“The stupidity of it is that every month they sit in the shelter, they're costing the city thousands,” Edward Josephson says about a rule change to NYC's rental voucher program causing some individuals and families to stay in homeless shelters longer.
Milena, a recipient of New York City’s rental-assistance vouchers who didn’t want her last name used to protect her privacy, said she nearly lost a one-bedroom apartment in this building in Queens, NY due to a recent rule change by the Department of Social Services.
New York City’s rental voucher program, known as CityFHEPS, was designed to help homeless individuals find permanent homes. But homeless New Yorkers and their advocates say a recent rule change has caused confusion, delays and unnecessary hurdles to an already onerous approval and leasing process.
Homeless advocates have argued that the new rule is a hindrance to a program that was recently expanded to stem the rise in homelessness and address the city’s affordable housing crisis. In May of last year, the City Council voted to expand the rent subsidy offered to people by increasing the value of housing vouchers to bring them closer in line with market rents, which homeless advocates lauded at the time.
Because of the new rule, some homeless individuals looking to move into permanent housing have lost apartments, forcing them to start the search process all over. One of those caught in the bureaucracy is Milena, another homeless woman currently living in a shelter in Jamaica, Queens after she said she was forced to evacuate her building due to emergency repairs.
“They're gonna help me. I'm going to get my life together. I'm finally gonna move back. And, then it's like, well, you're missing $2,” she said. “It has been a nightmare.”
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