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How To Get Help If You Live in an Apartment With Project-Based Rental Assistance

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 9h

My @citylimitsnews.bsky.social investigation showed that tenants living in project based rental assistance have trouble reaching their managers, renewing subsidies, and getting repairs done.

If you are a tenant in a PBRA building, here's how you can get help:
buff.ly/8lf4NGZ
@citylimitsnews

A City Limits investigation revealed significant issues with the program, which helps some 100,000 New Yorkers afford housing at buildings across the city. Here’s how to know if you live in one of…

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 13d

Pt 3 of my investigation into the PBRA program highlights how tenant issues don't reach the right authorities. When they do, agencies pass the buck on enforcing the rules.

The recertification, repairs, and accountability issues I highlight happen in PBRA all over the country.
buff.ly/vMGXeGe

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 14d

Welcome, fall! A record number of New Yorkers reported last year that they have no heat or hot water.

Starting Oct 1, landlords must keep apartments at least 62 degrees at night and 68 degrees during the day.

Here's how to get help if they're not. buff.ly/WUnE0mv

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Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 14d

Several buildings in the program have hundreds of open housing code violations. Advocates say that program administrators aren't monitoring conditions closely and that property management is incentivized to defer maintenance to reduce their bottom line.
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Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 14d

Tenant subsidies are tied to units, so they have nowhere to go when there is a repair issue or they need to move for another reason: like harassment or domestic violence.

Tenants say landlords retaliated when they spoke up about housing conditions.
buff.ly/up1n6f6

The Repairs Crisis in NYC’s Project Based Rental Assistance Program

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 14d

For months in '23-24, program administrators flagged Manhattan North Mgmt for failing to fix housing conditions that immediately threatened to resident health. HUD and HCR didn't do anything.

Repairs are a common problem in the PBRA program, as part 2 of my investigation shows ⤵

Private managers of some federally subsidized housing projects in New York City are failing to remedy health and safety issues in their buildings. Many tenants are scared to speak up, afraid they'll…

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 16d

For those reading the tea leaves on housing policy, on MSNBC Mamdani, reflecting on Adams admin, says “city of yes was good and should be built on”

Also welcomed the containerization of trash (after dissing Cuomo)

The Compliance Crisis in New York City’s Project-Based Rental Assistance Program

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 16d

This is Part 1 of a 3 part series supported by The Fund for Investigative Journalism for @citylimitsnews.bsky.social

Stay tuned for more this week!

Read more about Tolentino's struggle to stay in his apartment.
buff.ly/1EqVBkv

Private managers of federally subsidized housing projects in New York City are systematically failing to properly screen tenants in the program, resulting in rent miscalculations and eviction…

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 16d

PBRA is overseen by the feds (not NYCHA like other programs), and subcontracted to the state & local corps---who are often short staffed and hard to get in touch with. Tenants have little recourse when something goes wrong.

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 16d

While most managers pass their annual reviews, 95 percent fail the tenant screening audit.

Property mgmt failed to provide notice and reasonable accommodations for Jose' Tolentino's disability. He tried to resolve the issue, but mgmt terminated his subsidy and filed eviction.

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 16d

100K low income New Yorkers use the program to afford their rent. They are mostly Black and Latino and disproportionately elderly and disabled.

Conditions at the buildings vary, but tenant screening is a problem at almost all of them.
buff.ly/1EqVBkv

The Compliance Crisis in New York City’s Project-Based Rental Assistance Program

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 16d

I spent a year investigating Project Based Rental Assistance in NYC. I found widespread failures to screen tenants for subsidies, resulting in rent miscalculations and eviction filings. Private companies manage buildings and oversee the program. Tenants have little recourse.
buff.ly/1EqVBkv 🧵 ⤵️

Private managers of federally subsidized housing projects in New York City are systematically failing to properly screen tenants in the program, resulting in rent miscalculations and eviction…

September 2025 by Patrick Spauster on Apple Music

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Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 17d

September 2025
Wednesday
Lola Young
JID
Blood Orange
Obongjayar
The Streets
buff.ly/gawj5Lc
buff.ly/9KRG9w2

Playlist · 29 Songs

music.apple.com

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 19d

I was on @thebrianlehrershow.bsky.social on @wnyc.org this morning talking about rent stabilization. You can listen the full show: open.spotify.com/episode/6CVt...

