Facing a $45 million deficit and never before seen demand, the NYC Housing Authority is considering the "inconceivable" measure of revoking vouchers that help low-income New Yorkers afford their rent. It may take back as many as 10,500 Section 8 permits, reports the Times, pushing recipients into overcrowded shelters. Judith Goldliner of NY's Legal Aid Society was shocked at the prospect. “This is just a disaster,” she said. “We don’t know who could be impacted by it.”
Last year the federal government provided less money for the program, but the city kept dispensing the vouchers—that allow tenants to pay 30 percent of their income towards rent while the city picks up the rest—even eight months after they were told funds were about to run out. “We wanted to help as many people as possible,” explained a spokeswoman for the authority that is now in big trouble. In December, it canceled 3,000 vouchers. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is reviewing the case, but according to a representative, NYCHA "cannot and should not expect that the federal government will cover the shortfall.”
As more families applied for assistance and more landlords started accepting the vouchers as a result of the recession, the number of city Section 8 recipients grew to 102,000. Among them is a 77-year-old Inwood resident. “Oh no, oh no,” she said, when asked what would happen if she lost her rent assistance. “I would be homeless. I would die.”
