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January 20, 2012

“Mary”

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Client Stories — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 8:52 am

We were in housing court recently with one of our new clients. “Mary” has the kind of case that makes people shake their heads in disbelief, and explains why housing lawyers, like me, are sadly necessary.

Mary is a single working mother, who, thankfully, lives in a subsidized building. That means her rent is supposed to be based on her annual income, but because her work income fluctuates, and the landlord’s staff took only a small sampling of pay stubs to calculate what her rent should be this year, they were overcharging her quite a bit. She’s now facing eviction for unpaid rent.

It’s these kinds of very human errors — coupled with very human pride and unwillingness to acknowledge the errors — that lead to evictions.

We’ve provided all the documentation to the landlord’s attorney to show that they haven’t calculated Mary’s income correctly. Remarkably, we haven’t been able to get them to even read our papers explaining their error. So, we were in court again recently. This time they offered us a new rent, that was, once again, miscalculated. Although the landlord’s attorney was willing to listen to what I had to say (to some extent) it seemed that he mostly wanted the case resolved without it taking too much of his time. My client and I were both getting yelled at by the landlord’s representative almost as soon as he arrived on the scene. I shudder to think how things would have gone for Mary if we weren’t involved! We’ve adjourned the case once more, in hopes of resolving the differences, but if we can’t, we’re prepared to put everything in front of the judge, and I’m confident the judge will agree with our calculations, thus finally resolving the question of how much her rent should be.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

December 8, 2011

In the Loop: A Client Story that Makes Me Angry

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Client Stories — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 11:44 am

I’m angry. I’ve been angry a lot since I spoke to our newest client. “Jane” is a public assistance recipient, not by choice, but by desperation. She is a remarkably wise, very articulate, and godly woman who worked for decades, providing for her family, but then she got sick and it all fell apart.

Most working people think that once you get sick in this country our support systems will take care of you, but the truth is the disability system completely fails many very sick people. About half the people applying for disability get rejected. That’s an actual statistic, not an exaggeration. Those who have the courage to push forward and appeal often wait two years for a hearing. Again, not an exaggeration.

Jane’s chances of success on appeal are very good, and knowing her situation, I think she’s sure to win. But how does she survive in the meanwhile? Public assistance is her only option, but her benefits were cut off earlier this year, because they claim she missed an appointment of some kind, which she denies. This means her landlord hasn’t gotten any rent in months now, and Jane has no funds to buy basics like subway tickets or new shoes for her kids. When Public Assistance started the process to cut Jane’s benefits, they didn’t even send the warning notice to the correct address, so any opportunity to prevent the cut off was missed because of their mistake. She took the matter to a fair hearing (an administrative process to protest agency decisions) and even though she had no attorney to fight for her, she won the case. Remember I said she was very articulate? What’s more, Public Assistance agreed it was wrong, and was ordered to repay all of her lost benefits, reopen her case, pay all the back rent and cash that had not been paid.  Remarkably, Public Assistance still hasn’t done so, months after Jane’s winning decision was issued. That’s when we spoke to her. At this point, there was little choice but to file a lawsuit, asking a court judge to compel Public Assistance to simply comply with the order and pay the back benefits. So two weeks ago, we filed a case on her behalf. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud to file a case, and so angry that I had to. I’m confident the matter will be resolved within the next couple of months once the city attorneys see our papers, but it is a crime and a tragedy that it had to come to this.

We’ll keep you posted, and, Lord willing, will have good news for you in a month or two. In the meanwhile, please keep Jane and her two children in your prayers this holiday season, that they’d have all the food, shelter, and healthcare they need to be safe and healthy.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

June 7, 2011

In the Loop: A Word From Our Director

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Homelessness — Tags: , , , , , , — admin @ 11:07 am

In April the New York City government suddenly terminated the Advantage program, which was designed by the Bloomberg administration to help residents of homeless shelters find and maintain an apartment. Overnight 13,000 families who depended on the Advantage subsidy to pay their rent were told the support would no longer be there. A lawsuit brought by the Legal Aid Society has ensured payments will continue while the case is pending, but there is no guarantee for how this case will turn out.

The Advantage program, begun in 2007, offered time limited subsidies based on the theory that families could eventually achieve financial independence, but the results were mixed and homeless advocates were very critical of the program’s design. Now those same advocates find themselves fighting for the Advantage program so that families depending on the program will not find themselves in the shelter system again. Although it seems to have received little media coverage, similar notices suddenly terminating rent subsidies were received by about 1,300 tenants remaining on the Housing Stability Plus program, another Bloomberg innovation that was largely replaced by Advantage.

There’s no question these programs were flawed, and that the problem of ending homelessness is a difficult and complicated one. The sudden failure of these two programs underscores the critical importance of homelessness prevention efforts, like those operated by Brooklyn Jubilee. In places like food pantries and soup kitchens we meet families living on the edge of economic disaster, and strategize with them on ways to achieve financial stability. A family with short-term income loss may be able to avoid eviction if we can help them understand how to get a small loan (repayable within a year) to pay their rent arrears . Programs like food stamps can bring in hundreds of dollars each month to feed hungry families, freeing up needed dollars to pay the rent.