30 Issues in 30 Days: Rent Regulation; Fighting Fascism With Education; Pain Management in Pregnancy | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC

Reposted by Patrick Spauster

City Limits News @citylimitsnews.bsky.social · 19d

Tune in this morning to WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show to hear City Limits' housing reporter @patrickspauster.com talk rent laws and the mayor's race! www.wnyc.org/story/30-iss...

30 Issues in 30 Days: Rent Regulation; Fighting Fascism With Education; Pain Management in Pregnancy

www.wnyc.org

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Reposted by Patrick Spauster

City Limits News @citylimitsnews.bsky.social · 20d

The City Council approved the lease Thursday of city land to build housing for the formerly incarcerated in the Bronx, over the objections of the local councilmember and City Hall.

via @patrickspauster.com: citylimits.org/council-appr...

Council Approves Just Home Project, But City Hall’s Objections Leave Future Unclear - City Limits

The Council approved the lease of city land to build housing for the formerly incarcerated in the Bronx, over the objections of the local councilmember and City Hall.

Council Approves Just Home Project, But City Hall’s Objections Leave Future Unclear

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 20d

Council approved a plan for 58 units of supportive housing in the Bronx. It's the first time they've made a land use change over the objections of the home councilmember since 2021. But the Mayor has withheld support, leaving the projects future unclear. @citylimits.bsky.social buff.ly/w5HOCiK

The City Council approved the lease of city land to build housing for the formerly incarcerated in the Bronx, over the objections of the local councilmember and City Hall. It’s the first time the…

Housing For Formerly Incarcerated Could Test City Council’s ‘Member Deference’

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 21d

“This is the right project and the right location”

City Council is poised to vote against one of their own for the first time since 2021, as they clash w/ City Hall & advocates over ballot measures that would weaken their powers over housing development
@citylimitsnews.bsky.social

After City Hall pulled its support for an East Bronx project to build supportive housing for seriously ill people leaving jail, City Council members are considering overruling one of their own. A…

Housing For Formerly Incarcerated Could Test City Council's 'Member Deference' - City Limits

Reposted by Patrick Spauster

City Limits News @citylimitsnews.bsky.social · 22d

The City Council is expected to vote this week on a Bronx housing project for seriously ill people leaving jail. Should it pass, it'd be over the objections of the local Council rep—and City Hall, which recently pulled its support.

via @patrickspauster.com: citylimits.org/housing-for-...

After City Hall pulled its support for an East Bronx project, City Council members are considering overruling one of their own.

Trump Appointees Roll Back Enforcement of Fair Housing Laws

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 23d

Fair housing enforcement doesn’t exist right now. Just in the lede: “In one email, a Trump appointee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development described decades of housing discrimination cases as “artificial, arbitrary and unnecessary.”” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/r...

www.nytimes.com

Tenants Seek to Unionize One Private Equity Firm's Entire Housing Portfolio

Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 23d

“It’s a ‘function of necessity’ in response to the consolidation of rental housing by large landlords: ‘As the challenges facing tenants have grown more complex in an increasingly global housing market tenant organizing is itself becoming more sophisticated” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

By organizing renters across Capital Realty Group’s affordable housing complexes, the Tenant Union Federation hopes to bring sectoral bargaining to negotiations with large landlords.

www.bloomberg.com

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Patrick Spauster @patrickspauster.com · 26d

12 years ago, he was surveilled by the NYPD for being Muslim, “and 12 years later, I’m friends with a guy that’s gonna be the boss of the police department,” said @AsadFromNYC , who is confident @ZohranKMamdani will win. “Sometimes life can be cinema”
buff.ly/V2PWK94

Take a Walk With Asad From NYC

Asad Dandia, a community organizer, Muslim New Yorker, and urban history tour guide is a rising star with friends in high

Take a Walk With Asad From NYC - City Limits

Reposted by Patrick Spauster

City Limits News @citylimitsnews.bsky.social · 27d

“As New Yorkers, we always want to go. We want to go from point A to point B and I get that the city is constantly on the move, but I invite you to stop and to just look.”

via @patrickspauster.com: citylimits.org/take-a-walk-...

Asad Dandia, a community organizer, Muslim New Yorker, and urban history tour guide is a rising star with friends in high places.