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

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 these apartments, and how to get help if you do.

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Last week, City Limits released a three-part investigation into New York City’s Project-Based Rental Assistance Program, which helps low-income residents afford housing.

We found tenants struggling to reach their property managers, get repairs done, and force government agencies to take enforcement seriously.

Around 100,000 tenants benefit from the program in New York City, in buildings across all five boroughs. Many face the same challenges. But in a complicated system of property managers, agencies, and subcontractors, it can be hard for tenants to navigate.

Molly Rockett, a supervising attorney at Legal Services NYC who runs their legal working group on Project-Based Section 8 Rental Assistance, sat down with City Limits to discuss the program and how tenants can get help. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What is the Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) program? 

PBRA housing is a type of federally subsidized, privately owned housing where the government pays private owners to subsidize the rent of low-income tenants. Tenants in PBRA housing typically pay about one-third of their income toward rent, and the federal government pays the rest directly to the landlord. It’s similar to NYCHA housing—but instead of being owned by a public agency, PBRA buildings themselves are owned and managed by private corporations. 

What are some of the problems tenants have in the PBRA program? 

One of the biggest challenges is getting the landlords to actually follow the rules. Because PBRA landlords receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds, they’re required to follow strict regulations meant to protect tenants—like maintaining safe, habitable apartments and accurately calculating each tenant’s rent share based on income. 

In practice, many landlords fall short. They often underfund their management offices, leaving one staff member to handle paperwork for hundreds of tenants. That leads to delays, confusion, lost documents, and rent amounts that fluctuate unpredictably. Many tenants tell us they don’t even know what their rent truly is or when it last changed. 

Tenants also report feeling powerless and humiliated when property managers routinely lose their sensitive documents in the recertification process, requiring them to re-submit the same information over and over.  

And when landlords make mistakes, there’s rarely any accountability. There are no real consequences when management errors cost tenants money—or their dignity. For many, the hardest part of living in PBRA housing is simply getting their landlord to follow the law. 

How do I tell if I’m in a PBRA apartment? 

Start by asking yourself: does the amount I pay in rent depend on my income? If you have to submit information each year about your income, assets, and benefits—and your rent changes based on that—you may be in a PBRA apartment. 

Next, consider who you submit that information to. If it goes to a private management company (like C&C Management or Manhattan North Management), and that company—not a city agency—tells you what your rent will be, you likely live in a PBRA building. 

If you instead send everything to NYCHA, [the Department of Housing Preservation and Development] HPD, or another agency, then you probably have a different kind of subsidy. PBRA apartments are also known as Project-Based Section 8 units. You can always ask your property manager directly what program your apartment is under—or contact Legal Services NYC and we can help you confirm.

You can reach out to the LSNYC hotline at 917-661-4500.

How is the PBRA program different from NYCHA and Section 8 vouchers? 

The difference is that for NYCHA tenants and voucher tenants, there is some kind of  government agency involved in making sure the subsidy actually works. So when NYCHA does something wrong, for example when they miscalculate a tenants’ rent share, the tenant can file a rent grievance against NYCHA, or file a lawsuit against NYCHA. But in PBRA housing, everything is done by a private corporation—there is no government agency involved in doing the day-to-day tasks of running the buildings or calculating rent.  

Project-Based Section 8 Rental Assistance is a whole development that accepts the subsidy. If the tenant leaves the building, they can’t take the subsidy with them. And then in terms of transfer rights, the tenant does have the right to request transfers, but only within the development owned by that specific owner, which could be just one building.

What should I do if I’m having a problem with my apartment? 

The best thing you can do is start organizing with your neighbors and create a tenant  association. There are tenant organizers at Community Voices Heard and other places that will help you create a tenant association, and from there, you can use your collective power, and the power of numbers, to force your landlord to act and make changes. Lawyers like us at Legal Services can be a tool used by tenant associations as well. Tenant associations can hire us to write demand letters, file complaints with the federal government, and even sue your landlord for not following the law.  

You can try working with your property manager or calling CGI [the supervisory agency for PBRA in New York] but they each have advantages and pitfalls. If you get a kind property manager it could be helpful. A property manager could also ignore you and misunderstand you and not fix a problem or make a problem worse. Same for CGI.

Two of the biggest things tenants can do to kind of protect their rights in the process is keep a careful record of every time that you contact your property manager, and only do it in writing and when you submit documents to your property manager, get a receipt that you can prove you handed it in. Property managers will say they never heard from you, say they never received documents from you, and it will be your word against theirs.

Your property manager and CGI’s contact info must be listed in your building (usually in the lobby or the management office). If it is not, try reaching out to LSNYC.

What are my rights if I am served an eviction notice? 

I tell this to every tenant I meet—in New York City, only an order from a judge can force a tenant to leave their apartment. So if you get an eviction notice, don’t just leave the apartment—make sure that you head down to the courthouse by the deadline listed on the notice to file your answer. An answer is just a list of defenses you might have in the case—it is your side of the story. 

You have the right to explain to the judge your perspective on what is going on, whether your rent was miscalculated, your recertification wasn’t processed, there are outstanding conditions to be repaired in your apartment—or any other ways your rights were violated. Some of these issues could be defenses to the eviction brought against you. Make sure that you attend all court dates so you have a chance to raise all of your rights and defense in an eviction case. 

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email protected]. To reach the editor, contact [email protected]

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