New Legislation to Increase Rental Vouchers Gives Hope to - BKReader Please allow CBOs to assist Homebases, provide training and a way to streamline the process. Disclaimer: The Codes and other documents that appear on this site may not yet reflect the most current legislation or rules adopted by the City. [5] As a result, there are meaningful savings from using rental assistance to keep the same household housed where they live, rather than paying to first house them in a shelter, and then contribute towards a much higher asking rent in another apartment. All Rights Reserved. by, Community Service Society of NY: Benefits Plus Learning Center / 633 Third Avenue / New York, NY 10017, https://bplc.cssny.org/pbm/cash-benefits/cash-assistance/housing-subsidies#cityfheps-city-fighting-homelessness-and-eviction-prevention-supplement, https://bplc.cssny.org/pbm/cash-benefits/cash-assistance/housing-subsidies#fheps-family-homelessness-and-eviction-prevention-supplement. Shelter to housing move out ratesappallingly low to begin with-- declined by 27 percent in the last fiscal year as the crisis deepened. CityFHEPS recipient Milton Perez tried to recertify his benefits on his own, after seeing other shelter residents endure long waits for an appointment with a Homebase caseworker. Sadly, Homebase programs are unable to keep up with the rate of the applications and clients needing this service. The Council analysts project that ending the 90-day rule would save the city $402 million in annual shelter costs, while the cost of expanding the voucher (primarily to low-income rent-burdened tenants facing eviction) would cost $145 million in the first year, and would increase year by year thereafter, ultimately reaching $4 billion in Fiscal Year 2030. Our recommendation is to reform bureaucratic processes to make sure that the City and shelter staff quickly process applications and that minor errors no longer result in month-long delays or outright denials. Willie says she didnt know she had to recertify or that payments were missing until she was summoned to housing court. PDF VOUCHER PAYMENT STANDARDS (VPS) - Housing Authority of the City of First, by preventing evictions (Intro 893) the expanded CityFHEPS program will reduce the number of households entering the shelter system long-term, creating less competition for those trying to use vouchers to move into permanent housing. On March 17, 2021, New York State TEMPORARILY suspended a requirement for FHEPS that applicants had to show proof . The DSS online portal is called Current, and is supposed to streamline the application and recertification process by offering a central place for tenants to upload documents and communicate with the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the DSS division responsible for administering and delivering the benefits. Is the mayors administration going to do anything to actually enforce these anti-discrimination housing laws? Rather, we would like to see reform that ultimately reduces the CityFHEPS application turnaround time to a 30-day maximum. View our, Fact Sheet 2: Streamline and Expand Eligibility, Testimony to the NYC Council Committee on Housing and Buildings on Property Vacancy and Neglect, Testimony: Rent Stabilization Works: The Case for Re-Regulating Rents in Massachusetts, To Fight Homelessness, House the People: Reforming the CityFHEPS Voucher Program Is the Need of The Hour, Statement on the Rent Guidelines Board Preliminary Vote, Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program. *There may be discrepancies in the code when translating to other languages. Social benefits of CityFHEPS expansion: Numerous studies have demonstrated the social and economic benefits of paying for housing instead of paying for shelter, including: rising incomes for those who access permanent housing ($10,000 in additional income, $12,000 in taxpayer savings), lowering healthcare costs (by reducing hospitalization and emergency room visits), and raising childrens educational prospects and future wages (increasing 31 percent on average). (1) the household leaves the CityFHEPS unit; (2) the landlord fails to comply with requirements set forth in 68 RCNY 10-14, whereupon the household may be granted approval to move pursuant to 68 RCNY 10-10; or (3) the household's participation in CityFHEPS is terminated, and payments are not continued pursuant to 68 RCNY 10-13 (e). This is the main reasons the Young Adult portion of the shelter system has significantly increased. NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA), which administers both FHEPS and CityFHEPS, will apply the new rent increase at annual lease renewals with some exceptions. A separate bill introduced at the same time would require the HRA to track when it is late in making payments in order to identify the source of delays. Under one rule, the city deducts a utility allowance from allowable rents, reducing the maximum rent a voucher holders apartment can charge, and limiting the apartments they can choose from. We value your privacy. The above table indicates the Gross Payment Standard by bedroom size and includes a quick reference for the most common leasing situations with respect to tenant-paid utilities, indicating the maximum amount of contract rent allowed under the program, depending upon what utilities the tenant will be financially responsible. For CityFHEPS charts with payment standards and utility