This will come as a shock: Readers of my recent piece about rental voucher bureaucracy offered horror stories of their own.
Before I get to them, a disclaimer: Even the best systems sometimes fail. With as many vouchers as the city hands out, some transactions are going to be botched. The real estate industry strongly supports rental vouchers, and many buildings depend on them as a reliable source of rent.
That said, it’s valuable to city officials to hear about the screw-ups, which often don’t make their way up the chain of command. Like this one, reported by mom-and-pop owner Hinda Mizrahi, about her attempt to rent two of her apartments to voucher holders:
“My husband and I own two three-unit buildings and we had a horrible experience with vouchers. The first resident we had, the approval took FOREVER. There were no issues on our end in the unit but HRA took forever to approve the process. We started in December and we didn’t get approval till April.
“The agency working with us promised we would get paid for holding the unit all those months, but at the end HRA only gave us funds for one month.
“The second unit (in the other building) we were hesitant to do because of the lengthy process. The agency promised it would go faster. We signed the lease in February. The agency called us [April 24] to say it’s almost approved but HRA needs the lease changed to May 1. I said that means it’s another month and they won’t pay us from February. Forget it! This is not worth it to us and we put it back in the market.
“I feel bad for the person in the shelter as she was a nice woman and the unit is close to her job. But we are a small-time landlord and can’t afford these delays.”
Real estate adviser Rye Myers wrote, “I think every rental broker can attest to the horror stories they’ve had when trying to help their voucher clients, only for the smallest detail to derail the process and make them wait even longer to find housing!!!”
He continued, “It’s broken my heart the amount of times I’ve heard stories from colleagues who worked with a voucher client coming out of a shelter or bad situation, found a place they loved, only to be either turned down, or told they have to wait an open-ended amount of time, because ‘the second bedroom is too small and not within our qualifications.’”
Another issue is that brokers sometimes struggle to collect on commissions for rentals that involve vouchers, according to a TRD story published last year.
What we’re thinking about: In a 2021 interview, Robert Levine told The Real Deal, “Every developer is perceived as someone trying to take advantage of the community in some fashion.” Do you agree? Send your thoughts to eengquist@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo was clearly a fan of the late NFL broadcaster John Madden. Oddo recently compared his agency to the former Redskins’ offensive line: “We’re what the Washington football team used to be proud of, we used to call the Hogs,” he said at a press conference. “Other agencies, they got diamond earrings, they got glasses, they got fur coats. We got sweat, we got dirt, and we got snot.”
Elsewhere…
I heeded a warning about the May 1 deadline to comply with Local Law 157, which requires gas detectors within 10 feet of gas appliances. City regulations call for the detectors to be located one foot from the ceiling, making plug-in models impractical.
This has caused panic in the real estate industry because only one company, DeNova Detect, makes UL-rated, battery-powered gas detectors. Hearing predictions of supply shortages, I ordered five of them about a month ago. They arrived three days later.
Of course, some landlords need hundreds of these things. Bulk orders might be harder to fill than mine was, especially with the deadline approaching.
But it’s not as if building owners weren’t warned. The New York Apartment Association, for one, has been sounding the alarm, including on its podcast.
Closing time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Thursday was $8 million for a 4,945-square-foot house at 297 Pacific Street in Boerum Hill. Lesley Semmelhack of The Corcoran Group had the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial closing of the day was $31.6 million for a combined 7,500-square-foot retail building at 61-63 North 6th Street in North Williamsburg.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $8.75 million for a 7,475-square-foot multi-family townhouse at 125 East 69th Street in Lenox Hill. Jason Bauer of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building application filed was for a 69,925-square-foot, 99-unit, mixed-use project at 2748 Jerome Avenue in Fordham. Badaly Architects filed the permit on behalf of Franco Sukaj. Read more here about why 99-unit project filings will proliferate for years to come.
— Matthew Elo