Fitzgerald said that the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. Here are some things that the help desk for the New York State Emergency Rental Assistance Program (“ERAP”) have told me – sometimes during the course of the same call:
“Your tenant Mrs. Hammersmith’s application is complete.”
“Mrs. Hammersmith has not uploaded any of the documents that she needs to upload for her application.”
“Mrs. Hammersmith needs to upload a picture of her driver’s license. After that, her application will be complete.”
“I cannot tell you anything about Mrs. Hammersmith’s application, because that is confidential information.”
“We no longer accept PDF W-9s. You need to input them on the platform.”
“Some people are having trouble inputting W-9s on the platform. You seem to be having that problem. In those cases, a PDF is OK.”
“We have changed our policy. We no longer accept PDF W-9s. They were acceptable in the past, but no benefits will be paid out unless you input your W-9 information on the platform.”
“You could work around your inability to upload your W-9 on the platform by just uploading a PDF W-9, instead of inputting your W-9 information on the platform. Have you tried that?”
This has taught me that my intelligence is at best second-rate.
ERAP is administered by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (the “OTDA”). The way it is supposed to work is each property owner who has tenants who are in the red sets up a profile on the ERAP website maintained by the OTDA. The property owner provides a W-9 and banking information, as well as copies of the tenant’s lease, a statement of arrears, copies of receipts, and, although this requirement was recently dropped, proof of ownership. The tenant, who applies separately, provides information about their residence, identity and income. The tenant’s application is assigned a unique five-digit alphanumeric ID code. Using that and the tenant’s date of birth, the property owner links the tenant’s application to the owner’s profile. Once that happens, a case worker from OTDA reviews the file, informs the parties whether any documents are missing, and, if everything is complete, approves payment. Then, money sluices into the owner’s bank account and the tenant is relieved of his or her legal obligation to pay.
That is how it is supposed to work.
The ERAP website advertises a help line. If you dial 844-NYRENT (844-691-7368), you can chat with one of the people hired to man the phone lines for OTDA. The staff are pleasant people who are learning about the program in real time. They are not IT specialists and they do not know any case specifics. If a customer has a question about IT, the staff will write up a help ticket and request that an IT specialist contact the customer directly. IT specialists respond to help tickets within six to eight weeks, and it is not possible to arrange a time for the call-back to happen when the customer is at his or her computer.[1] Access to OTDA case workers who review specific cases is even more restricted. Nobody – call staff, customers, IT specialists – can contact case workers. Help line staff are qualified to offer little more than commiserations.
According to the ERAP website as of July 30, 168,321 families have applied for ERAP relief. Last week, the first payments went out, to much fanfare from the state. As I understand it, as of today fifty-five families have received ERAP payments.
Yep. Fifty-five out of 168,321. That is the highly-touted success rate.
The program’s slow start has been used as support for an extension of the state eviction moratorium. The reasoning is that relief is in sight. Why remove the protection of the moratorium when the cavalry is just over the horizon? This is crazy. Unlike in March 2020, jobs are now plentiful and COVID is a pandemic of choice among the unvaccinated. We have been waiting for ERAP payments since the first of June. The state put the eviction moratorium in place. It also created the process for distributing ERAP funds. Isn’t it disingenuous for the state to use its own flawed execution of its own program as the reason for extending a policy whose utility has expired? After all, you can kill your parents. If your parents die, you can say, “Take pity on me! I’m an orphan!” But to kill your parents and to then say, “Take pity on me! I’m an orphan!” is the definition of chutzpah.
[1] In the fall of 1983, a citizen of East Germany ordered a washing machine. He was told that it would be delivered on December 12, 2015. He asked, “Morning or afternoon?” The salesperson asked, “Why?” The buyer said, “Because my refrigerator will arrive in the morning”
It can reduce a second rate intelligence to blithering idiocy. Or worse.
…look what it has done to me.
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