is that before March 2020 and during April-July, household income must have been below 80% of the area median income (AMI). For the majority of people, if they were below 80% AMI before March, and had a reduction in income, they would automatically be below 80% AMI in April-July as well (unless the household size changed, thus changing the income-eligible amount).
- You do not have to be Unemployed in order to qualify.
- The funds can be used to cover back rents or future rents.
- Income from children under 18 years old, or full-time students do not need to be included.
- If multiple roommates rent an apartment together, each roommate/tenant can apply separately for the portion of rent for which they pay towards the overall rent.
- Frequently Asked Questions