City Of No Vouchers

NY Post 

 A Manhattan judge handed the Adams administration a major win on Thursday in its bitter feud with the City Council over controversial changes to a housing voucher program.

Mayor Eric Adams had vetoed the council’s expansion of the city’s rental-assistance program called CityFHEPS that would’ve fast tracked vouchers for tenants facing eviction — but lawmakers overrode the veto, then took him to court in an effort to force him to comply with the expansion.

But Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lyle E. Frank ruled only the state government has the authority to expand the voucher program in a ruling that Adams celebrated.

 “While we are glad that the court agrees with our administration that these laws went beyond the City Council’s legislative authority, we are hopeful that our partners in the Council will join us in remaining committed to working to connect New Yorkers in need with safe, affordable, permanent housing,” Adams said in a written statement.

The City Council members disagree with the ruling and are planning an immediate appeal, a spokesperson said in a statement.

“It’s unfortunate that Mayor Adams’ administration has fought to delay help to New Yorkers that can prevent them from evictions and homelessness amidst a housing crisis,” the spokesperson said.

Lawmakers joined a class action lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society and four other plaintiffs back in February that would have forced Adams to comply with the expanded CityFHEPS.

The new law would have made housing vouchers available for people facing eviction without having to enter the shelter system for at least 90 days, and it would have increased the income-level cutoffs to qualify for aid while barring landlords from deducting the cost of utility bills from a voucher.

Anthony's Song 2024

 

NY Post 

 Four of New York City’s five boroughs have lost a higher percentage of residents since COVID than any of the 40 largest counties in the country, a startling new review of US Census data shows.

Topping the list is The Bronx — with a 7.2% drop in the past three years, according to the analysis of county-level population estimates.

“It’s been good for us — we get more work — but it’s sad,” said Manny Gomez, a 42-year-old Bronx resident and employee of Morgan and Brothers Manhattan, a storage and moving company, in the borough’s Mount Eden section.

 Rent is way higher. It’s going up. People move out of state because their apartments of 10, 20 years get too expensive,” Gomez told The Post on Monday.

“The little guy is getting screwed over. It’s not worth it to stay in the city.”

 The Bronx had 1,356,476 residents last year, according to the Census data — down from the 1,461,151 recorded in 2020.

Brooklyn’s Kings County came in at No. 2, suffering a 5.8% drop, and Queens County followed closely behind with a 5.7% decline in residents, according to the review carried out by ResiClub, a news and research outlet that covers the US housing market.

Manhattan’s New York County ranked fourth among the 40 largest counties in the US losing residents, with its population declining 4.8% since 2020, the analysis showed.

“It’s getting harder to live in New York,” said the owner of a U-Haul franchise in Sunnyside, Queens, who only gave her first name, Renna, to The Post — echoing what New Yorkers have been saying for several years.

 The cost of living in the city — whether it be soaring prices, rampant crime or the general rat race — is just too damn high for many people, while work-from-home options have made it easier to move out to cheaper, more spacious regions.

And the exodus is apparently continuing.

Here comes gentrification

 

 NY Post

There’s a new contender for the hottest borough in town. 

A report released this week by listings portal StreetEasy predicts that this year will see Queens beat out ever-trendy Brooklyn in terms of residential interest. 

“Queens will reign supreme in 2024 after a record-breaking year for the borough in 2023, as both renters and would-be buyers looked farther from Manhattan in search of more affordability,” begins StreetEasy’s “10 NYC Neighborhoods to Watch in 2024”  survey, which lists the New York areas that saw the largest increase in searches on the website from buyers and renters between 2022 to 2023. 

In first place is Ridgewood, a Queens neighborhood adjacent to Bushwick that offers comparatively quiet, residential vibes and a median asking rent of $3,000 — 8% less than Bushwick’s median of $3,250. 

Ridgewood is one of five Queens neighborhoods to rank in StreetEasy’s top 10, with others including Jackson Heights — which is famed for its wonderfully diverse food offerings, from Indian to Tibetan — Kew Gardens and Woodside. Ridgewood saw buyer and renter searches rise by 10.7% from 2022 to 2023, showing its surging popularity among locals looking for a home. What helps in that end is the neighborhood’s collection of restaurants and bars, as well as vintage stores and art galleries.

