PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Germaine Delaney, Member of the Public, on CityFHEPS Voucher Program Experience
1:13:01
ยท
4 min
Germaine Delaney shares her personal experiences with the CityFHEPS voucher program, highlighting the challenges and inefficiencies she encountered over the past decade. She discusses issues with voucher transfers, landlord participation, and communication problems with service providers like Homebase and Catholic Charities.
- Delaney emphasizes the need for clearer procedures and better coordination between agencies to improve the voucher program's effectiveness.
- She suggests that delays in voucher processing can have serious consequences, such as missing out on apartment opportunities or potentially being exposed to dangerous living situations.
- Delaney proposes exploring the creation of a program similar to Section 8 vouchers and calls for reducing administrative red tape to enhance the CityFHEPS program.
Germaine Delaney
1:13:01
Good morning.
1:13:01
My name is Germaine Delaney.
1:13:03
I want to give a brief perspective on city Phelps vouchers based upon my own personal experience.
1:13:08
As the city council knows, obtaining and using the city Phelps voucher program often intersects with other social circumstances.
1:13:16
You may be facing eviction, you are trying to move to a better and safer neighborhood, which includes moving away from an unresponsive and or negligent landlord or moving out of a shelter.
1:13:27
When I first received 1 10 years ago, I moved from a shelter to an apartment That was, you know, less than ideal, but you're trying to get out of a shelter and I also had an apartment that I kind of knew I was going to get.
1:13:42
So I said okay, I'll move here, I'll probably be here a couple of years, 3 at tops.
1:13:46
You know, it was, you know, I got the voucher based upon what I could afford and my own personal finances at the time.
1:13:52
So I did get called for that apartment after a couple of years and I went through all the interviews, submitted all the required documents.
1:13:58
When I tried to work with Homebase to transfer the voucher, cracks.
1:14:06
It took too long and I lost the apartment.
1:14:08
No landowner is waiting for you months to get the money.
1:14:13
You know, as I understand it, it's still happening to folks today as the lady next to me just said.
1:14:18
You know, I had the voucher until March 2020, at which time they deemed my income was too high, and, coincidentally, the very next week, the pandemic hit, and I lost my job.
1:14:29
True story, and I'm sure I'm not the first person in the city that that happened to, but, okay, so we go through the whole pandemic and everything.
1:14:39
In 2022, I asked for another one, I got one, and, you know, I see that, you know, I'm just not getting an apartment, you know, people not really wanting to deal with the voucher, the landlords.
1:14:52
So I got a renewal and my experience at that time was that some landlords, you know, they're just not interested in a voucher.
1:14:58
Okay?
1:14:58
So which makes it harder to go find an apartment.
1:15:01
So it expired and I tried to get another extension and this is where the procedures again fall apart.
1:15:08
You know, I followed all the preliminary procedures because you're supposed to call, do, like, a preliminary interview with Mhmm.
1:15:14
A case worker, and then she gives you a case manager, that kind of thing.
1:15:20
I guess that's what you do.
1:15:21
Right?
1:15:22
And then, I did that and then after repeated attempts, I didn't receive any response from that second case worker.
1:15:29
And, you know, home base, also known as Catholic Charities.
1:15:33
So what I want to point out is that there's some kind of disconnect here with the home base and Catholic Charities.
1:15:39
Some of the people I've worked with there, they were, you know, seemed like they were better at their job than others maybe, you know, I don't want to, you know, really say something, you know, ugly about people but, you know, here is why I want to be very clear after the first voucher took so long, you know, that I didn't get that first department, so, you know, maybe 3 years after I got out of the shelter, you know, I keep I became a target of a a crime at my current residence, which the police are aware of.
1:16:13
And, you know, I'm not a person that blames other people for what happens to me.
1:16:16
However, I think about what could have happened if I had had that voucher and could have moved.
1:16:22
I could have prevented probably having a crime committed against me, you know, and if the procedures were clearer to an applicant like myself.
1:16:34
You know, I do wanna say the increase in the voucher amount is a great step in the right direction, you know, and this is fixable.
1:16:41
We as a city can fix this if we work on correcting the red tape.
1:16:46
Find out what's happening with home base and, you know, put the connection there.
1:16:50
It's just some kind of disconnect sometimes.
1:16:54
Okay.
1:16:54
Moreover, the city council and other, you know, authoritative persons, maybe we could work with it closely with the state legislature and come up with creating something close to a section 8 voucher.
1:17:05
I don't know.
1:17:05
I'm just throwing things out there, possible solutions because as I understand there are certain procedures for tenants that are built into the voucher.
1:17:15
Because what I've understood is that, like, this lady is saying the section 8 would have done that inspection and would have, you know, came to court and said, yeah.
1:17:25
We did the inspection, and it would've been over.
1:17:27
But the city, FEPs, I don't think it works that way.