Nick Reisman reports for New York State of Politics that an organization representing landlords in New York on Sept. 9 moved to begin a legal challenge to New York's eviction moratorium. They claim the legislature's extension of New York's moratorium on pandemic-related evictions, to Jan. 15 conflicts with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Rent Stabilization Association previously were successful challenging a provision of the moratorium in federal court. The eviction moratorium is for those with a financial hardship related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Landlords say they still must pay property taxes and other utility costs, but without rental income they also have a financial hardship. “No matter the spin by state lawmakers and Gov. Hochul, this is a reimplementation of the previous law – completely disregarding last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision and ignoring key elements of our complaint. It continues the vague COVID hardship declaration, which enables renters who never lost their jobs or skipped a paycheck to continue using the eviction ban as a moratorium on paying rent,” said Rent Stabilization Association's Executive Director Joseph Strasburg. State officials have been slowly doling out some of the $2.1 billion Emergency Rental Assistance Program to landlords. New Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin on Sept. 9 said distribution of the rental assistance funding would be one of his top priorities. Read more about this story at New York State of Politics.