High rise Hunters Point most expensive place to live in Queens...where rents are still rising

 

 Queens Post

Real estate firm PropertyShark ranked New York City as the city with the largest concentration of expensive ZIP codes in the U.S. by closed home sales.

In PropertyShark’s report, the ZIP code for Hunters Point in Queens,11109, was cited as one of the eight New York City locations to rank in the top 100 priciest ZIP codes.

Hunters Point’s ZIP code was ranked as having the fifth-highest median sale price, at $2.09 million. The only zip codes that had a higher median sale price were 10282 (Battery Park City) at $3.4 million, 10007 (Tribeca) at $3.09 million, 10013 (Tribeca/Hudson Square) at $2.97 million and 10069 (Upper West Side) at $2.17 million. Hunters Point is the lone neighborhood within the top five not located in Manhattan.

Other ZIP codes within New York City that made PropertyShark’s top 100 for most expensive ZIP codes in the U.S. include 10012 (SoHo/NoHo/NoLita) at $1.95 million, 10028 (Upper East Side) at $1.84 million and 11231 (Red Hook), also at $1.84 million. The latter ZIP code is the lone Brooklyn neighborhood to be cited as a main contributor.

When it came to the list for the 100 most expensive ZIP codes, Battery Park City’s 10282 ranked 20th, Tribeca’s 10007 came in 24th, Tribeca and Hudson Square’s 10013 ranked 27th, the Upper West Side’s 10069 came in 65th, Hunters Point ranked 72nd, SoHo, NoHo and NoLita’s 10012 was 87th, the Upper East Side’s 10028 ranked 97th and Red Hook’s 11231 was ranked 98th.

This year’s study marked the first time that New York City ranked as the epicenter of expensive zip codes since 2016.

 QNS

There was a 2.94% increase in the average rental price in Queens in October 2023 compared to the same month last year, according to a report from the MNS Real Estate firm.

The year-over-year increase came despite the fact that rental prices for two-bedroom units actually went down 0.48%, from $3,441 to $3,424. This is largely due to more significant increases experienced with studio (5.40%) and one-bedroom (5.46%) units. Rental prices increased in studio units from $2,140 to $2,256 and in one-bedroom units from $2,588 to $2,729.

Despite the significant increase in the average rental price by the end of October this year compared to the same time last year, there was very little change compared to September 2023. Month-over-month, there was a 0.06% decrease in average rental price, from $2,804.94 to $2,803.12.

Month-over-month, the average rental price of studio units increased 1.5% from $2,222.19 to $2,255.57. However, the average rental price for one-bedroom and two-bedroom units both went down. There was a 0.67%, decrease for one-bedroom units, from $2,747.66 to $2,729.38. Two-bedroom units experienced a 0.60% decrease in average rental price, from $3,444.97 to $3,424.40.

Five Queens neighborhoods tracked in the report, Astoria (1.93%), Rego Park (1.5%), Forest Hills (0.28%), Elmhurst (0.89%) and Sunnyside (0.95%), experienced an increase in the average rental price in October compared to September. The remaining six Queens neighborhoods, Long Island City (0.99%), Ridgewood (0.97%), Flushing (0.35%), Jackson Heights (1.41%), Jamaica (1.11%) and Woodside/Maspeth (0.66%), had a decrease over that same period of time.

Astoria saw the largest month-over-month increase in studio units, rising 12.8%, from $2,090 to $2,358. The most significant decrease during this same period of time was seen with studio units in Elmhurst, which went down 12%, from $1,988 to $1,749.

Long Island City had the most expensive studio ($3,418), one-bedroom ($4,145) and two-bedroom ($5,756) units in terms of average price. Flushing had the cheapest studio units ($1,679) and Elmhurst had the least expensive one-bedroom ($2,275) and two-bedroom ($2,845) units.

 

No duh

 

 LIC Post

According to a study conducted by the nationwide apartment search website RentCafe, the Queens ZIP Code of 11101, which covers Long Island City, ranks third in new apartments completed from 2018-22.

RentCafe hypothesizes that a big contributing factor to the high demand among renters is due to Long Island City’s close proximity and easy access to Manhattan. Additionally, the area’s location along the East River provides residents with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline.

