Applicants without internet access will likely be referred to community-based organizations for assistance, she said.

Various organizations, including those that serve immigrants, have already kicked off efforts to inform clients and community members about the application process.

Make the Road New York has created the websites rentreliefny.org in English and inquilinosny.org in Spanish to provide regular updates about the application process and opportunities for assistance.

“We have already had thousands of requests for information about the rent program,” said Make the Road New York supervising attorney Jennie Stephens-Romero. “We are trying to figure out how much capacity we have for that, but the need right now is just massive.”

Stephens-Romero said her organization will coordinate with other agencies after the state issues a list of groups that provide application assistance. The program will account for a large chunk of the workload, but the recent extension of state eviction protections will give renters some more breathing room to apply for assistance, she said.

“The extension of the eviction moratorium means we don’t have quite as big of a workload as we would without that,” she said.