A major glitch in a high-tech, Bloomberg-administration rent-payment system is causing nightmares for landlords and public- housing tenants.
The New York City Housing Authority’s new $36 million computer system has bungled the payment of rent subsidies for thousands of low-income families, prompting some landlords to move to evict their needy tenants.
“Tenants are getting eviction notices slipped under their doors because NYCHA has withheld months’ worth of rent that it should have paid,” city Public Advocate Bill de Blasio said. “It’s infuriating to see yet another city computer system failing to deliver the promised results.
“Months of unpaid rent is not a simple glitch — it’s a full-blown crisis. NYCHA needs to ensure that actual human beings are checking these cases to ensure the agency isn’t wrongfully throwing landlords into default, and tenants out on the street.”
De Blasio will release a report today that says rent subsidies from NYCHA have not been paid in full during the past year.
The problem is widespread: Section 8 tenants, whose rents are partially covered by NYCHA, are not getting recertification packages in the mail that they must fill out to prove they qualify for the assistance. As a result, many of them are getting computer-generated termination notices, de Blasio said.
He suggested that NYCHA discontinue termination notices until the problem is fixed.
In addition, landlords are not receiving their rent payments.
A NYCHA official said landlords need the agency’s permission before evicting tenants for non-payment of rent.
NYCHA officials promised to improve the system by the end of the year.
“With the implementation of any large-scale business process redesign and technology deployment, there is an adjustment period of several months, especially with a program as dynamic as Section 8 where new information is constantly being processed,” an agency statement read.