City Cuts Key Incentive For Landlords to Take CityFHEPS Housing Vouchers

In an effort to reduce activity costs landlords will no longer receive one month s rent as incentive while the city processes housing voucher applications a change that could make it less likely for property owners to rent to voucher holders An apartment building in the Bronx Photo by Adi Talwar In a cost-cutting measure New York City s Department of Social Services DSS will end an incentive for landlords to take city housing vouchers that offered them one month s rent while the city processes tenants applications Landlords advocates and voucher holders say the change will make using the already hard-to-use vouchers even more demanding Families moving out of New York City shelters with a City Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement CityFHEPS housing voucher pay percent of their income on rent with the subsidy covering the rest But finding an apartment can be a real challenge for voucher holders because of discrimination and a tight housing arena Landlords sometimes hesitate to accept tenants who use the scheme because it can require waiting for the city to inspect a unit and process a housing voucher application forgoing rent from a market-paying tenant who could move in sooner With the unit hold incentive the city paid landlords one month of rent if they held a unit off the domain while the Human Support Administration HRA processed the tenant s housing voucher application My worry is just fewer landlords will be as interested in participating in the venture because it s one piece that s been taken away So it just potentially reduces the pool of people available willing to rent to people with vouchers commented Laura Lazurus CEO of Anthos Home a group that works with the city to recruit private landlords to rent to voucher holders The CityFHEPS effort has in recent weeks come under scrutiny from budget groups and City Council members over spiraling costs Its budget grew from million in fiscal year to billion in fiscal year as it serves more people than ever with households at the moment enrolled A record households moved out of shelter with CityFHEPS in fiscal year up percent from the prior year according to DSS More households are using CityFHEPS to find housing than in previous years DSS The unit hold incentive served as a stop-gap response to address the lack of robust mechanisms for processing rental subsidies to secure housing that is hurriedly leasing up mentioned DSS Spokesperson Neha Sharma in a announcement to City Limits DSS added that new technological systems for rental assistance rolled out last year will improve efficiency and make the unit hold incentive less of a necessity But the end of the practice came as a surprise to landlords and advocates working on CityFHEPS applications who identified out via email in late May The landlord unit hold for all subsidies will be ending on July st HRA s Deputy Chief Legal Affairs Officer Allison Gill Lambert mentioned in an email In order to get one last unit hold incentive for leases beginning July DHS episode managers have to submit their clients application packets before June The June deadline for applications from all other agencies already passed We were on a crunch to get packages passed and applications in as hastily as viable and approved announced Joel Gil a housing services specialist at Neighbors Together who works with New Yorkers on CityFHEPS applications Variable processing times Application processing times have frustrated both tenants and landlords who say it can take months making the extra money to hold the unit crucial DSS has invested in trying to bring them down In current times processing takes around three weeks on average and we re connecting a record number of New Yorkers to deeply affordable homes thanks in part to vital investments in equipment and wide-ranging reforms to strengthen access to CityFHEPS vouchers declared DSS Sharma Courtney Posey has a voucher and identified an apartment but is still waiting for the city to finish processing for her application first submitted in April Posey currently lives in a Brooklyn women s shelter and expressed trepidation about the delays and rule changes worrying it could jeopardize her move out It could push everything back and especially if you re in the system you re really anxious to just move on with your life Posey noted I understand that place is just temporary I m just passing through It s not a home At a hearing before the City Council in January DSS Commissioner Molly Waslow Park revealed that the average application processing time was days but conceded there is variation around that average pointing to delays or errors in applications that require back and forth between housing specialists that put together packets and applicants and their advocates A description from the New York City Council circulated Tuesday also suggested that minor errors can consequence in restarting the process from the beginning DSS also waits until an applicant household is verified as income-eligible for a specific housing unit before processing their CityFHEPS application effectively doubling the approval timeline from initial application to shelter exit the account commented It recommends DSS review applications and verify income in parallel among other changes including a call for the city to expand its staffing quota by allowing more community-based groups to assist with CityFHEPS applications They need to streamline the process declared Brian Blitzer a broker who works with the effort I could bring a regular person in here within less than a week Why is it taking the city two months I do think New York City should be really commended for the work that they ve done to build the CityFHEPS campaign announced Anthos Home s Lazarus pointing out that that the size of city rental assistance programs make DSS the second largest project in the nation after New York City s own Section project I think there s still work to do to make it more efficient quicker easier to access In explaining the change DSS pointed