In 2017, there were an estimated 9,631 apartments in Long Island City. From 2018-22, there were 7,081 new apartments built there, marking a 73.5% increase to a total of 16,712 by 2022.

In addition to calculating the number of new apartments added during this period of time, RentCafe also determined the median income and age of residents within this zip code. The median income for apartment residents within the 11101 zip code was $87,264, while the median age of residents was 34.

The only two zip codes to rank ahead of 11101 when it came to new apartments were 20002 and 20003 in Washington, D.C. Ivy City, located in northeastern Washington, D.C., represents the 20002 zip code. The area had 7,378 new apartments added from 2018-22. Capitol Hill is the Washington, D.C., neighborhood represented by the 20003 zip code. From 2018-22, there were 7,225 new apartments added in that neighborhood.

 Some of these buildings are in the affordable housing lottery program. Like the one pictured above by the clock tower. The biggest lie in the world is the theory that building more leads to lower rents.

 

We have to build more market rate housing to make affordable housing

 

QNS  

According to a new Douglas Elliman report, the median rent in the northwest region of Queens for the month of May was the second-highest on record, just short of the prior month’s record.

The median rental price increased by 15.3% from the previous year. For the month of May, the average rental price was $3,662, which was the same as the prior month. However, May’s average rental price was an 11.1% increase from 2022.

The average rental price for a studio was $3,157 in May, a 4.6% increase from April and a 21.7% increase from 2022.

A one-bedroom unit averaged $3,209 in May, a 6.6% decrease from the prior month and an 8.3% increase from 2022. The average rental price for a two-bedroom unit was $4,691, a 4% increase from April and a 13.4% increase from 2022. The average rental price for a three-bedroom was $4,239, an 8.6% increase from April and an 18.4% increase from 2022.

More Ardila pre-Assembly malfeasance

 

NY Post

Assemblyman Juan Ardila — who faced accusations of sex abuse — hasn’t yet paid $19,200 in arrears for a two-bedroom Maspeth apartment he used to rent, a Queens landlord claims.

In an interview with The Post, his former landlord, Anne O’Reilly, said she’s not afraid to take Ardila to court over the issue.

“I feel like it’s an injustice to me,” she said.

But Ardila scored a temporary legal victory last month when a Queens judge dismissed a case filed by O’Reilly in June when Ardila only owed $11,200.

He moved out in November. (wow, he was still squatting there after he won the election-JQ LLC)

The judge ruled Ardila, who was sued alongside unnamed roommates, was served outside the required 10-17 days before a court date, a technicality that won’t prevent O’Reilly from refiling the suit in the future.

She told The Post she aims to do just that to get Ardila to pay the year of outstanding rent.

“I’m a nurse and try to take care of people and I think people should respect everybody and if I’m working hard I expect everyone else to work hard — if they’re working — to pay their rent,” she said.

Ardila tried to turn the tables on his former landlord in a statement to The Post where he claimed he and his mother had been harassed by her.

“My mother and I moved to this apartment when I was 14. I was staying with my girlfriend but my mother has endured relentless harassment from her landlord, particularly throughout the pandemic & even left her without heat during some of the coldest days,” he said in a statement that included a link to a past 311 heating complaint.

“Experiences like these only reinforce my unwavering commitment to advocating for tenants’ rights and protections in Albany,” he added.

But Ardila, who technically was not on the lease signed by his mother when he was a child, did not say whether he still owed rent to O’Reilly until several hours after The Post reported about the dismissed suit.

“I do not owe rent,” he said.

The legal win for the rent-skipping legislator came one month after two women accused Ardila of forcibly touching them at a 2015 party while they were intoxicated. 

Juan should be really grateful that George Santos exists as the worst elected official from Queens, because he deserves just as much press scrutiny and notoriety.

The fair market rent is still too f%@*!#g high

Inbox: @HUDgov has published new Fair Market Rents for New York City (and everywhere else)

The numbers will be used to determine rent subsidy amounts

In NYC:

•Studio $2,123
•1 BR: $2,170
•2 BR: $2,451
•3 BR: $3,078
•4BR: $3,316

More info here: https://t.co/dWKFZQTxuo pic.twitter.com/Vnncafu4Mj

— David Brand (@DavidFBrand) September 7, 2022

This is just as logical as what the city calls an affordable apartment in their "affordable" housing program. And four bedroom apartments? I thought that was called a house.

