Some residents who rely on CityFHEPS rental assistance say they're worried they may lose their apartments
NEW YORK - It's a situation we first reported last month - hundreds of tenants across the city continue to get notices saying they're behind on rent, which is supposed to be paid for by the city's rental assistance program.
People are worried they could lose their apartments.
"It says late rent notice," said Gloria Walker.
Walker says she's paying her portion of the rent on her studio apartment on East 120th Street in Harlem. The issue, she says, is her rental assistance program has not been paying theirs.
"I'm at least three months behind on the CityFHEPS portion, not my portion," Wallace said.
CityFHEPS is a program that provides housing subsidies to people in need, like Walker. They helped her find a home after an ongoing illness left her unable to work, and she wound up homeless.
"I was in the streets. Physically in the streets, sleeping on buses," she said.
She doesn't want that to happen again, but worries it could if her rent subsidy doesn't come.
It's not just tenants impacted. It's landlords, too.
"I took the program, and now I'm burned," said landlord Dawn Summerson.
Summerson has a rental property in Brooklyn, and agree to partner with the CityFHEPS program. But a few months ago, the payments stopped coming. Now her tenant can't pay.
"From December's rent all the way to April, which is coming next week and I haven't been paid anything," Summerson said.
We reached out to the Department of Social Services, which oversees the rental assistance programs. It says there's a yearly recertification process each tenant must complete, or payments can be missed.
Housing attorneys say the the recertification process is too complicated.
Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge is a landlord-tenant attorney.
"People who may be handicapped, may be having an illness... these are people who are already burdened having to go and produce documents to re-certify," she said.
Legal Services NYC, which represents clients in need, also says the CityFHEPS agency is overwhelmed processing applications.
"The delay has been compounded by staffing problems, for sure," said Jack Newton of Legal Services NYC. "They haven't had the ability to hire up individuals to meet the ongoing demand."
Walker and Summerson are now both dealing with housing court, hoping they receive rent payments soon.
