State Senator Jose Serrano convened a housing forum Thursday night, bringing together government representatives and spokespersons from advocacy groups.

The event occurred just at The WIRE’s press deadline. While a full report is not possible, two highlights suggest a level of frustration being felt by Eastwood residents as they go through that building’s conversion to a private mortgage and exit from Mitchell-Lama.

Ellen B. Davidson, Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Society, told over 100 residents in the audience that she felt confused by the Eastwood situation: "I’ve been thinking over the last couple of days what I could say to this audience... I’ve had a lot of experience with people who are in the enhanced voucher program... I’ve gotten a lot of calls over the last week and I’m a little bit perplexed about what to say to you tonight because, frankly, the programs I’ve worked with for the last few years, tenants who’ve opted out and been in the enhanced voucher program, are not the same stories as what I’ve been hearing from the tenants at Eastwood, and I can’t quite figure out why that is. And I don’t quite know what advice to give you because it sounds like something went really wrong here..." – at this point she was interrupted by audience applause – "...and I don’t know why that is. As an attorney, it’s hard to give people advice, not understanding why things went so far wrong.

"The way it’s supposed to work, the building converts, a tenant gets an application from the agency – in this case it would have been DHCR – you fill it out, you give all your information, and DHCR makes a decision whether or not you’re eligible. It kinda sounds like that didn’t happen here.

"Another way it works, you do a recertification once a year, and you find out what your rent is. If your rent changes you might go to DHCR and get it changed. I’m hearing people are getting it changed eight times in a year. That’s just not supposed to be the way it works... If your agency was HPD (New York City Housing Preservation and Development), I’d tell you to go on the website and look at the rules are for your program. But DHCR doesn’t have that, and I don’t know how to tell you how to get that information...

"I’m happy to answer questions... If I don’t have the answer, I apologize, but part of that is because of this very strange situation you find yourselves in. I will say, I just want you to understand, when I heard today about this ‘groundbreaking program’ that went into effect here with enhanced vouchers and a Landlord Assistance Program, it didn’t sound very ‘groundbreaking’ to me; there are buildings all over the City with enhanced vouchers and a LAP program. That’s actually quite common these days. Most of them aren’t quite as confused and tangled as it seems to be here."

Later, a 25-year Eastwood resident, Russell Fields, described his situation: "I got put into the Section 8 program, which had an income limit – I think it was $85,000 – I got put in there when I had $93,000 of income, so I was over-income at the time, and [the agreement with tenants] specifically had a provision that stated they weren’t going to do that. But they did it anyway. You know, I’m still in that particular program and we’re right around the ceiling or we’ve been over the ceiling a couple of times.

"I also was told to come down to the office to sign an updated Mitchell-Lama, and I was billed zero rent for about six months and then, all of a sudden, I asked them, ‘Why is my rent going up?’ and it just kept going up, and it went up to like $1,300, $1,800, then $2,100, to $2,400, and I just got a rent bill for $4,000.

"I took this complaint to the Attorney General’s office, and they sent it over to DHCR, which sent it back to me and said, ‘You should get a lawyer.’

The WIRE plans a more extensive report on Thursday night’s session in its February 24 issue.