2,000 for a frickin' studio

 

Queens Post

The average price paid to nab a studio in Queens in June was over $2,000 per month, with the average for a one bedroom hitting $2,500 for the first time on record, according to a new report by the real estate firm M.N.S.

The average price paid for a studio was $2,045, up 12 percent from June 2021, according to the report. The average for a one bedroom was $2,500, up 16 percent from a year earlier, and the average cost of a two bedroom was $3,322, representing a 23 percent jump year-over-year.

Rental prices increased across the borough, although they skyrocketed in Astoria, Long Island City, Forest Hills and Jamaica, the report revealed. The report did not provide a breakdown for Sunnyside or Woodside.

The average price paid to snag an apartment in Astoria last month was up 32 percent compared to June 2021. In Long Island City, the average rent was up 28 percent from 12 months prior, while in Jamaica and Forest Hills it was up 21 percent and 16 percent respectively.

In Astoria apartments of all sizes saw lofty increases — although it was most notable with the bigger units.

The average rent for a studio apartment in Astoria in June was $2,211. This figure was up 26 percent — from $1,760 — one year prior.

One-bedroom apartments in the neighborhood saw a 28 increase — with the June average being $2,553, up from $1,989 in June 2021.

The average rent to get into a two-bedroom apartment in Astoria was $3,249, up a whopping 41 percent from 12 months prior. The average two-bedroom went for $2,307 in June 2021.

The red-hot Long Island City rental market shows no signs of cooling down.

The average price paid for a studio apartment in Long Island City in June 2022 was $3,144, up 24 percent from a year ago; a one-bedroom fetched $3,970, up 31 percent from 12 months earlier; while a two-bedroom went for $5,463, up 28 percent.

Rent guidelines board made the rents too damn higher

 

AMNY 

Confirming a preliminary vote in May, the New York City Rent Guideline Board voted Tuesday to approve a range of increases in rent-stabilized buildings affecting more than 2 million tenants across the city.

Renters with one-year leases can expect a 3.25% jump in their rents, while those with two-year leases will see rents the climb 5%.

The vote of the board — composed of nine mayor-appointed members which include two landlords, two tenants and five are considered public members — disappointed plenty of tenants and rental advocates.

“I waited to see how this allegedly neutral process would unfold and frankly, I’ve seen enough,” said board Tenant Member Adán Soltren, as he expressed his disappointment in the increase vote on June 21. “Despite all our good faith efforts, the public members [of this board] decided that rather than listen, digest and make informed decisions, they’d rather keep moving the goalpost. People on this board today are choosing to continue to uphold a racist, classist system that pushes Black and Brown people and low and moderate income working families into cyclic poverty and out of their homes.”

Board Public Member Christian Gonzalez-Rivera also condemned the vote, and addressed the statements made by fellow board members indicating that the only way for property owners to cover their operating expenses is to increase rent – even if the increase means tenants cannot afford to live in the units.

“Landlord representatives that told us [the Rent Guideline Board] at these hearings that, since the HSTPA (Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019) closed their alternative avenues of raising rents beyond the levels that are voted on by this board, that they now depend on high enough increases from this board in order to keep up with increases in operating expenses,” said Gonzalez-Rivera. “This is simply not true. The only way that this could be true is if you think of the rent-stabilized housing market as a closed system, where the only input is rent.” 

Rockaway property owner can't evict crazy deadbeat tenant

 

 NY Daily News

A Queens woman does her damage from a third-floor apartment with an ocean view: Water left running for days, flooding the building. Smoke pouring from beneath her front door. Hoarding old junk in the hallway, from bicycles to shopping carts. Taking a sledgehammer to her kitchen cabinets.

But her exasperated Rockaways landlord and unnerved neighbors can’t get help from anywhere. Not from the cops. Not from the Fire Department. And not from a Housing Court crippled by the pandemic.

 I’m trying to evict her because she’s a nuisance and the courts are supposedly open for business,” said building owner Martin Hanan, who is out roughly $40,000 in lost rent. “But apparently they’re not, because they really don’t care. They don’t want to hear a word ... Honestly, I gave up on calling the city.”

