NYCHA overcharges rent due to computer "error"

NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/nyregion/06rent.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=public%20housing&st=cse

Computer Error Caused Rent Woes for Public Housing Tenants

By MANNY FERNANDEZ Published: August 5, 2009

The city’s public housing agency overcharged hundreds of welfarefamilies because of a rent calculation error and took many of them tocourt, threatening them with eviction for failing to pay the higheramount.The computer problem at the agency, the New York City HousingAuthority, is in the process of being corrected and none of thetenants were evicted, officials said. But the error, which began lastSeptember and continued until May, had serious legal, financial andpersonal consequences for many low-income families.Residents affected by the miscalculations were ordered to appear inHousing Court for nonpayment of the extra rent, tried in vain toconvince building managers that there had been a mistake and lived inconstant fear of losing their homes because they could not or wouldnot pay the extra money — often as little as $50 to $200 a month —that the agency claimed it was owed.The problem affected only households whose sole income is public assistance.One tenant at the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem made six appearancesin Housing Court from October to May, when the Housing Authoritydropped the case after her lawyers, with the firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf,threatened to sue the agency. Like other tenants taken to court, shereceived free legal help.And a tenant at the Jefferson Houses, also in East Harlem, borrowedhundreds of dollars from relatives to try to pay off nearly $1,000 inback rent that had been miscalculated.“It’s been frustrating, depressing and nerve-racking,” said theJefferson Houses tenant, Janet Rivera, 45, whose daughter dropped outof the Borough of Manhattan Community College this year after thefamily received an eviction notice. “I really did think I had tomove.”It is not unusual for tenants, especially in government-subsidizedhousing, to dispute how their landlords calculate their rent. But thescale of the Housing Authority, the city’s biggest landlord, and itsfailure to catch the problem for months turned a simple computer errorinto an ordeal for welfare families.“This is a population that, if they’re evicted from the HousingAuthority, will enter the shelter system,” said Sheryl Karp, housingsupervisor for the Harlem office of the nonprofit Legal Aid Society,which represented Ms. Rivera and another tenant who was overcharged.“The Housing Authority should have systems in place to protect thesefamilies, rather than subjecting them to the risk of eviction andhomelessness.”A Housing Authority spokesman said that tenants were mistakenlycharged based on the number of people in a household, instead of thenumber of people receiving public assistance. That led to an averagemonthly gap of $183 between the rent covered by the city’s welfareagency, the Human Resources Administration, and the amount charged bythe Housing Authority. The authority then pursued families in HousingCourt to pay the difference before the mistake was discovered. Tocompensate for overcharges, rent credits are now being provided totenants by the agency.It is unclear exactly how many tenants were overcharged and how manyhad nonpayment-of-rent cases filed against them because of the error.The agency said 1,973 families met the criteria for a possible error,but a more precise number was not available because there was oftenmore than one reason a nonpayment-of-rent case was filed.In June, a judge said there were three to five cases being heard inBrooklyn Housing Court each week in which public housing tenantsraised concerns about overcharges.The public housing agency “discovered a problem with its welfare rentcalculation system and has been proactive in addressing the issue,”its general manager, Douglas Apple, said in a statement. He said thatthe agency “moved quickly to ensure that its residents were not hurtby this by granting rent credits and ensured that no one would beadversely effected by legal action stemming from a rent calculationerror. Based on current data, no one has been evicted” and no familiesare still in Housing Court as a result of the error.Tenant advocates say the rent credits are inadequate, and they wantthe agency to compensate those wrongfully taken to court and toreimburse those who made payments on their rent arrears, like Ms.Rivera.A Housing Authority spokesman said the agency is prepared to grantcash reimbursements to tenants who can prove they made paymentsbecause of the error.Some tenants complained that the authority failed to take theirconcerns seriously for months.Migdalia Arroyo, 55, was informed by the Housing Authority last yearthat the new rent for her apartment in the Taft Houses in East Harlemwas $413.60. But the rent the city welfare agency agreed to pay forMs. Arroyo was $215. She refused to pay the difference, and byFebruary, she owed hundreds of dollars and had a nonpayment-of-rentcase filed against her. It was dropped after a Legal Aid Societylawyer started representing her.“You don’t sleep,” said Ms. Arroyo’s daughter, Indira Cruz, 35. “Youthink that at any time the marshal is going to knock on the door.”