NYC still refused most emergency aid requests to prevent eviction after Mamdani took office

A helping hand for tenants at risk of losing their homes is not working, advocates say.

New York City has long offered low-income tenants who fall behind on rent a final option to avoid eviction: a city emergency aid program known as the One-Shot Deal.

But the percentage of applicants who received assistance remained flat after Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office, despite the mayor making eviction prevention and tenant protections a hallmark of his campaign. Housing advocates have criticized the stubbornly high refusal rate, saying they expected more renters to receive aid under the Mamdani administration.

The city’s Human Resources Administration rejected about 75% of the nearly 30,000 requests for a One-Shot Deal related to rent arrears between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2026, according to the agency’s most recent quarterly report. The period covers the first three months under Mamdani and is roughly unchanged from the final three months of Mayor Eric Adams’ time in office.

City data shows that it has become increasingly difficult to receive One-Shot Deals. Four years ago, the rate was 62% during the three months between April 1 and June 30, 2022, when the city received about 17,200 applications and first began publicly reporting the statistics.

Critics of the dwindling approval rate say the application process is rife with bureaucratic obstacles that torpedo tenants’ chances. Tenant advocates say there is a lack of communication from agency staff handling applications, problems scheduling required interviews, and a policy of automatically denying an incomplete application after 30 days, even if applicants didn’t know it was incomplete or were unable to conduct an interview.

“From start to finish, it’s completely broken,” said Sam Hernandez, a lawyer for Bronx Legal Services who helps tenants apply for One-Shot Deals.

Hernandez said she and other advocates expected the process to improve under Mamdani, but that has yet to happen.

Legal Aid Society attorney Edward Josephson said tenants often apply multiple times and are typically approved only after receiving help from an attorney or an advocate.

“People without advocates face a lot of procedural and technical obstacles to getting their One-Shot Deals approved,” Josephson said.

Human Resources Administration spokesperson Nicholas Jacobelli pointed to a range of factors contributing to the rejection rate. He said the agency is dealing with a surge in applications due to the city’s affordability crisis and that many people submit multiple requests after an initial denial.

He said the agency, part of the Department of Social Services, must also adhere to state rules that require One-Shot Deal recipients to prove they can pay their rent in the future to avoid needing another round of assistance.

“Our teams carefully assess the unique circumstances of each applicant, in accordance with all applicable New York State regulations and guidance from our state oversight agency, to ensure that this limited resource is being administered efficiently and effectively and that those who are eligible for this support receive it in a timely manner,” Jacobelli said in a written statement.

All told, the city’s social services agency received 54,705 requests for One-Shot Deals over the first three months of 2026, data shows. Requests for aid related to unpaid rent made up over half of the applications and were the most common type. Utilities assistance was the second most common request, and the city approved about 36% of the nearly 19,000 applications it received for unpaid gas, water and electric bills.

Jacobelli said the agency is also working to streamline the review process and has recently begun issuing notices to applicants whose paperwork is illegible or improper before denying assistance, to reduce delays and rejections.

The state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which sets social services rules, did not respond to questions about the city’s growing rate of rejections.

Jacobelli said the agency issued many more emergency grants to low-income tenants who are also receiving other forms of city assistance and are not included in the quarterly One-Shot Deal application data. He said the total was around 48,000 households for the fiscal year ending June 30. The city issued emergency rental assistance to more than 52,200 households during the previous fiscal year, according to an annual report on agency performance.

The program comes at a hefty public cost. An analysis by the policy group New York Housing Conference found that the city spent about $555 million on emergency assistance, including One-Shot Deals, to cover back rent in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025.

The consequences of a One-Shot Deal denial can be dire for renters.

Earlier this month, Sabrina Moore received a notice from a city marshal informing her that she would be evicted from her two-bedroom apartment in the Highbridge section of the Bronx in as little as two weeks.

Moore, 57, has consistently made her $1,250 monthly rent payments for the past year, court records show. But she has been unable to pay off about $19,000 in arrears she began accumulating three years ago, when New York state terminated her rental assistance subsidy, known as FHEPS. The program is reserved for families with minor children and Moore’s daughter had turned 18.

Her landlord, a limited liability company affiliated with Chestnut Holdings, filed a nonpayment eviction case in 2023. The attorney representing her landlord did not respond to requests for comment.

Moore said she applied for a One-Shot Deal to cover the debt on three occasions but was denied each time. She said she was certain that she submitted her necessary documents and set up phone interviews as required by the city and state. In an affidavit to the court, she said she twice appealed the denials and won, but still did not receive the assistance. She said she fears losing the apartment in Highbridge that she moved into 30 years ago.

“I just keep meeting resistance,” she said. “Sometimes I feel broken, and it becomes overwhelming because there’s a sense of grief.”

Moore is now working with Hernandez, the Bronx Legal Services attorney, on her latest application. A Bronx housing court judge issued an order halting the pending eviction until at least Aug. 31 to give her more time to pay off the arrears.

Hernandez wrote a detailed letter to city Human Resources Administration officials outlining the risk of eviction unless the city intervenes. The letter, also submitted to the court, describes how Moore’s full-time job allows her to pay her rent on time, “thus showing future affordability” without the need for further emergency assistance.

Without the aid, Moore will have to enter a homeless shelter, Hernandez said in an interview.

“The idea is to prevent homelessness and preserve people’s housing,” Hernandez said.  ”Why are we forcing them to go through all of this red tape?”