ERAP

Click

That is the sound that the help line for the New York Emergency Rental Assistance Program (“ERAP”) makes when you ask them a question they don’t know how to answer.

Unlike most park owners, I think that government can be a force for good.  Bubble-up economics works.  Trickle-down economics doesn’t.  And even if we leave substantive policy issues aside, current political winds favor big government.  Keynesian stimulus payments, a guaranteed minimum income, higher taxes, greater government scrutiny – these are the future.  The big-government bus is leaving the station whether we like it or not.  It is better for the manufactured housing industry to be on the bus pissing out the window, rather than standing on the sidewalk, being pissed on.  Instead of grumbling about government regulation, we should try to be at the table when regulation is crafted.

That doesn’t mean that the government gets it right the first time it tries to solve things.  Quite the contrary.

Earlier this year, the New York State legislature passed a bill authorizing the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (the “OTDA”) to distribute funds allocated to New York State for rental relief in the two most recent federal COVID relief bills.  ODTA christened the program ERAP and announced that they would put up a portal to distribute ERAP funds shortly thereafter.  The ERAP portal went live on June 1.  Per the program, qualifying tenants can receive up to twelve months’ worth of arrears and three months’ of prospective rent through the portal.[1]  I have six residents with significant arrears in my parks.  Since the First, I have been trying to help them access benefits that should be available to them.

Here’s how the process is supposed to work:

• First, both owner and resident log on to the portal and set up an account.  The owner sets up a landlord account and the resident sets up a tenant account;

• The owner should set up the account in the name of the person or legal entity who has a right to collect rents.  Usually, this is the legal entity that owns the land on which the park sits.   The account should not be made in the name of the individual, partners or shareholders who own that entity;[2]

• When the owner sets up its account, it will be assigned a unique ERAP landlord number.  The owner should give this number to each of its residents who want to apply for relief;

• An application has to be completed for each tenant.  The application can be started by the resident or by the owner on behalf of the resident.  Certain portions of the application must be completed by the resident, and others must be completed by the owner.  When an application is started, it is assigned a unique ERAP application number.  Both the owner and the resident should write this number down, inform the other party of it, and remember it;

• The application has to be linked to the owner’s profile.  This is where it gets mushy.  In order for an application to be linked to an owner profile, the resident has to fill out the section of the application that identifies the owner as the landlord.  If the tenant has started the application and has included that information already, the process is easy; the owner goes to the “owner home” section of the portal, clicks on “add ERAP application”, and then searches for the application using the ERAP application number and the resident’s date of birth.  The application pops up and the owner clicks on “link application”.  However, if the owner has started an application on behalf of a resident, the application can not be linked until the resident completes the applicable section of the application.  I think that, once a resident creates a profile, they can search for their pre-existing application using the ERAP number given to them by their landlord and their date of birth and that, once they find the application, they can edit it.  At least, that is how it should happen.  I have not had a chance to test this hypothesis empirically yet; and,

• Once an application is linked to the owner’s profile, the process becomes straightforward.  Certain documents and information must be uploaded or input by each party.  If the owner goes to their profile, they can see the status of their linked applications, including a checklist of what has been provided, what has been completed, and what still needs attention.  When everything is complete, the state coughs up the applicable amount of money.

Here are some kinks that still need to be straightened out:

• The portal only works with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.  It does not work with Firefox;

• During the first few days, users who tried to confirm their email addresses after setting up a profile received an error message.  This problem appears to have gone away;

• Wait-times for the help line are very long, and few of the people who staff the help desk are familiar with the program or the portal.  Calls from customers who ask questions to which helpline staff do not know the answer are sometimes disconnected mid-call; and,

• The process depends on resident cooperation.  Since the application requires internet access and a modicum of patience and goodwill, this is hit-or-miss.  One tenant has told me that he will not file an application because it requires that he answer questions that might affect the custody of his children.  Another started an application but has not finished it.  Another claims to have started an application, but refuses to give me the application number. One has booked a time with me to walk through the process and start an application with me on the phone.  It has been radio silence from the rest.  We can make the process easier for residents by providing internet access and coaching, but we can’t make anyone drink the water that we lead them to.

The list of good things that the government has produced is long.  Interstate highways, the Internet, the GPS, GUIs, SIRI, MRIs, the Roomba.  But all of them were created through an iterative process engaged in by willing parties.  If the program were to be re-designed correctly, more control would be given to owners.  This would both relieve residents of the burden of applying and remove the problem of residents who are unable, or unwilling, to engage in the process.  Nevertheless, this is the program that we have now, and we should use it.  I have tenants who are ten months in the hole.  The only way they will get caught up is if the program works.  To make the program work, we need to try to use it, learn from our mistakes, and try again.  Let’s find the residents willing to cooperate, and iterate!  As the husband told the crazy housewife in the poem by Robert Frost – the best way out is always through.

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[1] The law includes a test to determine whether a tenant qualifies for relief under ERAP.  Without going into detail, most mobile home park residents with significant arrears can qualify for relief.

[2] Confusingly, the landlord profile includes a field for first name and last name, but no field for legal entity name.  The owner should put the landowning entity’s name in both the first name and last name fields.