The shortage of affordable housing is especially hard on elderly New Yorkers, but many units are sitting vacant even though thousands of seniors are on waiting lists for them, an audit released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found. The audit examined whether the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the NYC Housing Development Corporation (HDC) properly oversee the awarding of housing to seniors and a program that assists senior homeowners.
“New York City’s affordable housing agencies need to make sure they are doing everything they can to place vulnerable seniors into available housing,” DiNapoli said. “Unfortunately, the audit found that there is more they can do to make sure those next in line are not passed over and that available apartments don’t sit vacant.”
The NYC HPD is the largest municipal housing agency in America and among its responsibilities is the development and rehab of housing for seniors. HPD works with the NYC HDC, the nation’s largest municipal housing finance agency, to manage a variety of programs that focus on senior housing, including the Senior Affordable Rental Apartments Program (SARA), the federal Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program (Section 202 program) and the Senior Citizen Homeowner Assistance Program (SCHAP).
The SARA and the Section 202 programs provide affordable housing for low-income seniors. SARA provides low-interest loans for building and renovating affordable housing for seniors aged 62 or older, or 55 and older if homeless, with income up to 60% of the area median. Rentals developed through SARA funds are given out by lottery, with 30% set aside for homeless seniors referred by the city or state. Similarly, the Section 202 program leverages public resources and private sector financing to rehabilitate, recapitalize and preserve privately-owned U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-assisted rental housing throughout NYC.
During the time period the audit looked at — January 2014 through September 2022 — there were 40 projects with 5,244 units under the SARA program. There were another 2,749 units in 22 projects that were part of the HUD’s Multifamily Program, including the Section 202 program.
DiNapoli’s audit focused on four SARA housing developments — HANAC Corona Senior Residence in Queens, Serviam Heights in the Bronx, Victory Plaza (renamed Joan O. Dawson Plaza in 2021) in Manhattan and Woodlawn Senior Center in the Bronx — and one section 202 development — Bensonhurst Housing for the Elderly in Brooklyn.
Vacant Apartments
At HANAC in Corona, Queens, auditors found six apartments left vacant for an average of nearly three years. Three of these were never occupied or awarded to an applicant. Two were fully furnished units reserved for homeless applicants, including one that was never awarded and has been vacant for more than three years. The other furnished apartment was awarded for 13 months but, as of May 2022, had been vacant for over two years. Auditors learned that the previous property manager had not reported vacancies to HPD as required.
At Woodlawn in the Bronx, only 15 of the 80 available apartments were awarded as of July 2022, despite becoming available at the beginning of that year and despite a long waiting list of 12,050 applicants. There were 24 units set aside for homeless individuals but only 11 were occupied as of July 2022. HPD officials and the development’s management put responsibility for the delays on each other.
Waiting Lists
At Victory Plaza, HANAC and at the Bensonhurst Section 202 development, auditors found instances of apartments being wrongly awarded to individuals ahead of others on the waiting lists. Two applicants who were bypassed at Bensonhurst had been on the waiting list since 2014.
Also at Bensonhurst, the audit found a senior who applied in 2014 was listed as having applied in 2021. The exact date and time of application is critical, because it can affect how long an applicant will have to wait to hear back about their application. HDC officials said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is responsible for Bensonhurst’s wait list.
Applications for apartments at Serviam in the Bronx were not processed through the HPD/HDC online system, but are handled by the New York City Housing Authority under HDC’s oversight. Auditors found that applicants were not always assigned a waiting list spot in the order that they applied. They found 24 seniors who received higher (worse) spots than they should have been. For example, a senior who applied at 8:52 AM was given position 307, while a senior applying nearly two hours later was given position 302. The audit found 11 applicants who were given two different waiting list positions, two applicants who received the same position number, and three who were kept on the waiting list even though they stated they were no longer interested in Serviam.
Loans for Home Repairs
Under an agreement with HPD, SCHAP is run by the Parodneck Foundation for Self-Help and Community Development to offer home repair loans to qualified homeowners aged 60 and over. One requirement is that the property must have no outstanding violations, although if the loan is to be used to fix the violation, it may be awarded. The audit sampled 25 properties and found four that had 163 open violations as of June 7, 2022. In one instance, a 2014 loan was given to a property that had a broken cement stoop (a Class B violation – hazardous), which was still not fixed nearly eight years later. Another property owner got a loan in November 2018, then received a Class C (immediately hazardous) violation for a mouse infestation that was still active as of June 7, 2022. Parodneck said it does not check to see if violations are cleared.
HPD stopped funding SCHAP in May 2020. At that time any remaining funds were supposed to be returned to HPD. Nearly two years later, auditors found $174,000 was left over that should have been recouped by HPD.
The audit recommended that HPD:
- Review rent rolls and vacancy reports and work with managing agents to identify and quickly fill vacant apartments.
- Ensure that SCHAP loan recipients meet the program requirements and that outstanding violations and amounts owed are resolved.
The audit’s recommendations to HDC included:
- Reviewing waiting lists and increasing oversight of managing agents to make sure apartments are awarded to applicants in the correct order.
- Ensuring that managing agents review applications and update waiting lists for accuracy.
In their response, HPD and HDC generally disagreed with the audit’s findings and stated that they already perform the actions that it recommended.