My Letter to the Mayor....

Fix Advantage!

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

Already Thousands of families are returning to the shelter system due to the lack of knowledge and training of protocol in the switch from old Advantage program and the New Work advantage program. I am in danger of being a part of one of those families. Last year I lost my job as a contracted computer repair technician. To make matters more stressful, my wife was pregnant with twin boys and considered extremely high risk. She was taken out of work as well. We went from 'well off' to 'oh well' very quickly, when rent got too far behind and was evicted with newborns and a two year old. With a slither of hope in the shelter system, we entered a family shelter, with a rodent problem, in an industrial area full of crime and loiterers. After much consideration and begging my wife to stay and see what help we could receive, I'm still left with that slither, if not less.

With the new 30% voucher which we have now that expires October 30, 2010, we haven't even been filled in properly on what we need, how much we need, and how not to be taken advantage of. With my family size, we require at least a three bedroom, and there are little to no three bedroom in the city for $1,316. So what happens? Side deals where Landlords ask for more than the voucher, and three to six months rent up front, which is supposed to be prohibited. If i had 2 or 3k to blow on rent, would we be in this situation?

In today's harsh economic climate and difficult job market, putting thousands of families at risk of re-entering shelter is a devastating blow to both these families and New York City taxpayers.

I urge you to immediately reform the Advantage program by providing longer, more flexible assistance that effectively bridges the gap between incomes and rents. Doing so would provide these families with the stability they need to grow into financial independence.

Additionally, homeless families should be prioritized for federal housing assistance, including Section 8 and public housing, as they have been in the past. This tool has been shown to permanently keep families out of homelessness.

We cannot tolerate a family experiencing homelessness even once. Twice is unimaginable. I urge you to do the right thing by these families.

DHS Room Inspections leaves us uneasy.

Now we are pretty clean. Mop twice a day, constantly wiping stuff down, walls, tables, toilets, floors, spotless(You have too with a toddler and twins in a mouse infested building). So why do i feel dirty and judged after their inspection. First of all the worker came in with an attitude and very judge-mental. Nit-Picking and asking about the unusable cribs and extra beds that the staff hasn't moved out the room yet after 3 months. Outlets with no covers, also not my fault, ask your staff, not me...and asking about my desktop, which is required for the power and ram hungry programs i need for school and work. So your telling me i need to quit school and work to stay here right? But I thought I need to work for my Voucher? This is the Loopty Loop Bull$#!t we have to deal with here, and I can't take it anymore.

Voucher Discrimination?

It seems that there is an influx of ads for apartments at around $1550 3bdrms, looking for $1318 and $1481 vouchers(side deals will not be honored in the voucher which means anything over your vouchers size will not be considered). With the captions "must be linked by September 1". Well if you know what I know, that is because the last round of $50 vouchers(client pays only $50) expires on the first of September. Well what about us working class people with the 30% vouchers? Like it's not already hard enough to find someone accepting these stigmatas. You would rather take the chance of having to evict someone in a year or two because, $50 to $1500 dollars is unreasonable, unfair,and just plain ridiculous. so My family gets overlooked and doesn't even get calls back, and we both work. There is a war on the middle class, Knowledge is your ammunition. Are you armed?

Kind of Ironic...

I think it's kind of ironic that the weekend before the NYC Comptroller's audits to The Department of Homeless Services, The Shelter I'm in starts sprucing up the place, changing hallway doors, making sure the rooms are cleaned with surprise inspections, case workers on overtime. Since I've gotten here over 90 days ago, no lie I  caught a literal average of 1 mouse a day for 30 days, some days nothing, and some days 3 or four mice on one trap, and a bed-bug infestation. Who does that inspection, the inspection of 3 year old dirt, hair and mouse skeletons with fur that I pulled out of the air conditioner's filter, so much it left a six by six inch pile. My kids shouldn't have to breathe that or endure scores of rodents that have been here so long they jump over the glue traps. Better look up DEP's (Department of Environmental Protection) number on Monday.

