HUGE! $100M boost opens doors to Section 8

New York Daily News -

100M boost opens doors to Section 8
BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

For the first time in more than a decade, the city will be accepting new applications for Section 8 vouchers - with 22,000 families getting the coveted housing subsidy."This really is a very big deal in the housing business," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday at an applications office in Corona, Queens.

A huge boost in federal funding - up to $100 million nationwide - is behind the largess that's opening up the waiting list for the first time since 1994.

Applications will be accepted for three months starting Feb. 12.

Officials said 12,000 vouchers will be available this year and an additional 10,000 next year. The city will set aside 3,000 for households at risk of becoming homeless.

With a Section 8 voucher, families pay 30% of their income for rent, and the New York City Housing Authority, the largest provider of public housing in the country, pays the remainder directly to the landlord.

The current waiting list has 127,000 families - but time has rendered most of the names obsolete. Of the 75,000 people the city already has contacted, about 60,000 no longer want the vouchers, are no longer eligible or can't be found.

Janet Perry, 48, who has been living in a Brooklyn homeless shelter for nearly a year, was elated to hear she might be in line to get her own apartment.

"I'm very happy," said Perry, a former groundskeeper for the city's Parks Department.

"I called already and the line's been busy, busy, busy at the Section 8 office," Perry said. "I'm going to keep calling, though, until I get someone."

Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, said she's concerned these vouchers won't reach those with the "most urgent need."

Over the years, the Bloomberg administration has steered homeless people away from Section 8 and toward the "highly flawed" Housing Stability Plus program, which makes it difficult for families to get permanent housing, she said.

But Bloomberg spokesman Jason Post said under the mayor's administration, far more New Yorkers receive rental assistance than before.

"We want to ensure as many households as possible - homeless or otherwise - can benefit," Post said.



First steps toward housing subsidy

Here's how to apply:


Applicants can pick up forms at any of the New York City Housing Authority's borough applications offices or management offices. For a list of addresses, go to www.nyc.gov/nycha or call 311.




Individuals who earn less than $24,800 a year or a family of four making less than $35,000 a year may qualify for the subsidy.


Applications must be postmarked no later than May 14.


Mail completed applications to New York City Housing Authority, P.O. Box 445, Church St. Station, New York, N.Y. 10008-0445.


If you think you're already on the current waiting list, contact the New York City Housing Authority or call 311.

Visit Blog:
http://cunycoalition.blogspot.com/