One of the largest providers of housing for mentally ill and formerly homeless people in New York City has started hundreds of eviction cases in an attempt to collect millions of dollars in rent that its tenants failed to pay during the pandemic.
A 293-unit housing development in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, where CAMBA, a supportive housing provider, has filed to evict more than a quarter of residents, on May 29, 2023.
“It’s a startling number of cases,” said Jenny Akchin, a lawyer with TakeRoot Justice, a nonprofit legal services group. “This has been standard operating procedure,” she said, “but it doesn’t have to be, and it really shouldn’t be.” In supportive housing, formerly homeless tenants, many of whom have mental health or substance abuse issues, pay no more than 30% of their income, whether from work or government assistance programs, toward a portion of their rent. The rest is covered by a range of public subsidies. The tenants also receive on-site, voluntary mental health and other services.
At its 652-unit flagship building, the Times Square in midtown Manhattan, Breaking Ground has sued 81 tenants for about $670,000 in arrears; the total unpaid rent at the building is $1.1 million. Gothamist previously reported on eviction filings at the building, but not across the company’s portfolio.
Tenants’ share of the rent makes up about 40% of the operating budget for a typical supportive housing building, Rosen said. In many cases, tenants fall behind on the rent because of paperwork issues that delay or reduce the cash they receive from public assistance, the main source of income for some tenants, said Sandra Gresl, a lawyer with Mobilization for Justice.
A spokesperson for Breaking Ground said these tenants “chose not to engage with us” to address their unpaid rent.
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