Money Wasted in NYC's Shelters

On my budget letter from HRA(Human Resource Admin), it says that the state pays $1000 per adult and $500 per child to the facility where you stay. In my case $4026 is being given to the mouse infested, industrial park area, giant hotel room with a kitchenette(Bonus), per month. This is why you are required to have an open PA (Public Assistance) case. It pays for your stay at the shelter. So, given the amount of time the average working family stays at a shelter, around 180+ days, a whopping $24,156+ is being paid. Multiply that by the 500 give or take per family, in just the two building facility that I'm in temporarily. That is $12,078,000.00 in 6 months. I'm sorry but that is enough to pay a years worth of rent for every family in the two buildings. Multiply that again by the amount of family shelters in the city? Whew, that's an absolute waste of resources. No wonder I haven't got my State Tax Refund back 8 months after filing. Then, i won't lie, the quality of over 75% of the "Clients" in the shelter, couldn't fill out an application correctly, better yet able to speak and look professional enough for an interview at a job that could really pay the bills once the temporary assistance is over. No training set up for the countless number of unskilled. Just a BTW(Back to Work) program that is also flawed, I call it Adult-Sitting, pushing 10,000 plus people a day to apply for the same jobs or no jobs at all. Remember you are required to have an open PA case, which also means you are required to work at least 35 hours a week, or stay in these BTW programs for that same amount of time. But given the sudden swell of homeless families, there is little to no room in the resource room, which is about 15 computers, 40 seats, and over 200 people in attendance in that same room trying to use the same computers. Doesn't add up right?

Landlords discuss tactics to deter 'Program Recipients' from contacting them.

After Searching for rentals accepting the Work Advantage Voucher, which are scarce and far  inbetween, I came across this forum of Landlords helping each other deter Welfare, and Program Recipients from even emailing them. It's quite sad what I have to face.


"The best way to deter these people from calling you or emailing you is by being more detailed in your ad as far as requirements and rental criteria. Once they see you vigorously screen your tenants, and that you are asking for a lot of documentation, that will hopefully convince them not to call/email you as it will be a waste of time since they know they can't meet those requirements.

Example: 

-must make annually 40x the monthly rent or must make minimum 50K a year to qualify for the apartment. (people on programs don't earn that amount of money so you are indirectly sending a message to them that you don't accept programs without actually saying it.)

-must be employed

-must have good credit (hood people don't have good credit)

-must have no criminal record

-must have no housing court history/Landlord-tenant issues or evictions

-must not be a smoker (you can legally deny a person an apartment for being a smoker since smokers are NOT a protected class and you won't be accused of discrimination)

-must provide income tax papers to verify income

-must provide last 4 paystubs

-must provide last 4 bank statements

If you mention these requirements above, I guarantee you will have a significant drop of phone calls/emails from people that are on programs. A decent working person will appreciate the length you go through to get a tenant as it hints to the tenant that you screen your tenants and care who you put into you apartments. This will attract more working-class people who want a safe and quiet place to live. Hope that helps."

I am not a welfare case, I just have one.

Since the late 80's, the welfare system has been brutalized, abused, and mishandled  Remember when every wanted subsidized housing in the late 80's early 90's. Everyone wanted Housing in the city or wanted section 8. If you worked for the city it was supposed to help close the gap on the rents in the city, with the wages being paid. 15 to 20 years later, no one wants anything to do with it.  When you enter the shelter system in New York State, you have to open an Public Assistance case. It has to be atleast food assistance. This is the only way that the state will help you in the event that you become displaced. Imagine you are a stranger to the welfare system.  You never needed assistance before. And now your smack dab in the middle of the stigma and stereo-types of being a 'welfare case'.  Now you've become an adjective, a statistic, a program recipient.  How did this happen so fast? That is the question i asked myself, when my wife, two year old little girl and newborn twin boys found ourselves in this situation. Now What?

The NYC Advantage Program For Homeless Families

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

What is the Advantage program?

