The city has been exploring a controversial solution to the problem of overcrowded homeless shelters—foreclosed homes! According to the Daily News, the Department of Homeless Services is moving families from shelters to cut-rate and sometimes illegal apartments. So far it's refused to say where all of its 12,000 Work Advantage families have been placed, but a survey of 70 participants found homes that are facing foreclosure, as well as illegally converted apartments and units full of violations. In the case of foreclosed homes, families got cozy in their new apartments, only to end up back on the streets.
In one instance, the Advantage program placed a single mom and her two kids in a Jamaica Queens apartment. It agreed to pay the landlord $1,316 a month, while the mother was supposed to pay $50. But shortly after the family moved in, a city marshal showed up with eviction papers in hand. It turned out that six months earlier the bank had foreclosed on the property, and in fact, the same landlord hadn't paid mortgages on a total of 10 homes in Queens. This wasn't an isolated incident.
The city moved another woman and her two daughters into a Bushwick apartment that had lead paint, a broken window and rats. She was willing to put up with all of that, but the breaking point came when one of the daughters told her mom that the 50-year-old landlord had sexually abused her.
Even a small sampling of the program revealed that it wasn't uncommon for families to be placed in buildings with many violations or ones that were illegally converted and lacked the basic amenities, like heat. "I've complained many times to the landlord, but they don't care," said one program participant. "They continue to receive the money."
