almost never appears in court to explain under what circumstances and when it will pay
rent arrears, dates for payment agreed on by the parties or ordered by the court are largely
arbitrary.
Footnote 2: And DSS does pay, to
the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Pre-COVID, excluding payments
made pursuant to programs such as FHEPS, CityFHEPS, and SEPS, DSS paid an
increasing amount of rent arrears each year, from $124.1 million for 42,000 households
in fiscal year 2013, to $180.7 million for 53,000 households in fiscal year 2015 (Banks
testimony, 3/15/16,
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/hra/downl
oads/pdf/news/testimonies/2016/mar/HRA%20Prelim%20FY17%20hearing_FINAL.pdf
), to $214 million for 58,100 households in calendar year 2016 (Banks testimony,
3/27/17,
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/hra/downloads/
pdf/news/testimonies/2017/mar/HRA_Prelim%2018%20testimony_FINAL.pdf).
Post-COVID, where it is not atypical for a tenant to owe arrears of $30,000, the annual
amount paid by DSS is surely much higher.
Footnote 3: In this court's
experience, even those providers of free legal services that contract with DSS to
represent tenants in eviction proceedings have a difficult time extracting from DSS the
information they need to persuade the court to extend their client's time to pay the rent
arrears. One might think that DSS would seek to be an active participant in the tenant's
efforts to advocate for an extension, but this is far from the case.
Footnote 4: "A quarter of New York
City residents don't have enough money for staples like housing and food, and many say
they cannot afford to go to the doctor, according to a report that underscores the urgency
of an affordability crisis elected officials are struggling to confront" (Benjamin Oreskes,