Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said New York will need additional federal assistance to provide aid to tenants and landlords struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Hochul in a letter to Yellen released by her office said New York has already paid or obligated more than $1.6 billion in funds under the emergency rental assistance program. But the current need for funding, meant to provide aid to tenants who have struggled financial as a result of the pandemic, has been exceeded by demand. 

State lawmakers and Hochul last month agreed to extend New York's eviction moratorium to Jan. 15 and millions of dollars in state funding to the pot of rental assistance money.

"Even with these additional State funds, New York's need far exceeds available funding, and an additional allocation of federal funding will be required to address this crisis," Hochul wrote in the letter to Yellen. 

The letter comes after a landlord advocacy organization in New York City in a report found the state would soon need more assistance from the federal government under the program, known as the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. 

"Initial ERAP allocations were based on a per capita distribution formula and did not consider New York's high percentage of renting households," Hochul wrote. "I am requesting that the reallocation of ERAP funds take into consideration the number of renter households in a state."