Housing Team Staff
The city of Yonkers provided much-needed rent and utility bill relief to many households during the pandemic. At a time when households across the county were struggling to keep up with the financial demands of daily living, relief in the form of rent and utility aid was made available to Yonkers residents, through the Emergency Relief Assistance Program (ERAP), created in 2021. Most cities in New York sought relief directly from the state program, but Mayor Mike Spano chose to assist his constituents at the local level. He connected local tenants and landlords to five local nonprofits, which allowed them to service those in need more effectively.
CLUSTER Community Services was one of the local non-profit agencies providing Yonkers residents with assistance through this program. In two separate rounds of funding, up to 15 months of rent was provided, followed by an additional 18 months of rent in a second round. The Housing Resource team was invaluable in this monumental task. CLUSTER processed a flood of requests, and with the help of bilingual staff members who assisted Spanish-speaking applicants, we were thrilled with the volume of people who we successfully helped via the federal funding.
Over the course of 20 months, CLUSTER distributed over $3 million dollars to Yonkers residents!