Please pray for:

  • the thousands of formerly homeless families in NYC who face the prospect of returning to the shelter system
  • thousands of New Yorkers who remain homeless
  • the Department of Homeless Services, for wisdom and compassion in their attempts to serve the homeless population
  • Brooklyn Jubilee, and many others who strive to help families avoid homelessness altogether.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

May 31, 2011

In the Loop: A Word From Our Director

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Client Stories, health care — Tags: , , , , , , — admin @ 2:11 pm

Sometimes it’s the things I can’t do that remind me best why I work for Brooklyn Jubilee. In Flatbush this past Wednesday, I spoke with many people, using the food pantry at Our Lady of Refuge — people with hard stories to hear.

I was very grateful for the time I spent with one woman in particular. Despite having a job, she is struggling to pay her bills, but neither she nor her daughter is eligible for food stamps, rental help, or any other financial assistance of which I’m aware. Having nothing else to offer, I asked if I could pray with her and she enthusiastically accepted. “I’m a Christian!” she declared. I prayed for my new-found sister to have everything she needs to keep a roof over her family’s head.

Almost immediately I spoke to another woman. She is on unemployment, and a former bypass patient without any medical insurance. She’d been rejected for Medicaid, but didn’t know about Family Health Plus; another public health insurance option that could get her to a doctor for free or a very low cost premium, like $15 a month. We talked about her looming eviction, and whether or not she wanted to keep her apartment. The choices facing her are not easy, but I’m glad I was there to talk with her, listen to her, and help her make the best choices she can for her family. Please pray for these women, and others like them, and their families who depend on them.

Sandhya Reju Boyd, Director

April 16, 2010

Brooklyn’s Homeless

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Client Stories, Homelessness, Park Slope — Tags: , , — admin @ 7:56 am

To the residents of Park Slope, being named the #1 neighborhood in the city may not have come as any big surprise.  What may surprise many is knowing that there are homeless people living in the Slope every day.

I met a couple of gentlemen recently who are active members of Old First Reformed Church, but have no stable home to sleep in each night. They’ve been waiting for Section 8 housing to come through for over  a year now, and their efforts to connect to city services (with lots of loving help from the Old First pastor Meeter and other members) have so far been unsuccessful.  I spoke with them, talked to them about some of the options they may not have considered, like public housing, so they put in a public housing application, but that could also be many years of waiting, even for two homeless gentlemen.

Part of the problem is the city policy of distinguishing between “street homeless” and people like these two fellows I met, who manage to keep off the streets each night but have no permanent place to stay. For example, one fellow in the Slope raises enough money each day panhandling so he can buy a bed night by night in a rooming house. It’s not his apartment. He can’t stay there during the day or keep things. He just has a place to sleep at night. If he’s not found on the street, city “outreach teams” won’t assist him. His only other option is to take himself to central intake in mid-town Manhattan, to enter the “Wheel” of the city shelter system.

Many homeless persons fear the shelter system (not unreasonably) for safety concerns. It’s also an exhausting process, requiring them to  shuttle around the city from central intake to a remote shelter placement and back, often in the wee hours of the morning.

This week, Reverend Meeter, Brian Steadman, members of Old First, and I met with city council members Brad Lander and Steve Levin to talk about our concerns for the needs of the homeless in general, and for the two homeless gentlemen attending Old First in particular. The council members were kind and empathetic, and promised to look into our concerns. Stay tuned…

~Sandhya

August 13, 2009

Habitat for Humanity: Where are the buyers?

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Habitat for Humanity, Volunteer Opportunity — brooklynjubilee @ 2:09 pm

Park Slope jpeg-1086Brooklyn Jubilee’s newest partnership has just begun to sprout. We are now an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity in New York City.

Habitat for Humanity has built several affordable housing developments in NYC. These buildings present the opportunity of a life time that many of us only dream about – homeownership in NYC. Best of all, they present that opportunity to families who might otherwise never be able to buy because of their income.

In fact, although they have recently built a beautiful, LEED-certified condo complex in East New York, Habitat cannot find enough qualified applicants to purchase these apartments. Stop and digest that for a moment. In New York City, where 70% of the residents are tenants, many of whom dream of homeownership but can’t pull together a 20-30% down payment, these gorgeous homes are sitting vacant. Now consider that the down payment on the Habitat homes is only ONE PERCENT, and the fixed-rate 30-year mortgage is only TWO PERCENT. So why do these condos sit empty?

Not everyone qualifies for the program. The family income must be within their guidelines. The applicant must have a good credit score, at least 620 or up. They must be willing to put in hundreds of hours of “sweat equity,” meaning actual physical labor in the construction of other homes, before they can purchase their own.  

So, Habitat can’t actually find enough qualified applicants to purchase the homes. Sometimes a good candidate is zooming along in the process, and they get caught in a credit scam, and their credit score goes bust. Sometimes people are working their way towards homeownership, and they lose their job and thus fall out side the income guidelines.