to a January Undertaking to Eliminate the Gap PEG through which the Adams administration ordered city agencies to implement cost-cutting measures It shows million in savings in Fiscal Year from upgrades to a landlord and provider agency portal for rental assistance The documents do not mention ending the unit hold incentive specifically but DSS explained the cost savings would come from eliminating the measure Sharma added that percent of regular CityFHEPs packages are now being submitted through the new records system called CurrRent An apartment building in Brooklyn Photo by Adi Talwar Blitzer a broker with Compass is as of now trying to lease a renovated one bedroom in a Harlem condo building to a voucher holder The landlord craved to accept a voucher but is considering putting the rental back on the general industry Blitzer disclosed due to delays with the application and uncertainty around the month s rent from the hold incentive He s been waiting on approval for the current applicant since April Typically the city process and the time that it takes to move forward is just ridiculous I mean why would a landlord hold an apartment empty for two months when they can have it rented commented Blitzer Building trust New York City s tight housing area makes it hard for voucher holders to compete for apartments They tend to find homes concentrated in specific neighborhoods a City Limits probe discovered in February and vouchers often do not pay enough to make it feasible to rent in high-rent neighborhoods I ve talked to landlords especially ones that have apartments within the price range that the city pays and they don t want to even hear about Blitzer continued Landlords sometimes reject voucher holders out of hand just because they use a rental subsidy a practice that has been illegal in New York City since but remains a common form of housing discrimination You re not incentivizing any landlord to work with the city and a lot of people already don t added Blitzer As a upshot building trust with landlords has been essential to the success of housing vouchers The scheme when operating smoothly can be a win-win Landlords have no complication working with the campaign because they know they re getting their rent on time It s a guarantee for them and typically the people will stay for an extended period of time added Blitzer function d u ac var s d createElement 'script' s type 'text javascript' s src 'https a omappapi com app js api min js' s async true s dataset user u s dataset campaign ac d getElementsByTagName 'head' appendChild s document 'u kmqsczew vunxutxmd' Providing extra sponsorship can help Anthos Home provides wraparound services for voucher holders and recruits property owners to participate It took a lot of work to convince landlords to continue to rent people with a city issued voucher disclosed Anthos Home s Lazarus But delays and changes like ending the incentive may undermine that trust t s gonna make it even more laborious to even territory CityFHEPS to landlords mentioned Neighbors Together s Gil Landlord groups agreed This decision is concerning reported Kenny Burgos CEO of the New York Apartment Association a contract group for building owners Without this assistance several owners will no longer be financially able to hold units for months No good choices With the Trump administration proposing funding cuts for the city s housing programs by percent state and local governments may need to step up to fill gaps making CityFHEPS fiscal future all the more major The New York State budget passed last month included million for a statewide rental voucher effort But that amount was far less than the million called for in the Senate and Assembly s budget proposals and appears even smaller compared to the billion the city spends on vouchers The fact that the state made their first foray into vouchers in this way is a great first step stated Lazarus But it still leaves the city with a big financial responsibility The demand is greater than the city s ability to pay for CityFHEPS reported Sean Campion director of housing and economic advancement studies at the Citizens Budget Commission They re gonna have to make hard choices about how to fund the activity as it exists in the current era but also on the expansion going forward and there really are no good choices he added Mayor Adams administration has yet to implement City Council laws expanding eligibility for the operation passed in One of those choices is a proposed rent hike for a subset of CityFHEPS voucher holders renewing for their sixth year and beyond Instead of the usual percent these tenants would pay percent of their income toward rent under the rule change Commissioner Molly Park announced that the restructuring is necessary for the undertaking s long-term sustainability while selected groups claim it may backfire by increasing other costs such as urgency rent aid for voucher holders who can t afford the increase While the rent contribution changes were subject to community review and a virtual hearing on May DSS reported that the city s administrative procedures allowed them to cut the unit hold incentive without masses review because the agency never included it in official rules Campion suggested CityFHEPS requirements to be paired with other interventions that can reduce shelter populations like increasing housing supply and financing more affordable housing CityFHEPS is a big impact on the budget announced Lazarus But I also think homelessness is a huge impact on the budget We have to compare the impact of all these people not being housed and all the things that they re now able to do because they are housed They can focus on their employment focus on their learning focus on their vitality which they cannot do when they are in shelter To reach the reporter behind this story contact Patrick citylimits org The reach the editor contact Jeanmarie citylimits org Want to republish this story Find City Limits reprint agenda here The post City Cuts Key Incentive For Landlords to Take CityFHEPS Housing Vouchers appeared first on City Limits