In West Harlem, news reports of the city’s potential cuts to subsidized housing for low-income tenants has some residents praying they won’t be affected.
The New York City Housing Authority, which oversees public housing, announced last week that in light of budget woes it may revoke Section 8 vouchers from more than 10,000 low-income tenants in the coming months. This news comes after the NYCHA revoked 2,600 unused vouchers in December.
Through the Section 8 program, low-income tenants have access to private housing—they typically pay 30 percent of their annual income and the vouchers compensate landlords for the remainder.
The NYCHA has said that it does not know when, and from whom, the vouchers will be revoked.
In Harlem, Section 8 residents and tenant advocates say that possible cuts of that scale could be devastating.
“I was upset, praying that it wouldn’t be me,” said Lakina Marshall, a Harlem resident who has been living in Section 8 housing for the last two years. “I have no idea what I would do [without Section 8].”
Nellie Bailey, director of the Harlem Tenants’ Council, a grassroots advocacy group, said, “We already have a housing crisis. This will only exacerbate it.”
She added, “It boggles the mind that people are expected to live on less than they have,”
Bobby Attlebury, a resident at the General Grant Houses, an NYCHA complex in Harlem, said he feared that lost subsidized housing could put strains on the local issue of homelessness.
“It would be a travesty. They’re going to have to find the money somewhere, I hope. You have enough homelessness as it is,” Attlebury said. “Shelters aren’t a feasible option. They’re not safe. ... How can you do that to children?”
Loretta Callender, a West Harlem resident who works for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and has friends and family in the Section 8 program, said she hopes cuts in spending at the federal level can help the city maintain the program at its current capacity.
“[Housing] is not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” she said.
For tenants uncertain of their futures, “it’s like waiting for a pink slip,” Callender added.
Sarah Martin, president of the Tenants Association of the Grant Houses, said the current crisis stems from larger systematic problems.
“At the end of the day, it [Section 8 program] doesn’t work,” Martin said, explaining, “The city is trying to clean up homelessness, but in getting rid of the vouchers, they’re creating it.”
Martin said she knew of many residents in public housing, even if they were not in dire need of it, who saw the Section 8 programs as a way to better their situation without understanding its instability. “It’s risky and there is not much security attached to it.”
Looking forward, Martin suggests that the NYCHA prioritizes Section 8 so that it goes to the most needy residents. It’s time, she said, to “go back to the drawing boards.”
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