Here’s where we can help. Habitat wants to goes into the community to talk to people about their homeownership program, and encourage folks who might qualify to apply. And to foster a tenant population with higher credit scores, Habitat lectures in the community about consumer scams and other consumer traps that can ultimately ruin your credit score. They make these presentations when the can, but are always looking for more opportunities to speak to an audience. They don’t have enough resources to promote these events themselves to generate a good crowd, and many of the organization that might want to sponsor it won’t have those resources either. 

Could you be the answer? Could you help Habitat? It’s not as complicated as it might seem. I’m pretty confident we could find the venues for at least five presentations right away, and schedule them.  But Brooklyn Jubilee doesn’t have the staff to do extensive outreach for these events. It takes time, and with limited staff, we couldn’t do an effective job on our own. Volunteers could help  out by spending time on-line finding names of churches, businesses, etc. that might promote a Habitat lecture. Other volunteers could help us mail letters to those groups, or give them a call, or take them a flier about the event. 

No, it’s not as sexy as wielding a hammer for them. But it’s real help. Simple help. Help that Habitat wants and needs to effectively promote low-income home ownership.  Do you share that vision? Can you get involved?

August 11, 2009

David's New Home

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Client Stories, Park Slope — brooklynjubilee @ 2:16 pm

BkJ jpeg-1073

This is David. We met him at the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church Helping Hands food pantry in January. We meet lots of folks like him who are looking for better housing options than they have now. Most are trying to avoid the high rents of Park Slope.  David was different. David was trying to escape pain. David walks with a cane, and every time he has to walk up and down the stairs to his walk up apartment, he experiences pain. Imagine for a minute living with that kind of burden. Imagine thinking twice before you go to the grocery store, or go to see a friend, because you need to limit the pain you live with every day.  David had put himself on the waiting list for public housing, but he’d been waiting a long time with no help from there.  We explained to David that the process is strict, and that the only way to speed up the waiting is to get a higher priority classification for his medical needs. We described the kinds of documentation he’d need to convince the housing authority he deserves a higher priority on the waiting list.  And David ran with our advice. He got letters from his doctor, and from his friends at St. Augustine RCC (”I was baptized here!”). Last month, he got his letter, proudly shown in this photo, telling him he was getting an apartment that would not require him to walk up stairs anymore. David, who couldn’t stop smiling, very kindly brought the letter to us at the pantry so we could share in his joy.  We’re so happy for him! Many thanks to David for letting us share his wonderful story.

July 17, 2009

Why Park Slope? – the Start of Brooklyn Jubilee

Filed under: Affordable Housing, Park Slope — Tags: , , — brooklynjubilee @ 1:11 am
Photo by Ji Eun Kim

Photo by Ji Eun Kim

If you’re at all familiar with Brooklyn, you probably know Park Slope as the increasingly yuppie and stroller filled community that has boasted celebrity residents like Jennifer Connelly and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

But as a Brooklyn poverty lawyer, I (Sandhya) knew this assumption about Park Slope was wrong. I had clients in and around Park Slope, and knew the unseen needs of our neighbors around us. I knew the stories of long-time senior citizen residents who were being evicted from the only homes they’d lived in for decades, because rising property values simply made it too profitable for landlords NOT to sell their buildings. I had heard the stories of tenants, living in horrible conditions, who couldn’t get repairs from landlords because these unscrupulous owners were hoping that tenants with regulated rent would give up and leave, making room for new tenants who would pay market rate and inflated rents.

Mindful that we had a lot to learn about our new community, Brooklyn Presbyterian Church — which was then a network of churches in Brooklyn, the first of which was Park Slope Presbyterian Church — conducted a needs assessment of Park Slope.

In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus taught the importance of serving our neighbors in need. But how can we serve our neighbors if we’ve never spoken to them? How can we serve our neighbors if we’ve never asked them what they need? Too often charities are formed without asking these basic questions. As a result, precious resources may be directed to the squeaky wheel of a community, rather than its greatest needs. The two-year study was fairly comprehensive, exploring many aspects of physical “felt” needs.

The needs assessment revealed many key areas of need, including housing, and access to food. These were not the only needs we found, but some of the few where our available resources could be mobilized to have an immediate impact. We later formed a partnership with the Fifth Avenue Committee, an affordable housing developer and social service group with 30 years’ experience in serving low-income residents in Park Slope and beyond.

At the food pantry, we see residents from the public housing developments, a homeless shelter, supportive housing for the disabled, and subsidized housing developments, all of which are located within walking distance of the food pantry in Park Slope. Some of our volunteers have discovered for the first time that serious poverty exists in Park Slope, even though they had never recognized it before. As low-income residents are increasingly forced to leave Park Slope due to high rents, Brooklyn Jubilee has begun to serve in other neighborhoods further in to Brooklyn, including Brighton Beach and Bay Ridge. But we will continue to serve in Park Slope as long as low-income residents continue to stay in their community.