Q&A
Impact of evictions and rent arrears crisis on NYCHA operations
1:13:20
·
114 sec
Council Member Chris Banks inquires about the potential costs of evicting tenants and the impact of the rent arrears crisis on NYCHA's operations. Key points from NYCHA representatives:
- NYCHA emphasizes its role as the largest public and affordable housing resource in New York City
- Evictions are considered an absolute last resort
- It's more cost-effective to keep people in NYCHA housing than to rely on the homeless shelter system
- NYCHA works to connect residents with various resources to help stabilize their housing situation
- The rent arrears crisis significantly impacts NYCHA's ability to maintain properties and meet HUD agreement requirements
- Rent collection makes up about a third of NYCHA's budget
- Without rent, NYCHA cannot keep pace with compliance requirements, repairs, and maintenance
Chris Banks
1:13:20
Okay.
1:13:20
And what would be the course to the city and the state of nature was forced to evict tenants?
Annika Lescott-Martinez
1:13:27
I'm sorry.
1:13:28
Can you repeat the question?
Chris Banks
1:13:29
Says what would be the course to the city and the state if Nietra was forced to leave it tenants.
Annika Lescott-Martinez
1:13:35
I'm not sure how we would quantify that.
Eva Trimble
1:13:38
Great.
1:13:39
I I think that, you know, we wanna emphasize the importance of Nietas, the largest public and affordable housing resource in the city of New York.
1:13:49
So we provide a critical resource for the city of New York in our public housing.
1:13:57
1 in 17 New Yorkers are residents.
1:13:59
And so as I've said, evictions are absolutely the last resort option for us.
1:14:04
It is you know, we know that it's far more costly to run a homeless shelter system than to keep people in our housing.
1:14:12
So that's our goal.
1:14:13
And to our you know, we work tirelessly to connect residents with resources that they need, whether it's financial counseling, job opportunities, one shot deals, payment plans, interim recertifications, anything we can do to help stabilize our residents?
Chris Banks
1:14:33
If there is crisis is not addressed, how would it impact Nitrogen's ability to address the pillar areas and the HUD agreement?
Annika Lescott-Martinez
1:14:43
So as we mentioned, rent collection is a primary source of revenue for us.
1:14:49
It makes up about a third of our budget.
1:14:52
Without rent, we cannot keep pace with the needed compliance requirements with the needed repairs and maintenance to upkeep the developments to a good standard.
1:15:02
So it's really imperative as we mentioned for residents to continue to pay their rent.
1:15:07
And if they have issues or hardships to come in and speak to the housing assistance so that we can connect them to the appropriate services.
