Katherine Fund is reporting for Gothamist the second round of New York state's rent relief program has reached even fewer people than the first, despite changes meant to make the process more accessible to applicants. Nearly eight weeks after the February 1 deadline, the state has paid out just $7 million out of $60 million available for struggling renters, according to figures from State Assemblymember Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Only about 1,000 more households qualified for aid in the second round, out of 87,000 applications under review. Between the two rounds, the state awarded $47 million in subsidies to 16,000 households, or roughly 16 percent of the total applications received since September. “What we have to do is meet the actual needs of New Yorkers,” Mamdani said. “And what this program did was nowhere close to that.” The state Division of Housing and Community Renewal did not confirm or deny the information, but said it was working with lawmakers on a new program to distribute the leftover funds. It is estimated that between 800,000 to 1.2 million households in New York collectively owe more than $2 billion in rent. More than a year into the pandemic, struggling tenants say their debt has only grown, along with the financial and mental toll of the threat of eviction, while the state has done little to help. State Senator Brian Kavanagh and other lawmakers have proposed a new program that would help tenants pay up to 12 months of rental arrears and utility bills. It would be funded by $1.3 billion from the federal emergency rent assistance program, in addition to the remaining money from the state’s previous rent relief program and funds from the most recent stimulus package. Read the full story at gothamist [dot] com.