Nearly half the 35,000 residents who applied for New Jersey’s excluded worker fund still haven’t received any help — but have until the end of the month to prove they were shut out of other pandemic aid and therefore qualify for a $2,000 check.

The Department of Human Services told Gothamist $41 million has been distributed to 18,000 workers, with another 17,000 applications still pending. The fund is meant to aid individuals such as undocumented immigrants or formerly incarcerated people who didn’t qualify for other COVID-19 relief programs or unemployment benefits. 

People with pending applications have until September 30th to submit required documents and prove they are eligible, officials said. While advocate groups said they were working with applicants to help them upload the right paperwork, they urged the state to step up its outreach efforts or move back the deadline. 

“The state promised us that every eligible applicant will receive their relief check, so it must ensure everyone is aware of the new deadline and has the opportunity to obtain an appointment and ask questions with adequate language access support,” Laura Bustamante and Rosanna Aran from the Excluded NJ Coalition said in a statement to Gothamist. “New Jersey needs an immediate ramp-up to the program's operations or must extend the deadline.”

The Excluded New Jerseyans Fund was rolled out almost a year ago in October after months of protests, rallies and a three-week hunger strike by immigrant advocacy groups. They argued undocumented immigrants who got sick during the pandemic, lost work or loved ones were struggling to put food on the table and pay their rent. 

But the fund was slow to take off; only a fraction of the aid was distributed in the first few months as workers complained the application process was onerous and required documentation that was nearly impossible to acquire.