December 7, 2020


Dear Community Partner:
 
Thank you for your ongoing partnership in our shared commitment to serve New Yorkers in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Following our standing weekly call, we continue to share important updates as well as an ongoing synopsis of the information shared in prior communications which can now be found on our DSS COVID-19 Community Updates page.  

Free COVID-19 Testing Sites

Free testing continues to be available throughout the five boroughs. Getting frequent tests should be every New Yorker's goal. Don't stop at just one test. A schedule of mobile testing locations throughout the City as well as detailed information on locations and types of testing offered at regular testing sites (including rapid testing and antibody tests) can be found here. These are no cost testing sites open to all New Yorkers.

Borough specific flyers for mobile and self-test/micro testing site locations for the week of December 7th are available here in multiple languages. Please share widely.

Pandemic EBT Benefits (P-EBT) Outreach

On Monday November 30, OTDA sent text messages to approximately 96,000 households state-wide whose P-EBT food benefits were issued onto the Medicaid Common Benefit Identification Card (CBIC) of either the parent/guardian or oldest child in the Medicaid-only household (P-EBT “Group 2” households), and who have not yet redeemed any P-EBT food benefits.

The text message is being sent to Group 2 households which have not redeemed benefits and for which OTDA has a working cell phone number. The text message will remind them that their P-EBT food benefits are still available and will provide a link to a webpage with resources to assist them in creating a PIN for the CBIC linked to the P-EBT account.

The text message has been sent from 877-452-0098 and stated the following:

Your child has been issued P-EBT food benefits that have not been accessed. Visit https://otda.ny.gov/PEBT for info on how to access these benefits. 
 
There are approximately 603,000 children across the State in Group 2 – approximately 92,000 children in approximately 82,000 households who receive MA and who are known to the Welfare Management System (WMS), and approximately 511,000 children in approximately 337,000 households who applied for and receive MA through the New York State of Health exchange and are not known to WMS. Benefits were issued and letters about the benefits were sent to these households in June and July.
 
By sending out these text messages to the approximately 96,000 households in Group 2 who have not yet accessed P-EBT food benefits and providing a link to resources intended to assist them with creating a PIN, OTDA hopes to increase the number of households accessing these benefits.

NYS Homes and Community Renewal COVID-19 Rent Relief Program

In response to inquiries received regarding the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) COVID-19 Rent Relief Program grant distribution, the following is a synopsis on the status of this State program and awards made. In May 2020, the NYS Legislature passed the Emergency Rent Relief Act of 2020 to help qualifying low-income renters in New York State impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 Rent Relief Program is administered by New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR).

Applicants were required to meet all of the following criteria:

  • Must be a renter and have a primary residence in New York State;
  • Before March 1, 2020 and at the time of application, household income must have been below 80 percent of the Area Median Income, adjusted for household size;
  • Before March 1, 2020 and at the time of application, the household must have been “rent burdened,” which is defined as paying more than 30 percent of gross monthly income towards rent; and
  • Applicants must have lost income during the period of April 1, 2020 to July 31, 2020.

The legislation directed HCR to include cash benefits, including unemployment benefits, in the calculation of applicants’ income. Tenants receiving a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher for their housing costs or that reside in public housing where their rent cannot exceed 30 percent of their income were ineligible to receive assistance.

HCR received nearly 83,000 completed applications online and an additional 11,000 paper applications. All online applications have now been reviewed, and the majority of paper applications have been reviewed. From the pool of completed applications, HCR received thousands of applications that did not include all of the necessary documentation or were not clearly eligible. HCR reached out to these applicants to request additional documents.

All applicants will be notified of their approval or denial status. For applicants approved for assistance, both the tenant and their landlord will be notified at the time that the subsidy is disbursed. This notification will include the amount of assistance, the timeline for receipt, and the method selected to have any additional funds credited back to the applicant if they have already paid some or all of their rent. Tenants should keep these notices as proof that payment was made.

More than 57,000 applicants received denial notices because they were not eligible under the criteria established in the Statestatute. Tenants who wish to appeal their denial have seven (7) business days from the date on their denial notice to file an appeal. The appeal form can be found on the HCR COVID-19 RRP website along with a Denial FAQ.

For questions about the NYS COVID-19 Rent Relief Program, please call 833-499-0318 between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday, or email covidrentrelief@hcr.ny.gov. You may also sign up to receive COVID-19 Rent Relief Program Updates by email.

ACCESS HRA Maintenance Notification

Updates related specifically to ACCESS HRA, such as new releases or outage notifications, are shared periodically with our partners via e-mail. If you would like to receive these updates, please reach out to DSSoutreach@dss.nyc.gov to be added to the ACCESS HRA mailing list.

Community-wide Conference Call

We appreciate your continued participation in our weekly briefing calls and your ongoing work to help make sure that the critical information and details about changes we are making in response to the pandemic are being communicated to our clients. Your active engagement is appreciated, and your questions and suggestions help us better understand the needs of those we serve and respond accordingly. 

If you were not able to join our weekly call (usually on Tuesdays), please find an audio recording here and use Covid-19 as the password. The information contained in this communication is a synopsis of what was shared.
 
Each week, we will provide all of the information included in each of our prior communications on our website on the COVID-19 Community Updates page. If you would like to reference a specific prior communication, please click on the links below:
 

As a reminder, we have a standing informational call on Tuesdays at 4:00PM. In the event that the date or time of the weekly call needs to change due to extenuating circumstances, a notification is sent out from DSSoutreach@dss.nyc.gov, in addition to an updated calendar invitation to those who have signed up to join the calls. To be added to this list, please reach out to DSSoutreach@dss.nyc.gov.

Please note that there are several hundred participants on these weekly calls, and as a result they may start a few minutes late to allow as many people to join as possible and hear all the information. In addition, the large number of participants does not allow us to have individual conversations efficiently, which is why we respond to individual inquiries through the chat box. If you have additional questions after the call, please reach out to DSSoutreach@dss.nyc.gov or the appropriate contact area listed on our COVID 19 Community Updates page.

CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is available during these calls as an accommodation for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Please contact oria@dss.nyc.gov at least four hours prior to the call to enable this service.

As always, thank you for your continued partnership in serving New Yorkers in need, particularly now when our clients need us more than ever. If you have any questions or concerns about the changes we have made and are continuing to develop to address the COVID pandemic, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Office of Advocacy and Outreach at DSSoutreach@dss.nyc.gov.

Sincerely,


Steven Banks
DSS Commissioner
New York City Department of Social Services