allowances, click here. 7. The above table indicates the Gross Payment Standard by bedroom size and includes a quick reference for the most common leasing situations with respect to tenant-paid utilities, indicating the maximum amount of contract rent allowed under the program, depending upon what utilities the tenant will be financially responsible. The mayor and the City Council should work together to address other thorny issues relating to homelessness and vouchers, including the difficulty faced by some of the longest-term shelter stayers in our system: undocumented households who are excluded from federal programs. Rehousing costs for households moving out of shelter: In addition to calculating costs and savings of keeping housing-insecure households out of shelter, the CityFHEPS extension captures the cost savings built into long-term tenancy. CityFHEPS is a rent subsidy program for households with income up to 200% FPL that are in shelter or at risk of entering shelter and ineligible for FHEPS. Instead, Win believes the utility policy should be that tenants can rent units that cost the total voucher amount, regardless of whether utilities are included. Win is therefore supportive of the changes proposed by HRA to expand the eligibility criteria for rental subsidies and to reduce the administrative inefficiencies in the voucher application process. It falls on the city to recognize the urgency of the moment and address the housing and homelessness crisis. But AccessHRA does not offer these functions to CityFHEPS recipients. The limited pool of apartments available to and accepting of voucher holders are often in decrepit conditions. Menu > Zoom > +, In the View menu, select Zoom. FHEPS, formerly known as Family Eviction Prevention (FEPS), is a City and State-funded housing supplement to help families that are moving from homeless shelters to permanent housing or are in danger of losing their current housing by providing rental support for up to five years. In order to be eligible, someone earning minimum wage would need to make sure they don't work more than 33 hours a week in order to qualify (most hourly jobs operate on a 35 or 37.5 hr. Improve and Expand CityFHEPS | Community Service Society of New York Proposed Rule Full Text These additional administrative reforms, coupled with the Administrations current proposals, have the potential to solidify CityFHEPS as the Citys answer to ending homelessness. We will end up with even more voucher holders stuck in shelters or unhoused for years due to this blatant discrimination and racism that effects mostly black and brown people of NYC. I was struck last week by the death of a homeless woman from Kansas who was stabbed to death by her roommate. The Community Service Society of New York urges you to make the above changes to the CityFHEPs program as the number of homelessness individuals, families, and children are growing at alarming rates. Our model predicts that an equivalent number of people self-evict, or move out on their own before a Marshall's order. The income and work requirement bill (or the intro bill T2023-2863) is a good first step but it is not comprehensive because other factors play a role - such as how long someone needs to stay in a shelter, immigration status, etc. Download the Payment Standard and Exception Payment Standard values for all zip codes. Awarding all New Yorkers the option to break the cycle of homelessness through the CityFHEPS voucher will promote fairness and maintain the integrity of the nations most expansive social services system. Rental assistance programs like CityFHEPS have been key to this success. The net cost would be $3 billion cumulatively over five years. Some steps the City can take to improve CityFHEPS include: 1. And the way they find out that it didnt get renewed is from a notice that theyre behind on rent like, crazy.. Table 1 shows that in 2021, there were over 483,500 such households in the city, including around 871,000 individuals and 340,000 children. We also thank the Legal Aid Society, VOCAL-NY, Neighbors Together, and Make the Road NY for working with CSS to support these important reforms, and for their steadfast dedication to making the city more hospitable to all New Yorkers. (e)After making the payments described in 68 RCNY , Skip to code content (skip section selection), Title 6: Contracts, Purchases and Franchises, Title 24: Environmental Protection and Utilities, Title 28: New York City Construction Codes, Title 31: Department of Veterans' Services, Title 6: Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Title 12: Franchise and Concession Review Committee, Title 15: Department of Environmental Protection, Title 24: Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Title 25: Department of Mental Health and Retardation [Repealed], Title 28: Housing Preservation and Development, Title 31: Mayor's Office of Homelessness and Single Room Occupancy, Title 38-A: Civilian Complaint Review Board, Title 48: Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), Title 49: Department of Records and Information Services, Title 55: Department of Citywide Administrative Services, Title 56: Department of Parks and Recreation, Title 61: Office of Collective Bargaining, Title 63: Landmarks Preservation Commission, Title 66: Department of Small Business Services, Title 67: Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Title 70: In Rem Foreclosure