Hanan compiled a staggering six-page litany of Annamarie Hosang’s behavior, from allegedly tossing a fire extinguisher at the building superintendent to once blasting music from her apartment for 20 straight hours.

A Daily News review of Housing Court documents detailed the woman’s alleged activities, with multiple reports of flooding the Beach 113th St. building, ringing her neighbor’s doorbells and even threatening one of her neighbors with a pipe.

When the NYPD and FDNY arrived on multiple occasions, they dealt with the situation and moved on, the landlord said, adding his tenants declined to bring charges against the woman over fear of reprisals.

Hanan is still awaiting a long-delayed hearing for her eviction, a process that began in Queens Housing Court in September 2020. Things became even more complicated after Hosang twice applied — in October 2021 and this past February — for a COVID relief program that assures her a home during the pandemic.

Hanan says Hosang has paid no rent for her $1,725-a-month residence since April 2021 and that he can’t even lease out the apartment downstairs because the cascading water from above collapsed its ceiling. The stench of mildew from her water-soaked apartment seeps through the building.

Two longtime residents of the nine-unit building shared their own tales, with both asking for anonymity rather than risk incurring their neighbor’s wrath. One of the pair, referring to Hosang only as “the squatter,” recited a list of unnerving incidents — including one where she chased his wife with a shovel.

AMI is not enough to pay the rent

  

AMNY

New Yorkers need to double their average income just to afford the escalating median rent in the Five Boroughs, a study from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) revealed.

That was just one finding released Tuesday in the HPD’s annual survey conducted to evaluate housing and vacancy throughout the city.

These findings concluded – among other things – that in 2021, the city’s overall household income would need to double in order to afford the median rent price of $2,750.

Even so, the vast majority of available residences are taken, as the HPD reported a citywide vacancy rate of 4.54%.

The survey aims to create a comprehensive profile of the city’s housing stock, neighborhoods, populations as well as housing vacancies in order to glean crucial insight to inform policy to make a more equitable city.

The New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey is a critical tool for our understanding of the city’s housing market,” said Mayor Eric Adams following the release of the report on May 17. “New Yorkers can be confident that, despite all of the challenges, this year’s survey was conducted professionally and methodically — thanks in part to Intro 70, which I signed in March. The findings are clear: Our city’s affordable housing crisis is as dire as ever, and that’s why I am working every day to create and preserve the high-quality, affordable housing hard-working New Yorkers need and deserve.”

Landlords publicly shames DSS worker tenant for stiffing them on rent

NY Post 

In a sign of the times, a fed-up Queens landlord posted two giant banners calling out his allegedly deadbeat tenants for owing him $17,000 in back rent.

“MY TENANTS ON THE FIRST FLOOR ARE NOT PAYING RENT” read the bold posters slung above the first-floor rental on 175th Street in Springfield Gardens.

Landlords Calvin and Jean Thompson posted the banners — which can be seen from the Belt Parkway — in the hopes of shaming their tenants into paying up. It was also featured in a TikTok video that got more than 14,000 likes — and supportive comments like, “Not paying your bills is ghetto.”

The Thompsons, who are married, have owned the two-family home since 1989. They began the process of trying to evict Marie and Eugene Lamour and their daughter Kathia in Queens Housing Court last month.

But with nearly 200,000 eviction cases pending in the city after pandemic protections and the state’s eviction moratorium created a historic backlog, the landlords see humiliation as the next best tactic.

“The signs are very embarrassing and shameful for them,” said the Thompsons’ son, Calvin Jr. “That’s the only voice we have at this stage: freedom of speech.”

The signs seem to be working: Kathia Lamour tried to cut one sign down, Calvin Jr. claims.

“When she calls Uber, she won’t do it in front of the house anymore,” he said. “She runs to the end of the block, so they don’t see them.

“It’s uncomfortable that we have to hang these up, but we’re $20,000 uncomfortable, so I think a sign is very minor.”

Problems began in July when the Thompsons raised the rent on the Lamours’ three-bedroom pad from $1,800 a month to $1,900, the first rent hike in nine years, according to Calvin Jr.

