Money is still available for landlords who might be behind on mortgage or tax payments and for tenants in crisis in Glens Falls, but those in need might not know what they can use, leaders in Glens Falls have said this week.
Calling it a problem at both ends—that landowners and tenants both need help—Ward 3 Councilor Diana Palmer said: “There are more local resources than people might be aware of.”
She has been working through the city’s Buildings and Codes committee, and with city consultant Jim Thatcher of CT Male Associates, to create a central web page on the city’s site that will be an information hub for rental and landowner assistance.
She was adamant that it was not completed yet, and asked that people not yet call the city. It will likely be a few weeks before the webpage is completed, she told the Glens Falls Common Council on Tuesday Jan. 11.
“Locally, we wanted to know what we could do to help people who reach out to us,” Palmer said in an interview after the council meeting. “Part of it is getting them info about resources and part of it is using the CARES funding.”
Both the city and local nonprofits have money to be used. CARES Act funds, distributed through the Community Development Block Grant and Service Grant programs from HUD last year, must be spent later this year.
At Warren-Hamilton Community Action, Executive Director Lynn Ackershoek said she expects to get more calls from tenants Monday.
The state's moratorium on housing evictions will end Saturday unless Gov. Kathy Hochul takes executive action before then. By Monday, renters could be facing eviction notices.
Over the past year, Community Action distributed $56,000 in CDSG funds to help renters pay their rent, Ackershoek said, even though the group had set-aside about $160,000 for that purpose.
Community Action helps income-eligible people with a number of problems they may face from food and housing security to help with transportation. They disperse up to $2,000 per household for housing, Ackershoek said.
She believes the eviction moratorium has kept people from seeking aid. The people her group generally works with do not come to Community Action, until there is a crisis.
“Then they decide to act,” she said. The moratorium kept the crisis at bay.
She and Kimberly Sopczyk, executive director of the Family Service Association of Glens Falls, have both been speaking with Thatcher about their resources and the needs they are seeing.
Thatcher said the work toward the new web page is still in the research stage, but he echoed what the directors said: "They [Community Action and Family Services] are not out of money, so they have funds and resources, and they're not seeing the crush of applications from tenants, or inquiry from landlords."
At the same time, the nonprofits have systems already in place to help, and the city has CARES Act funds dedicated to rental assistance but that it has yet to use.
The city is also talking to these and possibly other nonprofits about administration of rental assistance programs, but the details must follow HUD guidelines. They need to work out how the money can be spent in a public-private partnership that would be created.
In the meantime, the Albany Business Journal reported that the governor is looking to the Rent Relief Portal which was set up during the pandemic to help get funds to people in need. The portal has shut down as federal funds have run out, but the governor is reaching out to the federal government for more help.
The New York State Landlord Rental Assistance Program and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, have been shut down because of lack of federal funding, state websites say. Yet, Thatcher said that landlords should keep their eyes on these programs.
"It's certainly possible for a landlord to keep in touch with those programs and see what will happen,” he said.
We fixed the typo in the headline and apologize for the silliness of it. –Editor