Cuts Cripple Housing Assistance Network in Inwood, Washington Heights

Inwood — At 3 a.m. every weeknight, an orderly queue of residents forms in the lobby of a tall building on 187th Street, waiting for the sun to rise and help to finally arrive. Though the housing assistant they await doesn’t start work till 9 a.m., these lines have been forming nightly since July, when the Washington Heights and Inwood Coalition's housing staff fell from three to one.

When the assistant Juan Felix arrived last Tuesday, he had bad news for most of the 25 people in the line that day. "I’m sorry, but you know that now there’s just me—and I can only see the first eight among you," he said, to sighs of anguish around him. "The rest of you will have to try tomorrow—maybe by coming even earlier."   

Ramonita Tolentino, who had come at 5 a.m. seeking help in sorting out a lease dispute, but was 12th on the list, grumbled, spoke loudly about how "no one cares anymore," and then walked out, shaking her head. A young girl called her mother on the phone, telling her "4 a.m. isn’t early enough, mama." Others who had waited, hoping that Felix would see them, left—denied help.

Bleeding from cuts in government funding for housing assistance, community-based groups in Inwood and Washington Heights that once offered hundreds of residents help—with lease and rent disputes, landlord harassment and eviction orders—have trimmed their programs to a bare minimum.

A question of 'priorities'

The Audubon Partnership for Economic Development used to receive $50,000 for the program from the city’s Housing Preservation Department. In 2010, the group lost all funding from the city for housing assistance. But it continued offering the service daily, using resources drawn from other sources.

Two months ago, it retreated. Julio Alvarado, housing director at the organization, now sees residents only on Fridays, though he says that occasionally he helps out "emergency cases" on other days.

"The city needs to relook at its priorities," says Carmen Diaz-Santiago, the Partnership's executive director. The city, she argues, is focusing resources on preserving housing stock when "it should instead be funding community groups to help people tackle housing crises."

The same scenario is playing out 20 blocks to the south. Until three months ago, Nelly Perdomo, 76, would walk into the office of the Washington Heights and Inwood Coalition at 9 a.m. and receive an appointment with one of three housing advisers for help in tackling her landlord’s demands, she says.

That changed this July. The non-profit organization laid off one housing adviser at the end of June, and when a second quit for another job in July, the group did not look for a replacement. "The truth is, we can currently afford only one housing adviser," Josh Swauger, the organization's executive director, says.

Cuts at all government levels

Last year, the Washington Heights and Inwood Coalition had a housing assistance budget of about $150,000, thanks to city, state and federal grants. This year, the only funding it is guaranteed so far is $30,000 from the discretionary fund of Councilmember Robert Jackson, who represents the neighborhood.

The coalition until last year received $50,000 of its housing budget from then state senator Eric Schneiderman. That's been erased by state budget cuts and a crackdown on the legislature's discretionary budget items.

The Coalition's federal funding came under a Community Development Block Grant—and that too could go, soon. In January, President Barack Obama announced plans to cut the federal grant scheme, a remnant of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, by 50 percent in the 2012 fiscal budget, which Congress is expected to take up this month.