As many small businesses, hit hard by COVID-19 and restrictions to prevent its spread, struggle to make lease payments, a new program may help.

Empire State Development is partnering with the New York State Bar Association and Start Small Think Big, a New York-based not-for-profit organization that supports small, under-resourced entrepreneurs.

Start Small will offer free legal services from its network of more than 1,000 attorneys to commercial tenants and landlords seeking lease amendments to cope with the impacts of COVID-19

The New York State Bar Association will support the recruitment and training of additional volunteer attorneys.

The Small Business Lease Assistance Partnership website includes information on the lease renegotiation process and details the different types of lease workouts available.

The voluntary service is available to all New York small businesses and landlords.

Businesses interested in free help to start a lease renegotiation may review and complete the partnership’s intake form. After completing the form, each small business will receive an email detailing an estimated timeline for placement with a volunteer attorney.

Once matched, the volunteer attorney will email the applicant to schedule an appointment.

“The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the economy has been nothing short of devastating and, through partnerships such as this, we can help to alleviate the burdens many business owners are facing,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo in a release on Thursday, announcing the new program. “While a moratorium on commercial evictions is currently in place, this new public-private partnership will help provide an additional level of stability for small businesses ….”

On Oct. 20, Cuomo signed an executive order extending the state’s moratorium on COVID-related commercial evictions and foreclosures through Jan. 1. This extends protections already in place for commercial tenants and mortgagors in recognition of the pandemic’s financial toll on business owners

The extension is meant to give commercial tenants and mortgagors additional time to catch up on outstanding rent or mortgage bills, or to renegotiate their lease terms to avoid foreclosure moving forward.

Another letter to Azar

Also on Thursday, Cuomo sent another letter to Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, calling for changes in the distribution program for COVID-19 vaccines.

This letter, similar to one sent on Dec. 1, was also signed by leaders of minority groups. The Dec. 10 letter is signed, too, by union leaders. The first letter was signed by 52 people; the second by 110.

The Dec. 10 letter reiterates the need for more federal funds for cash-strapped states as well as the need for fair distribution of the vaccine. It does not address the third concern raised in the Dec. 1 letter: problems with requiring identifiers that could lead to deportation.

Cuomo said on Wednesday that, at his urging, the federal government has agreed not to collect identifiable information from undocumented immigrants as part of the federal distribution program.

“Governors need federal funding in order to execute comprehensive distribution plans to guarantee that all communities have access to the vaccine,” the Dec. 10 letter says. “The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials estimates that a comprehensive vaccine distribution program would cost approximately $8 billion. To date, the Trump Administration has administered a mere $200 million to the states.”

The letter notes that Black Americans died at twice the rate of white Americans from COVID-19 and that Latinos died at one-and-a-half times the rate of whites since communities of color lack access to health-care facilities and services.

“The Black and brown communities that were first on the list of who died from COVID cannot be last on the list of who receives the vaccine,” says the letter.

The letter concludes that “time is short” to amend the Trump administration plan and concludes, “This pandemic cannot end, and our country will not truly be safe, until everyone has access to a vaccine.”