r/Brooklyn • u/HeavenLeigh412 • 17h ago
The City makes NYC FHEPS so much worse than it needs to be
In February of 2025, I lost my mother... I inherited her house (which had a reverse mortgage, so I refinanced and I have a mortgage)
So I am the landlord in this situation.
I had to evict the downstairs tenants for non payment of rent... and I tried being nice and told them I wouldn't evict them if they would just move out... after 4 months of non-payment, I filed eviction and won... that took an additional 6 months.
The downstairs apartment rented quickly, and my husband and I worked on emptying the 2nd floor apartment (where my mother lived... this was emotional, so yes it took a while) and then we started showing it for rent.
There was a very nice mother with 2 little girls who came to see it. She is a single mother who has been evicted by the court (because her husband left her and she could not afford her current rent without him) and the marshals could come any moment to forcibly remove her.
She has a FHEPS voucher... which originally I wasn't going to deal with because I always worry if they lose that voucher that I will have to go through eviction again... and I really don't want to lose my mother's house because I can't pay the mortgage.
I agreed to start the paperwork for her because I was a single mother, and our stories were somewhat similar and I felt for the woman.
I called her caseworker for 3 days and left messages with no response... then I finally got an email for the caseworker and started emailing her. I sent her pictures of the apartment, the rent I was asking, and the name of her client... letting her know I really wanted to help this family. The case worker sent me the link for pre-certification. I filled out the paperwork, and 3 days later received a fail because the city wanted me to lower the rent. (The caseworker could have said this in her FIRST email when she sent me the link)
I went back and forth with the case worker trying to find out what they wanted to pay for rent... I ended up getting this information from the prospective tenant, and I re-applied immediately.
Three days later, I received a response that said rent pending... with an added section that said 2 bedroom apartment should only have 4 rooms... apparently the city has never heard of a dining room. I forwarded this response to the case worker and asked for clarification... after 7 days she emailed me back and asked for my contact information. I immediately sent her my phone number (which she could have read her previous emails to find because it was included in EVERY email) and she never called.
Today, I find out from the prospective tenant, that pre-cert failed because 2 bedroom apartments only have 4 rooms...
I went and filled out the pre-certification paperwork again, and lied and said the apartment only has 4 rooms... and now I have to wait until sometime next week for a response. I then emailed the caseworker, her supervisor and the supervisor's supervisor and told them that it is shameful that I am working harder to keep this woman out of a shelter than they are.
It has been WEEKS, that I am struggling to get my apartment approved for someone with an "emergency time sensitive pre-clearance"
The caseworker claims that if I pass Pre-certification that the inspection will be done immediately because this is an emergency... and I am not really trusting her anymore at this point. She also told me there is an incentive of a full month's rent for holding the apartment, BUT she won't tell me when I receive that, or if there are additional qualifications for it.
All of this stress is why people don't WANT to accept vouchers... I agreed to hold this apartment for this family, and the city is playing games. She will wind up in a shelter if they don't pull their act together... and meanwhile I still have a mortgage to pay.
I understand there are a LOT of people who need help, but if I am trying so hard to help this family, why is the city holding up the process for stupidity instead of letting this family get settled and have peace of mind?
Update 1: The caseworker finally called me, and said that she was calling because she saw I had sent a lengthy email (which she didn't read) then asked why I contacted her. I explained about the 4 room/5 room thing and she said that made no sense. She then asked me to send her that paperwork, and I told her to look at her email on 10/9 because that is when I sent it to her and asked what I should do. She then proceeded to get nasty and told me that the client wouldn't be moving in until December 1st because I still had to pass pre-cert, and wait for an inspection, and then start the application paperwork with all the documents. I asked her to send me the application and list of documents now so I could hand it in on the day of the inspection... and she told me it doesn't work that way... everything needs to be done in order. I responded that it seemed to me like she was the one holding up the emergency client, and I was bending over backwards to try to help her. She then told me that the marshals could not come and throw the client out because she was supposed to get an extension with her voucher (as far as I can find from google, this is either not true, or not an extension for as long as Cambra takes to work things out) The helpline we are calling states that she most certainly can be forcibly evicted that is why her status is "emergency" because the eviction process was completed in court.
