Governor Hochul steps up effort to ease rent woes

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is promising to get more COVID-19 rental assistance money into the hands of struggling New York tenants.

This effort has taken on new urgency in light of the Supreme Court decision to allow evictions to resume during the pandemic.

This means New Yorkers behind on their rent due to financial harschip will have fewer protections when the state’s eviction ban expires on Tuesday.

New York’s rental relief program is supposed to distribute momre than $2.4 billion to renters, but as of Monday, only $200 million of that money had been distributed.

NewsChannel 13 caught up with Governor Hochul in Albany on Saturday. She told us, "we have good protections enacted by our legislature in place for renters. We also have to protect landlords. Many of these landlords are just places, people who own a building right here, like on Lark Street. They need rental money coming in, so we’re goign to come up with a program."

Governor Hochul said, to make this happen, she needs the state legislature to be in session and she is working now to make that happen.