The Lamours didn’t want to pay the 5% increase. Kathia, who works for the city Department of Social Services and makes $46,731, according to GovSalaries.com, told The Post she tried to drop off $1,800 in rent instead of the new amount, but the Thompsons refused to take it — so she stopped paying altogether.

It's easy to sympathize with Ms. Lamour for standing her ground here, because in her municipal position she's probably very aware of how dangerous the shelters the DSS "runs and monitors" are

Dirty cop ripping off tenants and charging above market rate for basement apartment

 

 

NY Daily News

A duplicitous NYPD veteran is accused of scamming eight apartment hunters by posing as the owner of his rented Queens home, collecting a security deposit and first month’s rent from his victims before disappearing, the Daily News has learned.

Officer Burban Pierre advertised his rented basement apartment in Ozone Park via Craigslist over a four-month stretch in which prospective tenants paid up to $2,800 in move-in costs for the leased space that he called home, according to a victim and one of his neighbors.

Vivian Griffith answered the officer’s ad in April, recalling how she texted Pierre, signed a lease and paid $2,200 upfront for security and rent. But the frustrated woman was never able to move inside, and neighbors eventually alerted her to the officer’s ongoing swindle.

“I knocked on the people’s door upstairs,” she recalled. “They answered and said, ‘Pierre is the tenant living downstairs.’ I showed them the lease. They said, ‘Oh, he’s good. You’re the eighth one. We’ve had eight people come here on this.’ He never told me he was a cop.”

But Pierre, who earned nearly $130,000 on the job last year, definitely told her the building belonged to him, Griffith added.

“I feel very upset with the fact that this comes from an officer who is supposed to protect and serve,” added the mother of two daughters. “It’s shocking that a police officer would go to such lengths to take from people who don’t have. It’s disheartening and upsetting.”

The NYPD confirmed an investigation targeting Pierre, who joined the department in 2010 and was recently moved to the Bronx Court section after working in a pair of Manhattan precincts.

Homeless Cuomo leaves tenants and landlords hanging for rent aid.

 

NY Post

 Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been missing in action as the state failed to release the vast majority of $2.6 billion in federal funds for tenants on the brink of eviction, the head of the emergency rental relief program testified Tuesday, just before the accused sexual harasser announced his resignation.

“I have not had conversations with the governor about this,” Michael Hein, commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, admitted to lawmakers at an Assembly hearing in Lower Manhattan.

Assemblyman Mike Lawler (R-Rockland County) had asked Hein when was the last time he’d spoken with Cuomo about the Emergency Rental Assistance Program passed by Congress in January.

That’s when Hein answered that he’d never spoken to the governor about the program. Instead he communicates with Cuomo’s deputies, Hein testified.

While Hein’s office has paid out $140 million to contractors to administer the program that’s beset with tech problems and only recently added a “save and resume” button to the lengthy online application, only $100 million has been distributed to tenants and landlords since June 1.

That’s just 3.7 percent of the $2.6 billion pot. The state risks forfeiting the federal funds if 65% of the money isn’t paid out by Sept. 30.

“I think what this shows is that the administration is incapable of administering this program,” Lawler fumed.

Tenants and landlords left wanting for rent relief

NY Daily News

Getting injured during the height of the COVID-19 crisis was just one of many hardships Fernando Livingston faced when he found himself out of work last year and, even worse, falling behind on rent.

The 68-year-old former security guard has been living on food stamps and workers’ compensation since he got pinned under a gate for nearly an hour while on the job. The resulting spinal injury makes it hard for him to walk.

 The 68-year-old former security guard has been living on food stamps and workers’ compensation since he got pinned under a gate for nearly an hour while on the job. The resulting spinal injury makes it hard for him to walk.

The prospect of a fund that could cover months of back rent buoyed the Brooklyn man’s hopes and initially assuaged his fears of becoming homeless as he applied for the state-run Emergency Rental Assistance Program in early June.

Nearly seven weeks later, and now behind another month’s rent, Livingston and thousands of others have received no response from the state despite promises that $2.3 billion set aside for rental assistance would soon begin flowing.

