The city Housing Authority forced a Brooklyn homeowner to keep renting an apartment to a homeless woman who had lost her subsidies, even after the agency stopped paying her rent, a new lawsuit charges.
Adding insult to injury, homeowner Patrice James says in her Brooklyn Supreme Court lawsuit, the woman trashed the apartment, leaving it a rodent-infested wreck.
“The tenant got a free apartment and NYCHA got free housing for the tenant — but I’m out the money!” James, a JFK Airport worker, fumed to The Post.
James, 40, rented the upstairs apartment of her East Flatbush multifamily house to a homeless woman named Amy Chambliss in 2003, signing a two-year Section 8 lease for $1,134 per month, the suit states.
Section 8 is a rent-assistance program for low-income people funded by the federal government and administered in New York City by NYCHA.
When Chambliss lost her Section 8 status a year later and James tried to kick her out, NYCHA persuaded a Brooklyn judge to stay the eviction, the lawsuit claims.
“I took the matter to landlord-tenant court to get the tenant out of the apartment, since I was not receiving any form of compensation,” the suit states. “At that time, NYCHA convinced the judge that they were working with the tenant to reinstate.
“Hence, the judge continued to put a stay on my eviction.”
Neither NYCHA nor Chambliss paid James anything for the last year of the lease or the additional six months it took James to evict Chambliss, the suit states.
James fought to recoup her lost income, but NYCHA sent her a letter in February 2014 slapping down her request.
“My place was trashed — not just destroyed, but full of rodents almost to the point where I couldn’t live below it,” James said.
The suit seeks $48,216 in back rent, renovation costs and legal fees
A NYCHA spokeswoman declined to comment.