More money, still more problems
Lister saw public assistance grant increase, but lack of rental cap means he’s still struggling
Before the State Senate madness, Governor Paterson ushered in the first increase in public assistance in 19 years. The change, which took effect July 1, will increase the basic public assistance grant by 10 percent for the next three years. While every dollar makes a difference, for 11,000 poor people living with AIDS, true relief won’t come until the state eliminates the unfair rent burden that they have to pay.
“I’m holding on by my fingernails,” said James Lister, a New York City AIDS Housing Network member and one of those 11,000 New Yorkers. Lister was diagnosed with HIV in 1989 and went on disability “kicking and screaming” in 2003. He now pays 74 percent of his social security income to live in the rent-stabilized apartment that he’s lived in for 30 years.
“I wear dead people’s clothing and collect bottles and cans to have money to buy indispensable necessities that I can no longer afford on $11 a day, saving up for what is absolutely necessary, like foul-weather shoes and new jeans for the winter weather months, or a light bulb or bath soap,” Lister said. “If I only had to pay 30 percent of my income towards rent it would be a life change.”
New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS are the only poor people in the state whose rental assistance is not capped at 30 percent of their incomes because their benefits come from the New York City and State (all federal benefits are capped at the thirty percent rate. People who receive Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) and Section 8 housing are required by federal law to have a 30 percent rent cap.
So, thanks to the public assistance increase, HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) clients in independent living will now be able to keep $344 per month of their monthly government benefits—instead of $330 per month. An increase for sure, but not nearly enough for someone like Lister.
11,000 poor HIV-positive tenants housed through HASA pay an average of 50 to 60 percent of their public assistance benefits towards rent.
Why has 30 percent rent cap legislation stalled?
Legislation that would implement a 30 percent rent cap for HASA clients was introduced into the state Senate and Assembly four years ago . The legislation (S02664 and A02565) passed three years in a row through the Assembly Social Services committee and through the Senate social services committee for the first time this year.
Before the Senate quagmire opened up, the city’s Human Resources Administration and the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance created an analysis claiming that only 72 HASA clients are evicted per year and that the 30 percent rent cap bill would cost the City and State $28 million.
This analysis sharply contradicts an in-depth analysis by Ginny Shubert at Shubert Botein Associates, which shows a cost savings of $19 million. Shubert Botein Associates, as well as Sen. Tom Duane, has questioned the state’s analysis.
Shubert Botein’s questioning of the analysis reads, “Perhaps the most cynical error in the OMB cost analysis is the report of only 72 ‘HASA client evictions’ annually. As HASA representatives explained in a recent NYS Senate Social Services Committee meeting, this figure includes only those evictions that go all the way through the process and involve the sheriff physically removing a resident. HASA has acknowledged that this count includes only a very small fraction of actual evictions of HASA clients. The number of such ‘literal’ evictions is meaningless as a measure of the housing crises experienced by HASA clients.”
Once the Senate is back in session, advocates will be forcefully pushing for this legislation. For Lister, that won’t come soon enough.
“If these bills were to pass, it would mean I could stop wearing dead-people’s clothes, stop collecting bottles and cans, and I could restore my dignity,” he said.
Posted on July 8, 2009 at 12:33 am
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