| Releases & Statements
Gotbaum
Introduces Legislation to Force City to Expedite Processing of
Senior Citizen Rent Exemptions; Bill Requires Reporting of Application
Processing Figures for Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption
(SCRIE) and Distributing Information on How to Get Excess Rent
Payments Returned
New York City Public Advocate Betsy
Gotbaum today introduced legislation in the City Council that
would help remedy an application processing backlog in the City’s
rent exemption program that was uncovered by her office in March
2005. The bill would require quarterly reports to the City Council
and to the Office of the Public Advocate regarding the length
of time it takes to process applications. Gotbaum’s office
found that processing delays have burdened low-income seniors
with additional financial hardships.
The Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption
(SCRIE) is a program which exempts certain low-income senior citizens
in New York State from rent increases and allows landlords to
deduct the exempted increase from property taxes. The program
is administered by the City’s Department for the Aging (DFTA).
Landlords are legally obligated to reimburse SCRIE beneficiaries
for any increased rent paid during the application process, but
some seniors have difficulty getting them to comply, and DFTA
does nothing to help.
“The Department for the Aging
has no sense of urgency when it comes to SCRIE applications. The
result is that seniors pay more than they need to. This legislation
will give my office and the City Council the information we need
to monitor the City’s handling of SCRIE and demand improvements,”
Gotbaum said.
Gotbaum’s legislative action
follows the release of a March 2005 report by her office which
found that DFTA exceptionally slow in processing these applications.
The Office of the Public Advocate
found that during calendar year 2004, 40 percent of seniors applying
for SCRIE benefits were forced to wait more than 3 months for
DFTA to determine whether or not they were eligible. This wait
results in seniors on fixed incomes having to pay the costs of
increased rent even if they qualify for a rent increase exemption.
For seniors already enrolled in the program, Gotbaum’s office
found evidence that DFTA’s backlog resulted in the re-application
process for some seniors extending beyond the existing 6-month
grace period, forcing them to pay rent increases.
The legislation also includes measures
to help ensure that landlords reimburse seniors for rent increases
they pay while waiting for their SCRIE applications to be approved.
The City’s Department for the Aging (DFTA) would be required
to distribute a written description of all remedies available
to tenants who overpaid while awaiting an exemption and to publicize
such information on its website.
“If DFTA is going to continue
to fall behind in enrolling these seniors, then at least it should
make them aware of how they can recover their rent money. When
14,500 out of 36,535 applicants we forced to wait beyond 90 days,
there clearly is a problem with the current process,” said
Gotbaum.
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