Release Board. June 23, 2023. Rental assistance subsidies are an essential tool in the fight to end homelessness in New York City. We appreciate that the CityFHEPS voucher is an impressive and work-intensive program for the Administration to operate, and we thus encourage the City to increase its staff who review applications for CityFHEPS. Department of Social Services City Struggling to Connect Housing Benefits App to New Yorkers Who Need It Most After five months, tenants and landlords are still unable to use an application that would streamline access to city-funded rental assistance benefits. Additionally, like NYCHAs Section 8, both CityFHEPS and FHEPS will take into consideration whether utilities are included in the rental units rent amount. A city official told City Council that the new legislation would be redundant, given ongoing efforts to create an online portal for landlords, which would allow landlords to track CityFHEPS balances and opt into electronic payments. These four bills will dramatically improve the CityFHEPS program. The cost of expanding CityFHEPS vouchers to housing-insecure households facing eviction would be $8.6 billion over 5 years. I would spend like two hours or three hours, keep calling and no response, Perez told THE CITY. Income. Individual adults who live in shelters. By expanding housing access and keeping tens of thousands of people in their homes, the CityFHEPS reform and expansion package marks a significant step toward addressing the citys housing and homelessness crisis. Another rule allows the city to reject apartments where the rent is deemed unreasonable in comparison to other rents in the immediate neighborhood. (2)Where the household is moving to a new residence, HRA will pay the first month's rent in full plus the CityFHEPS rental assistance payments for the next three months. An agency official testified at a January City Council hearing that around 100 administrators are responsible for processing over 7,000 applications and renewals every year. HRA has said that it will eventually be scaled up to process all CityFHEPS applications, but has not offered a concrete timeline for when that may happen. An analysis by HR&A for the New York Housing Conference found that a large-scale voucher expansion (in this case making Section 8 available to all who qualify for it) would create a twofold increase in residential income for voucher-holders, and $7,680 of new spending in the local economy per voucher-holder per year. Immigration. CityFHEPS is a program that can help you find and pay for permanent housing if you are eligible. To veto these bills at this time is shortsighted. Itll be resolved, but still, you know, its stressful.. Additionally, administration of the program is transitioning from the State to the City. But according to the tenants and social workers involved in the recertification process without access to Current, the existing recertification process is mired in delays and unresponsiveness. City Struggling to Connect Housing Benefits App to New Yorkers Who Need It Most. (2)Where the household includes one or more members receiving PA, the base program participant contribution is the sum of the following: (A)30 percent of the PA household's total monthly gross income at the time of approval or renewal, or the maximum monthly PA shelter allowance for the total number of PA household members, whichever is greater; and. On May 25, 2023,the New York City Council took a step toward solving the city's homelessness crisis by passing Intros 878, 893, 894, and 229. Our recommendation is to combat discrimination by rebuilding the Citys source of income discrimination unit and making sure that it has the capacity to enforce the rights of CityFHEPS voucher holders. 10-14 Landlord Requirements. - American Legal Publishing CityFHEPS Program Eligibility Amendments - NYC Rules CityFHEPS - HRA - NYC.gov But I'm like, well, CityFHEPS said they've been paying you," Roman said, referring to communications from the city social service agency. If the units rent does not include some, or all, utilities, the households maximum rent amount will decrease by DSSs predetermined utility allowances. In FY 2023, HUD continued its practice of applying a Census Region based CPI rent inflation factor to these areas. 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Mayor Adams Ends 90-Day Rule for all Populations This piece, second in the series of recommendations, considers the question of deducting utility costs from rent. View our, Expansion of CityFHEPs Voucher Program is a Moral Imperative, The Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act: Removing Medical Debt from Credit Report Passes the Assembly, Testimony: Strengthening the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program. HRA said that some of those tenants didnt receive payments because they did not complete the annual recertification process. Per CityFHEPS rules, households with vouchers are required to contribute 30 percent of their income towards rent. We assume an 8 percent eviction rate among our defined population, 483,516 households, in any given year, including Marshal-executed evictions and self-evictions following a rental demand. Eligible candidates include: Low-income families who live in shelters. Anyone with a CityFHEPS voucher can confirm, the voucher payment standard is insulting low for those expected to use the program to find housing and exit shelter. PDF CityFHEPS Frequently Asked Questions For Clients in the Community Brooklyn resident Milton Perez said people receiving housing vouchers were unable to use the ACCESS HRA app to upload their information, Feb. 21, 2023. We hear constant success stories of our families moving out of shelter and into homes of their own through the CityFHEPS voucher, which provides the key to a future of stability and comfort after periods of trauma and transition. Shortly after the article was published, the DSS investigated Willies case and promptly sent her landlord $10,000 in rent. PDF documents are not translated. 