Advantage is a rental subsidy that helps clients transition from temporary, emergency shelter to self-sufficiency as quickly as possible, instilling responsibility through its firm linkage to employment.  Effective August 1, 2010, this new program has been revised from our previous Advantage subsidy to promote employment and foster self-sufficiency, so that households can return to independent living.

Advantage:

• Helps pay for one or two years of rent support to eligible households
• Requires participants to work and contribute:
  • 30 percent of their gross monthly income toward rent in the first year
  • 40 percent of their gross monthly income in the second year, if they qualify

Who is eligible for the program?

Households in shelter who:

• Have an adult in the household that must be working at least 20 hours a week, earning at minimum wage or above, and engaged in HRA-approved activities for a total of 35 hours weekly;
• If there are other adults  in your household, those adults must be:
  • Working and/or participating in HRA-approved activities for a minimum of 20 hours weekly, and be in compliance with all HRA public assistance requirements, OR
  • In receipt of SSI (or be coded by HRA as "SSI Pending"), SSDI or other federal disability benefits, OR
  • Certified by HRA as "Needed at Home" to care for a disabled family member who is in receipt of federal disability benefits:
• Have an Active or Single Issue Public Assistance case;
• Have been determined eligible and resided in shelter for at least 60 days;
• Remain compliant with all Public Assistance requirements;
• All household members must be free of sanctions  for 30 days before certification;
• Have a total household income that does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty level.

Are the Current Homeless Programs in NYC Working?

Revolving Door:
How the Bloomberg Administration is Putting Thousands of
Formerly-Homeless Families at Risk of Returning to Homelessness
July 20, 2010

By Giselle Routhier, Policy Analyst, Coalition for the Homeless

Amidst record family homelessness and high unemployment, the Bloomberg administration is
putting thousands of formerly-homeless families at risk of returning to homelessness by cutting
them off from rental assistance under the three-year-old Advantage program. And to make
matters worse, this summer the administration will enact changes to the Advantage program
that will accelerate the program’s “revolving door” back to homelessness.
• By the end of 2010, more than 7,400 formerly-homeless Advantage NY families will have
lost their rental assistance and will be at risk of re-entering the shelter system. By the end of
2011, more than 7,100 additional families will lose their rental assistance.
• Many Advantage families have already become homeless again. By October of last year
more than 900 re-applications for shelter had been filed by Advantage NY families,
representing as much as two-thirds of all expired Advantage NY families at that time – and
the pace of return to homelessness is accelerating.
• The Bloomberg administration’s planned changes to the Advantage program are deeply
unrealistic and make a flawed program even worse. Indeed, the changes reduce the number
of homeless families eligible for rental assistance, and threaten to cut off rental assistance to
many families after one year instead of two years.
• The Bloomberg administration should halt the changes to the Advantage program and
instead craft a rental assistance program that works like the proven, effective Federal
housing voucher program – a long-term, flexible subsidy that effectively bridges the gap
between income and rent.
• Additionally, the administration needs to reverse its 2005 decision to cut off families from
receiving priority for proven Federal housing programs like public housing.
Record Family Homelessness and New York City’s Housing Affordability Crisis
New York City is in the throes of a historic homelessness crisis. Currently, more than 37,000
men, women and children bed down in municipal shelters each night, including nearly 10,000
families with 15,000 children. The number of homeless families in New York City shelters hit alltime
record levels during the past year. Indeed, under Mayor Bloomberg, New York City’s
homeless population has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s.


More Information: Coalition for the Homeless

Question....

Do you have any idea, what it’s like to be a Homeless Family in a major metropolitan city, in America? Have you ever been to a family shelter, or any shelter for that matter? Would you even consider going to one? How close are you really to being in this type of situation? These questions aren’t here to scare you. Although these are the questions the middle class in America should consider asking themselves, since there is a silent war going on against us. And I believe you should have a proper briefing.  Come join us, on the outside looking in, but we’re looking out.