“I’ve never been homeless before. I’ve never really had problems with rent before,” he told the Daily News. “I’m scared. I’m not going to tell you no lie. I can’t sleep at night thinking of what’s next, what’s going to happen.”

Livingston, who emigrated to the U.S. from Panama and served in the military for six years, owes his Flatbush landlord more than $10,000.

“If this thing doesn’t work out, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m just hoping and praying this works out.”

Coreena Popowitch is in a similar situation.

The 45-year-old has been unemployed since the start of the pandemic. She also applied for rental assistance through the state.

“I don’t know what’s going on. I really wish that they let us know,” she said. “It’s frustrating. It’s been pretty much just silence.”

Popowitch says she has paid off some of her Bronx rent but still owes her landlord more than $8,000.

The pair are examples of the more than 160,000 New Yorkers who face a frustrating and byzantine application process with the Emergency Rental Assistance Program that has left them with little patience.

The $2.3 billion program was made possible by federal cash set aside in the state budget with the understanding that it would be up and running in time to help struggling New Yorkers before the state’s eviction moratorium expires at the end of August.

The application process didn’t launch until the first week of June, despite promises from Gov. Cuomo and administration officials to get it online earlier.

Making matters worse, the web application portal has been riddled with technical glitches.

Applicants have complained that submissions must be completed in one sitting and can’t be saved and have reported problems uploading documents and other issues.

Landlords are also anxious about the slow relief rollout.

Anthony Sarro, a small-scale residential and commercial landlord who owns one building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and another in Forest Hills, Queens, said the eviction ban has caused major headaches after one of his tenants refused to pay rent for almost a year and then vanished.

“He stayed on for 11 months and told me, ‘You can’t evict me,’” Sarro said. “Now he has disappeared and left the apartment completely destroyed. There were cocaine bags all over. I think he lost his job, and now he has disappeared.”

Sarro says he’s out more than $100,000 and had to let some employees go because of the financial stress caused by the deserter and giving a few tenants breaks on rent during the worst of the pandemic.

He was initially hopeful that the rental assistance program could help both him and at least two of his tenants who he knows have applied. But the slow process is just making matters worse in the short term, he said.

“It sort of inspires people not to pay rent,” he said. “What the tenants are doing is that they’re putting themselves in arrears, even though they may be able to pay at least some of their rent because why wouldn’t they? If they can get the city to cover their arrears, why would they try to pay them? It’s hurting me rather than helping me at this point. It’s a little bit egregious.”

 

Tenants struggling to pay rent are struggling with application online platform

Gothamist

Tenant advocates say the $2.7 billion federally-funded emergency rental assistance program aimed at helping struggling New Yorkers behind on their rent due to the pandemic might not be reaching the residents who need it the most.

New Yorkers started applying for the program on June 1st. The agency in charge of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), received 119,209 applications by the end of June, with the 91,457 coming from New York City (the agency says some applications might be duplicates).

But advocates say problems with the online application portal could be preventing the lowest-income, immigrants and senior New Yorkers from successfully submitting applications, adding further stress in paying their back rent.

“I fear we will not reach the very communities that the legislation specifically wanted to reach, mainly people under 50% of the area median income, survivors of domestic violence, survivors of sex trafficking and people living with disabilities,” said Jack Newton, director of the public benefits unit at Bronx Legal Services. “I think that will continue to be a problem in the weeks to come.”

Bronx Legal Services is one of 29 non-profits that sent a letter to OTDA earlier this month asking the agency to address the problems people are experiencing: the difficulty of collecting all the necessary documents and uploading them, an issue that has frequently tripped up tenants because applications can’t be saved and resumed; “error” messages that force tenants to exit and restart an application; inadequate translations of the information about the program into other languages; and needing to have an email address to submit an application.

Justin Mason, a spokesperson for OTDA, said they “are addressing any technical issues promptly and as they are encountered,” and are reviewing the letter.

“The agency has undertaken an unprecedented effort to establish partnerships with local governments across the state and welcomes any input we receive from community-based organizations—especially those groups actively involved in helping New Yorkers apply for this critical assistance,” he said.

Timothy Johnson, 59, said he and his partner, who live in a two-bedroom apartment in the Morrisania section of the Bronx with their two daughters, made five unsuccessful attempts in applying for the program. Johnson said their landlord told them they owe $11,000 in back rent (an amount they dispute) from during the pandemic. He has tried to apply on his phone because he doesn’t have access to a computer, but said he ran into issues uploading documents.