5. While CityFHEPS can be a powerful tool against homelessness, the program is plagued with issues, including: Our recommendation is to expand eligibility to more households, such as to families where everyone is undocumented. Reform bureaucratic processesto make sure that the City and shelter staff quickly process applications and that minor errors no longer result in month-long delays or outright denials. DSS CITYFHEPS PAYMENT STANDARDS EFFECTIVE 01/01/2023 DSS-8r (E) 12/19/2022 (page 1 of 2) DSS CITYFHEPS PAYMENT STANDARDS EFFECTIVE 01/01/2023 Maximum Rent Amounts (see next page for Utility Allowance) (Turn Page) Three percent rent growth is a standard assumption in multifamily underwriting. [2]Approximately 20 percent of those evicted would enter the shelter system. If the units rent includes all utilities, the household can be eligible for the maximum rent/subsidy. The City Is Finally Giving Homeless New Yorkers Enough Money for Rent. Since then, Perez has sent numerous emails to CityFHEPS, and waited on hold on the phone for hours. This kind of thinking reminds me of a family member I know who quit her job with a City agency after 11 years to live off the shelter system. Five years of coverage would cost the city $549 million by FY 2028. To make the vouchers more effective, the mayor and the City Council should expand the enforcement resources available to the New York City Commission on Human Rights and to Housing Preservation and Development in order to combat source of income discrimination and to scale up building code enforcement. Anyone eligible for Cash Assistance must receive it. HRA-Proposed-Rule-and-Certifications-Dec-1-2022.pdf, Adopted Rule Full Text This results in CityFHEPS households having to settle for substandard housing, particularly because there is nowhere they can go to complain, and because it is difficult to move out and find other apartments. NYC is a trademark and service mark of the City of New York. Income . 633 Third Ave, 10th FL, New York, NY 10017. households in shelter seeking to move to permanent housing. When they are accessed and utilized, vouchers have the potential to stabilize low-income households struggling to pay rent and to provide those in shelter with a path to permanent housing. Published on January, 4 2023 by Yvonne Pea In 2022, NYC Department of Social Services' (DSS) made major changes to rental subsidy programs, CityFHEPS and FHEPS. Household Composition. Just had to check off and sign.. To make this more efficient program a reality, there are administrative changes that can be enacted to expedite the voucher process and to decrease the overhead and overall money spent on homelessness. By implementing the recommendations outlined here, New York City can get one step closer to ending the cycle of housing instability and homelessness for New Yorks most vulnerable residents and their children. 3. 10-02 Administration of the CityFHEPS Programs. In the last year, our staff of trained case managers, housing specialists, social workers, and income building specialists worked to move just over 840 families out of shelter and into permanent homes. Ive been trying to renew my CityFHEPS voucher since May of 2022. 3. Presently, families still face bureaucratic barriers in utilizing their CityFHEPS vouchers, but the Administration has the power to eliminate these remaining issues and make CityFHEPS the Citys solution to homelessness. Overall, Win applauds the administration for proposing these initial reforms and moving towards a more just housing voucher system. A new analysis of citywide rentals data from StreetEasy finds that the record-high rent drops and high inventory levels from COVID-19 have more than doubled the number of homes on the market that are affordable for "Section 8" Housing Choice Voucher participants. Within the rules and exemptions of CityFHEPS, Win also urges the Administration to eliminate the Utility Allowance Deduction and the Rent Reasonableness Standard. Updates and news about public benefits, housing programs and community resources, Published on January 5, 2023 Of those, at least 8,000 households are likely to enter the shelter system. For example, to increase text size using: In the menu to the right of the address bar, select and set Zoom level. 