Testimony: Housing People Who Seek Asylum
Oksana Mironova
Thank you to the New York City Council’s Committee of Immigration for holding a hearing on issues impacting newly arrived asylum seekers. My name is Oksana Mironova and I am a senior policy analyst at the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), a leading nonprofit that promotes economic opportunity for all New Yorkers. CSS uses research, advocacy, and direct services to champion a more equitable city and state.
New York City’s plan to house people seeking asylum in an area that is flood-prone, lacking in basic resources, and disconnected from the rest of the city is unconscionable. While this is a crisis manufactured by a broken immigration system that the city has no control over, we do have control over local housing policy, which can help mitigate some of its externalities.
We have been closely tracking New York’s housing landscape for decades. We know that well-funded rental assistance programs can act as a key mechanism for helping New Yorkers find permanent homes. If the city were more successful in helping people experiencing homelessness move into permanent housing, shelter stays would be shorter, our shelter population would be much smaller, and we could more easily absorb an unexpected rise in need like the one we’re experiencing today.
CityFHEPS is the city’s rental assistance program. And, while the city has made strides to improve the functionality of this program, there are several administrative, enforcement, and funding issues that slow it down. These include:
- Eligibility: Many households need CityFHEPS vouchers, yet strict rules limit who qualifies. Undocumented New Yorkers are unjustly excluded from receiving CityFHEPS vouchers, leading many to remain in the shelter system for years with no clear options for exit.
- Delays: It often takes months for someone with a CityFHEPS voucher to secure and move into an apartment. Minor mistakes cause entire applications to be denied or delayed, which forces households to languish in shelter for months or even years.
- Unfair rules: Unnecessary limitations reduce the number of homes available to people in shelter and make it difficult for voucher holders to secure apartments. Under one rule, the city deducts a “utility allowance” from allowable rents, reducing the maximum rent a voucher holder’s apartment can charge, and limiting the apartments they can choose from. Another rule allows the city to reject apartments where the rent is deemed “unreasonable” in comparison to other rents in the immediate neighborhood. This comparison happens late in the review process, is not a legal requirement, and makes it extremely difficult for households to find apartments, particularly in a tight rental market.
- Discrimination: Many landlords do not want to accept vouchers, and therefore refuse to rent apartments to CityFHEPS households. This is called source of income discrimination, which is illegal. Unfortunately, New York City lacks the resources needed to combat this problem. The NYC Human Rights Commission’s Source of Income Unit is supposed to represent voucher holders experiencing discrimination but is still extremely understaffed.
- Poor apartment conditions: Landlords tend to do less upkeep and care for buildings where most tenants have vouchers. At the same time, substandard apartments tend to have higher vacancy rates, and are thus more likely to be on the market at prices eligible for CityFHEPS vouchers. This often results in CityFHEPS households settling for substandard and unsafe housing.
In fiscal year 2021 the average shelter stay was 483 days for single adults, 520 days for families with children, and 773 days for adult families. Simple administrative reforms can make the CityFHEPS process move faster, minimizing the backlog of applicants, and creating more space for asylum seekers to move through the shelter system.
There are several things the legislature can do to make it easier for homeless New Yorkers to access and use CityFHEPS vouchers, including:
- Reform bureaucratic processes to make sure that City and shelter staff quickly process applications and that minor errors no longer result in long delays or outright denials.
- Eliminate unnecessary rules, such as the utility allowance and rent reasonableness rules.
- Simplify eligibility standards, allowing mixed-status and undocumented families to apply for CityFHEPS (undocumented families often have the longest shelter stays).
- Combat discrimination by rebuilding the City’s source of income discrimination unit and making sure that it actually enforces the rights of CityFHEPS households.
- Improve code enforcement by ensuring that oversight agencies regularly conduct thorough inspections, and that they have the capacity and expertise needed to enforce necessary repairs.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. If you have any questions about this testimony or CSS’s research, please contact me at omironova@cssny.org.