In light of persistent budget woes, the New York City Housing Authority—the agency that oversees public housing—struggled to maintain its services this year, just when many Harlem residents said they needed them most.
In December, NYCHA voided 2,600 Section 8 vouchers, which low-income residents use to gain access to private housing, typically paying 30 percent of their income on rent while the city covers the rest. The vouchers revoked in December weren’t in use yet, but were reserved for families in the process of finding homes. Still, the cut prompted protests from low-income families who worried that their current Section 8 vouchers were also vulnerable, in light of a $45 million budget gap citywide and decreased federal support.
These fears were confirmed in April when NYCHA announced that, due to further budget woes, it was considering revoking the Section 8 vouchers of more than 10,000 low-income tenants in the upcoming months. At the time, NYCHA officials did not specify how those cuts would be made, but the announcement sparked an outcry from residents, tenant advocates, and local politicians, who argued that cuts of that scale would intensify the housing struggle.
“We already have a housing crisis,” Nellie Bailey, director of the Harlem Tenants Council, a grassroots advocacy group, said after the April announcement. “This will only exacerbate it.”
But at the end of April, the federal government stepped in to provide what some consider to be only a stopgap solution for a larger budgetary problem. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said just weeks after NYCHA’s threat to revoke vouchers that it would allocate $23.5 million to NYCHA for the Section 8 program. According to NYCHA spokesperson Heidi Morales, HUD allocations were awarded to public housing authorities such as NYCHA that are in excess of their legal limit of vouchers.
“HUD’s allocation of more than $23 million to help fill that gap is an enormous help,” NYCHA chairman John Rhea said in a press release. But Rhea, along with local housing advocates, acknowledged that there is still an uphill climb ahead.
Sarah Martin, president of the Grant Houses Tenants Association, said after hearing about the federal funding, “We’re living at a big risk. … It’s giving people false hope. Gradually, I see it [Section 8] teetering out.” She added that she is skeptical of NYCHA’s ability to find additional funding.
New York City Council member Robert Jackson, who represents parts of West Harlem, said that while the long-term implications of HUD’s contribution may be difficult to assess, he is hopeful.
“Time will tell,” Jackson said. “We have to be very optimistic.” He added that NYCHA has an obligation to allow those currently living in Section 8 housing to stay where they are.
For local Section 8 tenants, the uncertainty surrounding the way in which the federal money will be allocated has led to further distress. For some residents who have been unable to join the program and were put on a waiting list, the situation continues to appear bleak. Jorge Martinez, a West Harlem resident who applied for Section 8 but was put on the waiting list, said, “I hope they’ll call me. It would be a big help.”
To sustain the program, Jackson said, the city should keep looking to the federal government for support.
“I’d prefer to give more vouchers than be conservative,” he said.
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