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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Joshua Stephenson, Executive Director of West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center, on Housing Connect Challenges
2:03:37
·
3 min
Joshua Stephenson, Executive Director of West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center, testified about the difficulties faced by their clients in using the Housing Connect system for affordable housing applications. He highlighted issues with digital literacy, notification systems, and search functionality that make it challenging for both applicants and service providers to effectively use the platform.
- The organization no longer regularly provides Housing Connect assistance due to the complexity and time-consuming nature of managing multiple accounts.
- Stephenson proposed a provider portal to streamline account management for service organizations.
- He pointed out issues with the search function, which often displays listings that don't match the specified criteria or affordability parameters.
Joshua Stephenson
2:03:37
Good morning afternoon or good afternoon to the members of the New York City Council's Committee on Housing and Buildings and Chair Sanchez.
2:03:43
My name is Joshua Stephenson.
2:03:45
I'm the executive director of West Bronx Housing and Neighborhood Resource Center.
2:03:49
So we're a very small organization that provides one on one in person bilingual English and Spanish language services to about 1,200 Bronx sites per year.
2:03:59
That's with a staff of two and a half full time caseworkers.
2:04:03
Setting aside the issue of affordability, a lot, you know, much smarter people than me have talked about already, I'm here to talk about how prohibitively difficult the Housing Connect process itself is and why my organization no longer regularly provides Housing Connect assistance despite doing about 500 applications in the last three years.
2:04:21
Of course, unless I get a referral from a council member.
2:04:24
Most of our clients don't really know how to use computers.
2:04:27
They barely know how to use their phones.
2:04:30
I can't tell you how many times I've logged in to their account and seen them miss four to five opportunities because they just didn't know.
2:04:37
And believe me, I've tried to show them and teach them.
2:04:40
You know, we heard HPD say that they send out thousands of text messages.
2:04:45
Our clients are receiving thousands of text messages just from scams.
2:04:49
Right?
2:04:49
These are senior citizens.
2:04:51
What that means is if we created 500 Housing Connect accounts in three years, we'd have to log in to 450 separate accounts every two weeks just to make sure they don't miss opportunities.
2:05:01
What I believe would make our job far easier is a provider portal to which we could link a new Housing Connect account that we just created instead of having to log in to dozens or hundreds of separate accounts every two weeks.
2:05:13
Attachment one of my written testimony gives an example of a landing landing page for a current client.
2:05:18
In this specific example, all seven of the completed applications were rejections.
2:05:23
Three, because they missed the window of opportunity to upload documents.
2:05:26
Four, because there were no more units.
2:05:29
Attachment two of my testimony is admit admittedly hideous cut and paste using old school windows, paint.exe.
2:05:37
So don't judge me too hard of how I imagine a landing portal could look like.
2:05:42
Another glaring issue is the refined search function.
2:05:45
So an example, if I filter using the following parameters, two person household, two bedrooms, max rent of 3,500.
2:05:52
The first selection is 111 Willowby Apartments.
2:05:55
This two bedroom lottery is the two bedroom rent for this lottery is 4,347.
2:06:01
I just set the parameters for 3,500.
2:06:04
What's going on?
2:06:05
Why is this filtering apartments for which I don't qualify and or can't afford?
2:06:09
So attachment three is a screenshot from Housing Connect of the first two lotteries that pass that same filter.
2:06:14
Neither of them qualify.
2:06:16
So absent any major changes in the online process, my organization simply doesn't have the capacity to help with Housing Connect, which is truly a shame because the number one question we get from phone calls and walk ins is, hey, my boss going to get an apartment.
2:06:30
Hey, can you help me get an apartment?
2:06:32
So with that being said, thank you for your time.
2:06:34
I also wanna thank council members Dinowitz, Felice, and Chair Sanchez for their continued support of West Bronx Housing.
2:06:40
You know, we've worked with each of your offices to save dozens of people from outright eviction.
2:06:45
It's an honor to work with each of you and your offices.