One of New York City’s biggest and most important rental aid programs has been “plagued with problems” that make it harder for people to leave the city’s overburdened homeless shelters and find permanent homes, according to a state audit report released Thursday.
Based on a sampling of cases, the audit found “systemic irregularities” in the administration of the program, which provides vouchers that allow tenants to put 30 percent of their income toward rent while the city pays the rest.
Landlords did not receive aid payments on time, and some people in shelters faced “numerous delays” in getting the documentation they needed to look for apartments, while others were inaccurately classified as having left the shelter system, according to the report, which was conducted by the New York State comptroller’s office.
The comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said households waited 10 months on average to be found eligible for the program, known as the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement, or CityFHEPS. It is not the same as a federal Section 8 voucher, but it works in a similar way.
The city’s Department of Social Services, which runs the rental aid program, should “improve its management,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement. He noted that with New York facing a housing affordability crisis, the city needs “an effective and efficient rental assistance program.”
City officials pushed back on Mr. DiNapoli’s findings, characterizing the reported problems as anomalies. They said in the fiscal year ending in June, the city had helped more than 13,000 households secure apartments using the voucher program, up from about 7,000 three years ago.
They said they had reduced the amount of documentation needed from renters and were putting in place a new electronic system to process payments faster.
In a written response that was included in the report, Christine Maloney, deputy commissioner of audit and quality assurance services for the Department of Social Services, said the audit contained “multiple inaccuracies and misstatements.”
Ms. Maloney said that the department “remains committed to its mission of serving New York City’s most vulnerable population in the most efficient and effective manner.”
The audit speaks to the challenges of addressing a staggering homelessness problem in America’s largest city. As of Monday, the city said there were more than 117,000 people in its shelter system, including 59,000 migrants seeking asylum.
A major hurdle is that even when people get rental assistance, there are few places to use it. Of all New York City apartments with rents cheaper than the median ($1,650 per month), fewer than 1 percent were available in 2023, according to a city survey.
As of last month, some 47,000 households were supported by CityFHEPS vouchers, according to the city. And the program’s cost has ballooned, from less than $200 million in the fiscal year ending in June 2020 to $819.4 million in 2024, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog.
That cost is at the center of a heated dispute between Mayor Eric Adams’s administration and the City Council. Last year, in an effort to ease the housing crisis, the Council voted to expand the program. Then the administration, which said the expansion was too expensive, refused to put it into effect. The City Council sued to try to force the administration’s hand and lost. The case is now before an appellate court.
Despite the importance of CityFHEPS, its operation has consistently been the subject of complaints from tenants and housing advocates. Renters have struggled to get timely responses about the status of their vouchers, even as they face eviction in housing court.
The audit released on Thursday also described how certain buildings where people relied on vouchers to pay rent were in various states of disrepair. Those buildings had been flagged for renovations, which were taking longer than expected, the audit found.
Officials with the Department of Social Services acknowledged being further behind than planned, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic, but said that the renovations were proceeding. In responses included in the report, city officials said the housing department — not social services — was responsible for monitoring those buildings.
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