“It's confusing,” Johnson said. “It tells you to upload documents and it doesn't tell you which documents to upload. You really have to be computer-savvy to know how to fill this out.”

Landlord groups have also expressed dissatisfaction with the rollout of the program. Jay Martin, the executive director at the Community Housing Improvement Program, which represents 4,000 property owners in the city, said the most successful landlords are the ones who’ve been scheduling 30-minute appointments with tenants in their offices and assigning their staff to assist with applications, which he sees as the state’s failure to establish a user-friendly application process.

“You can go on Amazon, you can order toilet paper and have it at your house in 24 hours,” he said. “But when we're talking about a multi-billion dollar program from the government to help keep people in their homes and to keep the housing market from collapsing, we can't even figure out a way to keep the website from not crashing.”

Debts pile up for the rent burdened

The Real Deal 

It’s clear that the pandemic has impacted New Yorkers’ ability to pay rent. What’s less clear is exactly how much rent debt has been amassed since the beginning of last year — a crucial piece of the puzzle for policymakers in determining how much relief to extend to tenants and landlords.

A report released Wednesday by New York University’s Furman Center aims to inform the efforts of lawmakers in apportioning those funds.

The findings offer a snapshot of citywide rent debt by analyzing rent owed by tenants in 13,163 affordable housing units concentrated in the South Bronx and North Brooklyn. (Some data was included for units in Manhattan and Queens.)

The analysis focuses on buildings with over nine units with apartments financed by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Some units are also home to recipients of Section 8 vouchers. The buildings used in the sample were able to provide granular rent ledger data, enabling the Furman Center to take a detailed look at the distribution of arrears.

According to the report, rent owed by tenants in the sample more than doubled during the first year of the pandemic, while the portion of families that have incurred severe rent debt has jumped even higher.

Queens rents take a dip

 Jackson Heights Post

The cost to rent an apartment in Queens has dropped more than 4 percent in the past year, according to a new report.

The average amount paid to rent a studio, one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment was down across the board, compared to the same time last year, according to a report released by the real estate company MNS.

Some neighborhoods saw a particularly steep price drop in rental prices, such as Long Island City and Astoria, while others like Jackson Heights, Jamaica and Rego Park were mostly unchanged year over year.

Meanwhile, Flushing saw a slight uptick in rental prices from last year to this year and Ridgewood also saw a small increase in the price of studios and two-bedroom apartments.

Boroughwide rent prices fell for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, according to the Queens Rental Market Report.

The average rent paid for a studio apartment in Queens was $1,782 last month — down by 2.3 percent from $1,823 in November 2019, the report states.

A tale of two Astorias

 

Queens Patch

Volunteers are helping Astoria Houses tenants get cooking as they approach nearly two months without gas in their kitchens.

Queens Together, a local organization dedicated to restaurant advocacy and community service, led a team of volunteers and elected officials distributing crockpots and grocery items Sunday to the dozens of families in the NYCHA complex who have had no cooking gas since Sept. 23.

The outage is affecting 48 apartments, a NYCHA spokesperson told Patch last month. It's unclear when gas service will be restored.

"Where NYCHA has let residents down, the Astoria Houses community has stepped up," City Council Member Costa Constantinides said in a statement. "A gas outage should not take away our neighbors' ability to celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday rooted in family recipes and celebration."

Since the outage was first reported, NYCHA provided residents with hot plates and is making unspecified "additional contingency measures," the agency said.

  Queens Patch 

 Fourteen apartments in a new Astoria building have hit the city's "affordable" housing lottery, but prospective tenants must make at least $70,000 a year to be eligible, records show.

Applications are open through Dec. 4 for a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units in a new residential building rising at the corner of 31st Avenue and 21st Street, according to the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

The one-bedroom apartments will rent for $2,050 a month, and the two-bedroom apartments will cost $2,500 in monthly rent.

Apartments come with in-unit laundry, and building amenities include an elevator and gym. Parking will be available for an additional fee.

The developer is slated to receive tax breaks in exchange for building the "affordable" units.