Mold, mice spark calls for more inspections in NYC rental assistance programs
NEW YORK -- Mold, mice, and mismanagement are just a few of the complaints some New Yorkers in rental assistance programs tell CBS News New York Investigates they have to deal with.
Their solution is an increase in inspections, but the city is pushing back, saying that's not the answer.
One man's underdog story
"Now, nothing works," rental assistance recipient David Lopez said.
Trying to get the central air conditioning fixed in Lopez's Jamaica apartment has become a David versus Goliath-type challenge.
Lopez's multiple sclerosis symptoms often worsen in the heat, but he doesn't give up.
"I try to get it fixed so many times," he said. "I had no heat and now I have no AC," Lopez said.
You heard that right. Back in the winter, the city's Housing Preservation and Development Department issued a violation for no heat in the apartment. Records show the heat got fixed, but there are no violations for the central air conditioning because the city says AC is not required.
Lopez said he emailed the building management, a company called Green Cedar Management, on June 5, writing, "Please have this issue resolved ASAP. My unit is getting hot and uncomfortable."
However, it still wasn't fixed three weeks later when CBS News New York showed up.
"Bad. Terrible. Not ... like they don't want me here is how I feel," Lopez said.
Lopez pays rent through a city-run rental assistance program called CityFHEPS -- Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement.
Housing specialist understands Lopez's plight
"No repairs getting done? That's pretty common. I hear that all the time," housing specialist Joel Gil said.
Gil works with a Brooklyn soup kitchen and Neighbors Together, a social service center that helps low-income New Yorkers join rental assistance programs.
"I think landlords just, especially if they're renting to voucher holders, sometimes they just don't want to keep up to the maintenance of a building," Gil said. "I've had clients have to go back into shelter. Recently, actually, because they refused to make repairs on the bathroom."
The city's Department of Social Services said the vast majority of people it helps stay out of shelters, and the department does inspect homes before a CityFHEPS recipient moves in.
But as the Community Service Society told a City Council committee in 2022, unlike Section 8, there are "no regular inspections," after the move-in, "only tenant complaint-triggered checks."
"The city should make bi-annual inspections standard, and ensure that city dollars are not being pocketed by landlords who do not maintain healthy and safe living conditions," Community Services Society's Samuel Stein said.
But is that the right way to do it?
"At the moment, we think we've hit the right balance," Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasaw Park said.
Park said she wants to keep tenants safe but limit bureaucracy.
"We also don't want to make sure we aren't necessarily cutting off somebody's rental subsidy for an issue that can get resolved," Park said. "Most landlords in New York are trying to do the right thing. There are absolutely some bad actors, and our sister agency at HPD, they pursue those bad actors."
"I deserve to live in a place that's livable"
Rental assistance recipient Susan Negron did call that sister agency about mold more than a year ago, but now she's moving, in part because the problem is still unresolved, and because of mice and rats, like the one captured in December by her doorbell camera just outside her front door in the Bronx.
She's also in a rental assistance program that the city oversees.
"I'm not an animal. I am voucher holder, but I am a human being. I deserve to live in a place that's livable. You know what I mean?" Negron said.
CBS News New York Investigates called her landlord to request an interview, but he instead texted us back, claiming she didn't let his staff into the apartment long enough to fix the issues.
After we called Green Cedar Management about Lopez, a public relations agency emailed us saying the company ordered the parts for the fix as soon as they got the complaint.
A few days after that call, Lopez texted us saying that Goliath of a problem was finally fixed, and "CBS News came to our rescue."
The City's Social Services Department says people can also complain to it directly or reach out to its Homebase service and it will follow up and look into your issues. It also said it recently launched a new program that will help nonprofits acquire properties and ensure the housing is up to par for the voucher holders they work with.