China News Service, July 28. According to the US Overseas Chinese News Network, applications for the COVID Rent Relief Program will be closed at the end of July. The Community Land Trust of the New York Chinatown Community Land Trust and the Community Service Committee of the Asian American Lawyers Association of New York (AABANY) recently jointly organized a tenant application assistance activity in Manhattan’s Chinatown, providing assistance to more than 100 tenants.
Olympia Moy, a member of the legal student anti-epidemic working group, said that about half of the more than 100 tenants are people who make appointments in advance, and 25 activity teams composed of lawyers and volunteers provide Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Multi-language services such as Fuzhou dialect provide convenience for Chinese tenants.
As long as tenants living in New York State, even working in other states, they are expected to receive rent subsidies through applying for the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic Rent Reduction Program. The current total funding of the project is only 100 million U.S. dollars, and the financial situation will be preferably approved according to the documents submitted by the applicant Applicants whose rent has become worse due to the epidemic.
Roxy Chang, the community organizer of the Asia Pacific Association, said that among the Chinese residents of the Chinatown community, especially the elderly, because they do not have a computer or Internet, or because they do not speak English, they often miss out on applications such as the COVID-19 rent reduction plan. Aid projects launched by similar governments.
Organizing application assistance activities not only allows more Chinatown residents to understand the relevant assistance rules, but also helps qualified tenants to obtain rent reductions. The New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic Rent Reduction Program aims to provide assistance to low-income families whose rent burden increases due to reduced income during the epidemic. Applicants who are approved are expected to receive a one-time payment of one to four months of rent burden subsidy.
If it is satisfied that 30% of the monthly household income from before March 1, 2020 to the present is used to pay rent, between April and July 2020, due to the epidemic, the income before the epidemic is lower than the regional average income Tenants are expected to apply for and get approval for 80% of the households, and at least one family member in the household has U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status. (Liu Yiling)