The state program designed to help landlords and renters impacted by the pandemic is running out of money. As a result, the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) is no longer accepting new applications.

The almost $2.5 billion program has so far received 280,000 applications, with the majority of them coming from the city.

The program has provided financial assistance to about 80,000 tenants and landlords.

There are 100,000 applications still pending.

State Senator Brian Kavanagh, who sponsored the bill that created the program, told NY1 Monday morning that if the federal government cannot provide the funds, New York State should step up.

“My view is we should be pushing for sufficient funding from the federal government to cover the full need, which we should be able to project out,” Kavanagh said. “We were getting about 9,500 applications a week until last night. We should be able to project out the need into next year. We should be requesting money from the federal government, but absent that I think the state of New York should be committed to doing it through our own state budget process if necessary.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is asking for an additional $996 million in federal funding from the U.S. Treasury Department to reignite the program and help those other applicants.