Since 2017, New York City Hall has paid more than 3,000 homeless families to leave the city. The program provides some homeless families with one year of prepaid rent in cities less expensive than New York.
Many homeless people have thus settled in cities in New Jersey, the neighboring state, but several town halls denounced this arrangement. Newark, a city that has already received more than 1,000 homeless families since the program began, just lodged a complaint against New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
One year, and after?
The lawsuit accuses New York City Hall of forcing families to rent unsanitary apartments. Indeed, since the rent of these families is paid for a year in advance by the city, the tenants cannot complain or threaten to no longer pay if certain work is not done. Many owners take advantage of this situation not to maintain their homes. Reports in the local press speak of apartments with no heating or hot water or with mouse infestations and ceilings on the verge of collapsing.
Several people interviewed by CBS New York say they have been forced to leave their refuge in New York to settle in Newark in housing which did not have electricity.
“If you are in a shelter, they force you to take the first available program. You don’t really have a choice ”, explains a mother.
In February, the director of the New York City Homelessness Agency apologized after it turned out that several people ended up living in dangerous conditions.
In November, Newark City Council passed a law that tightens home inspection requirements and prohibits landlords from accepting rent more than a month in advance.
The associations helping the homeless also denounce the lack of monitoring of the program. New York City pays for these families to leave, but after a year of rent, some find themselves on the streets again and become a problem for neighboring cities to deal with.
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