Philanthropic donors have added $3 million to a landlord-backed initiative begun in May to help some of the neediest New Yorkers facing eviction due to the pandemic.
Donors including the JPB Foundation, the Robin Hood Foundation and the William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation contributed the grants to the program being run by Project Parachute. The group comprises real estate owners, nonprofits and city agencies who got together four months ago to help low-income renters facing eviction.
The news comes as New York State’s moratorium on residential evictions for renters hard hit by the pandemic is set to expire on Oct. 1. The Trump administration earlier this month ordered a halt to evictions on certain renters through the end of the year.
Project Parachute launched its aid program, dubbed FASTEN — Funds and Services for Tenants Experiencing Need — with $4.4 million in seed money provided by some 40 landlords of market-rate and affordable housing properties.
A spokesperson for the group said it’s been assisting households since August.
The FASTEN program is providing “clients with rental arrears assistance and will provide landlord mediation and legal assistance where needed to help them remain housed in the immediate crisis once eviction moratoriums lift,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
It is also helping with resources like “food relief, affordable health services and utility arrears assistance; and helping them sustain stable housing through access to financial counseling and job search assistance, and other service referrals.”