ROCHESTER, N.Y. — As Governor Kathy Hochul promises to fix problems with the state’s rental assistance program, those changes won’t apply to people in need in Monroe County.

"Monroe County and Rochester effectively opted out of that program," said Patrick Gallagher, the owner of Gallagher Property Management. "So in a sense, the pros of that is that we’re able to get money much sooner than the state. So we’re totally exempt from the state."

As of August 13, Monroe County’s rental assistance program paid $13,500,018 to those in need.

"It's really helped out a lot of tenants, takes away that stress for them because nobody wants to be evicted, nobody wants to leave their home, and us as housing providers, we don’t want people to leave their home as well," said Gallagher.

"Money is definitely moving out to landlords," said Ritti Singh, communications coordinator for the City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester. "However, the amount of money we have, it just doesn’t meet the need in Rochester. "There are so many tenants who are behind on rent."

When the program launched, survey data showed 25% of rental units in the city were behind on rent in March, equivalent to 26,000 renters.

As of August 6, 2,502 applications had been approved by the county, 1,484 applications were denied, and 6,626 applications were pending.

People can be denied for the program for not meeting the guidelines set by the rental assistance program, but the City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester wants changes to help more people.

Some changes include eviction protections for renters once they apply for the program and protection from eviction for 12 months, which matches the state’s program.

"We’d like the county to look to the example set by the state program and adopt some of the same protections as the state program," said Singh. "That would really strengthen our program locally and I think that would be a great solution for tenants, for landlords, for the community in general."

While no program is perfect, Patrick Gallagher is satisfied with the program.

"You know at this point, I’m happy with what we have, and just hopefully it continues," said Gallagher. "I think it’s been compared to several months ago, it’s much better now, and the communication has been good and we’re getting paid."

People in need of rental assistance in Monroe County can call 211 to get things started with an agency to help with rental assistance.