"They should have told people what they were getting us into:" Story of an HSP Recipient

The following is the story of a 33-year-old woman with a 6-year-old son trapped in the HSP system. She prefers to remain anonymous because she fears her case will be compromised.

"I was living with my mom and there was not enough space, so my son and I went into the shelter. We were living in Sojourner Truth shelter in the Bronx. We lived there about 8 or 9 months.

My case worker there told me about this HSP (Housing Stability Plus) program. I was approved for HSP in April of 2005. I found an apartment in the South Bronx, waited about 3 months for the application to be approved, and moved in. The apartment is beautiful—two bedrooms, parking lot, washing machine, community room, everything. It’s nice for me and my son. We have been living there almost three years now.

In spring 2007 I started having problems with my rent. My landlord sent me a letter saying I owed him roughly $3000. I thought HRA/Welfare (Human Resources Administration) was paying my rent. I had been paying my portion of the rent and I had no idea Welfare was not. Then in September my case was sanctioned (temporarily closed).

The whole time my case was sanctioned, I was going to my medical program, called FEGS WeCare. I was complying with them and getting evaluated. I was also receiving food stamps and my ConEdison bill was being paid. There was no way for me to know that there was something wrong with my case. If I had known I would have gotten up and fixed it. I’ve worked hard for what I have.

I still don’t know why my case was sanctioned and no one can tell me. I didn’t find out my case was sanctioned until June 1, 2008, when they closed my case. After that I didn’t receive food stamps, medical, anything. I reapplied the same day and my case was reopened in July.

I got my eviction notice in July. I stopped the eviction by going to court. The judge said that I had until the 28th of July to pay the arrears. The judge told me to expect another eviction letter because HRA is so slow to process everything, and told me not to be surprised if I see him again.

When I went to Welfare on the 15th of July to find out what was going on with my case, my case worker told me she didn’t know if Welfare was going to pay my arrears because I had been sanctioned since September. She told me I had to have a fair hearing. I walked out of the HRA office that day and met Picture the Homeless.

Right now the main thing is getting my rent paid. I need them to help me pay my rent. They should have told people what they were getting us into. They should have told us more. Now my heart is in my apartment and I’ve got to risk losing it. I did everything I was supposed to. When I’ve gone to look at other apartments the landlords say 'no, no, no, we don’t want HSP' because they know it’s messed up."