The housing authority says it has identified roughly 61,500 households with rent debt that may qualify for the new relief funds, who will be able to apply by filling out a consent form in NYCHA’s Self-Service Portal.

NYCHA will distribute up to $185 million to help select public housing households pay owed rent, thanks to an infusion of funds from the state and federal government—an effort to help eradicate the hundreds of millions of dollars in rent arrears amassed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The housing authority says it has identified roughly 61,500 households with rent debt that may qualify for the new relief funds, based on eligibility criteria that includes earning less than or equal to 50 percent of the Area Median Income (equivalent to $77,650 a year for a family of four).

Outreach has already begun to notify these households via mailings, door-knocking, robocalls, text messages, and emails, NYCHA said. They will then have to apply by filling out a consent form in NYCHA’s Self-Service Portal, which will allow the housing authority to seek payment on their behalf. Tenants will only see an option to fill out the form in their online accounts—via a box labeled “Apply for Rental Arrears Assistance”—if they’ve been deemed eligible by NYCHA.

“This opportunity will help many households lift a burden off their backs and get their lives back to a sense of normalcy,” Daniel Barber, a resident of NYCHA’s Jackson Houses who chairs the Citywide Council of Presidents, said in a statement Thursday.