What it means for you
A 2020 state law used federal relief money for one-time subsidies covering the increase in rent burden for up to four months, from April through July 2020. The state paid landlords directly, and tenants did not repay the aid.
Who benefits: New York renters whose household income was under 80% of the area median, whose income fell, and whose rent exceeded 30% of income during the covered period; 17,245 households were approved across both rounds.
When the pandemic cut people’s pay in spring 2020, this law created New York’s first COVID rent relief program. It covered the increase in a household’s rent burden—the share of income going to rent—for up to four months from April through July 2020. The state paid landlords directly, and tenants did not repay the aid.
In the first round, applicants had to earn under 80% of their area’s median income both before the pandemic and when they applied, already spend more than 30% of income on rent, and have lost income. Section 8 voucher holders and public housing residents were ineligible. In December 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo reopened the program and removed the requirement to prove a pre-pandemic rent burden.
The initial results were limited. Of nearly 94,000 applicants, payments were made or pending for 15,022 households by October 2020, about 16%, with an average grant of $2,415. About 86% of the money went to New York City renters. After the second round, a State Comptroller audit found that 17,245 households had been approved and about $47.2 million disbursed—less than half the law’s $100 million cap.
Sen. Brian Kavanagh and Assembly Member Steven Cymbrowitz sponsored the law. The Senate passed it 61–0 on May 28, 2020, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it on June 17. The federal CARES Act paid for the program, so no state services were cut to fund it.
HousingLower costs
Sources
- S8419, Enacts the "emergency rent relief act of 2020"New York State Senate, June 17, 2020
- A10522 (same as S8419)New York State Senate
- COVID Rent Relief Program, first round informationNew York State Homes and Community Renewal
- New York State Rent Relief Funding: Spotlight on New York CityOffice of the New York State Comptroller, August 1, 2021
- Housing Trust Fund Corporation - Internal Controls Over and Maximization of Federal FundingOffice of the New York State Comptroller, March 16, 2023
- Governor Cuomo announces new COVID rental assistance programNew York State Senate
- States struggle to get rent relief to tenants amid pandemicAssociated Press, March 30, 2021
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 11, 2026, which corrected it. Confirmed the law, sponsors, vote, funding, eligibility, and delivered status. Updated the entry from its October 2020 snapshot to the program’s final audited results and clarified what the subsidy covered.
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