CHIP has notified us that OTDA will announce later this week that all of the ERAP funds and LRAP funds have been distributed and although they will keep accepting applications they have no solution to this dilemma. Newsday posted an article stating that about 27,000 Long Islanders are behind on rent. Only a few of them actually applied for ERAP and received the funds, but now that the program is out of money there is no way of helping. CHIP believes that this will help convince elected officials to fund the program again and hopefully will not convince Long Island Democrats to call for another extension of the moratorium In January.
The Good Cause Eviction bill is picking up steam. Tenant activists are calling for the passage of the bill, one of the reasons being due to big real estate companies that are purchasing properties with free-market units and refusing to give tenants lease renewals. They plan on emptying these buildings, doing massive renovations and then raising the prices for rent. With this bill it would limit the rent increase to 3% or 1.5 times CPI. However CHIP mentioned that a lot of Democrats do not support this bill in its current state but they also don't want to shoot it down because it would look bad for them. So with this in mind, three things may happen, either the bill is passed and politicians can deal with it in its current form. The other option might be to water it down before passing which would make activists mad but it would solve the issue. Or something else might happen that could kill the energy for the bill to pass. CHIP says they hope for the last option but we should be prepared for the others.
This concludes todays update!
Sen. Schumer says predatory real estate firm is booting Brooklynites from apartments