The New Jersey Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency (NJHMFA) announced the expansion and reopening of its Small Landlord Emergency Grant (SLEG) Program to assist vulnerable renters across the state by covering their missed rent from April through July 2020. The program reopened on September 28 and will run until Tuesday, October 13 at 4 p.m. The SLEG Program is designed to reimburse small landlords for missed or reduced rent payments between April 2020 and July 2020 due to COVID-19. Landlords approved for a grant must forgive any back rent or late fees incurred by their tenants. To be eligible for the second round of the SLEG Program:
- Applicants must own a residential property in New Jersey with three to 30 rental units;
- Applicants must be registered with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ (DCA) Bureau of Housing Inspection;
- The property must not be a seasonal or vacation rental property;
- The property must have at least one non-vacant rental unit impacted by COVID-19 between April and July 2020; and
- The property must have low-to-moderate income rent levels.
$15 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding has been allocated to fund the first and second rounds of the SLEG Program. All completed eligible applications will be randomly sorted by computer to give each applicant an equal chance of being funded. Grant funding will be allocated on a case-by-case basis, based on the number of COVID-impacted units and the amount of missed rent. A list of all successful landlord applicants will be posted to the NJHMFA website, and letters will be sent to all tenants of awarded landlords.