4. In the first half of 2021, there were 142 times as many available units based on Section 8 standards than CityFHEPS standards (72,502 versus 509 apartments). Unless the city returns to giving the greedy landlords the extra $4,300 incentive they once received for three years straight, nothing will change. In the months since it first launched, Current has made it much easier to help his clients get their benefits, the caseworker said. In the system as it exists today, the cost of housing 20 percent of those same households in the shelter system would be $4 billion; the cost of using rental vouchers to rehouse those households would be $1.5 billion. View > Zoom In Macintosh Shortcut: Command+. Finally, the Council voted on several cultural affairs and housing resolutions. During the second and subsequent years, the income threshold increases, so households are allowed to earn more. New Destiny Housing CityFHEPS FHEPS PAYMENT STANDARDS HRA-146z (E) 02/09/2023 (page 1 of 2) FHEPS PAYMENT STANDARDS Maximum Rent Amounts (see next page for Utility Allowance) (Turn Page) More information about CityFHEPS is available here. Improve code enforcementby ensuring that oversight agencies regularly conduct thorough inspections, and that they have the capacity and expertise needed to enforce necessary repairs. Today, a record number of people are experiencing homelessness. While a record number of people are experiencing homelessness, well-funded rental assistance programs can act as a key mechanism for helping homeless New Yorkers leave the shelter system and find permanent homes. So I dont have to deal with this every month or every time I have to recertify.. CityFHEPS has replaced the LINC, SEPS, and CITYFEPS rental assistance programs. This change would be akin to the Section 8 program rules and push the City closer to parity with this program. All 51 Council seats are open in 2023 in redrawn districts. In 2022, NYC Department of Social Services (DSS) made major changes to rental subsidy programs, CityFHEPS and FHEPS. This is called source of income (SOI) discrimination, which is illegal. PDF FHEPS PAYMENT STANDARDS - NYC.gov Nevertheless, we hope the Administration continues to consider additional reform. Poor apartment conditions. "The Council's Mental Health Roadmap addresses existing challenges in the City's mental healthcare landscape and strengthens investments to improve mental health outcomes for New Yorkers," said Speaker Adrienne Adams. We believe that our ongoing efforts to streamline rental payments for landlords, including full implementation of Current, will achieve the goals that we all share and may preclude the need for this legislation, said HRA Administrator Lisa Fitzpatrick in a December City Council hearing. This is a 50% increase in a one-year span. Todays CityFHEPS payment standards reflect the high average asking rents in New York City, or the amount landlords seek for a vacant apartment. 5. Now, low-income individuals will no longer be fettered to minimum wage jobs without any opportunity for growth. City Struggling to Connect Housing Benefits App to New Yorkers Our analysis expands on this work by calculating the savings associated with keeping people housed. The family offered her money to come home because she indicated she knew her roommate situation was difficult, but she wanted to stay since the Department of Homeless Services was going to find her permanent housing. The new amounts went into effect on January 1, 2023, for CityFHEPS and at the end of January 2023 for FHEPS. Household Composition . The Mayor's Office of Operations. Hours after THE CITY informed DSS that Perez had waited eight months for recertification, he received an email that said his renewal had been processed and his landlord would receive a $5,250 check in the mail. PDF THE HOMELESSNESS CRISIS IN NEW YORK CITY - Nexcess CDN As a landlord, I have offered housing to various program recipients. Last year, a representative of the NYC Department of Social Services told City Limits that "Prior to the pandemic, from March 2019 to February 2020, about 10 percent of shelter entrants became homeless following an eviction." Mayor Adams small-potatoes housing moves, by Emerita Torres and Jose Lopez,New York Daily News, Oversight - The CityFHEPS Rental Assistance Program. To change the text size on NYC.gov you can use your web browsers settings. The steadfast and outspoken civic leader, who died Sunday, helped save the city and MTA from financial ruin then went on to make sure journalists understood and covered money in government. First, we have to define the pool of New Yorkers most vulnerable to entering the shelter system. Program expansion costs will be offset by savings from reduced shelter costs, resulting from shortened shelter stays and prevented evictions. 10-07 Calculation of CityFHEPS Rental Assistance Payment Amount - Rooms. He didnt hear anything back until he received a notice on Sept. 30 that his CityFHEPS eligibility had expired, just over one year after he moved out of a shelter, ending five years of homelessness. However, appropriate tenants have not applied. With these changes, CityFHEPS will allow more people to move from shelter to safe and affordable housing quicker, while keeping others housed permanently. In the current primary elections, heres where the most competitive contests are happening. (2) Where the household is moving to a new residence, HRA will pay the first four months' rent in full, unless the household is receiving a PA shelter allowance, in which case HRA will pay the first month's rent in full plus the CityFHEPS rental assistance payments for the next three months. By expanding CityFHEPS to income-eligible households in danger of entering shelters, the city would keep about 8,000 households from facing homelessness, saving an estimated $772 million in FY2024 and a total of $4 billion over 5 years.
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