Colette Baird was counting down the 90 or so days until her eviction, with no idea where she would go next or how she’d afford it on her modest disability checks.
Her landlord told her he was turning her first-floor unit in the Longwood section of the Bronx over to his daughter and wanted her out. In September 2023, the landlord won a court-ordered eviction and reached a settlement with Baird giving her until the start of the new year to leave.
But Baird, who’s 52 with late-stage cancer and severe spinal problems, was struggling to find a new apartment.
She’s one of tens of thousands of renters with disabilities and fixed incomes in the city who face rising housing costs and the risk, or reality, of homelessness. Gothamist met with Baird multiple times since the eviction order as she scrambled to find a new place to live within her limited means and had seemingly no way of securing rental assistance without first entering a homeless shelter.
Her experience highlights the financial problems still lingering for many tenants and small landlords four years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the limited options for low-income New Yorkers on the cusp of an eviction amid a citywide affordable housing crisis.
“It just seems like it’s impossible,” Baird said at the start of the year, as her housing search hit a series of dead ends and her landlord demanded she leave. “It’s depressing, it’s sad, and I know other people who are in my situation, and elderly people even. There’s a shortage of housing.”
That shortage can be especially hard on people with disabilities and serious medical problems. More than 38% of renters with disabilities pay at least half their income on housing, an arrangement the federal government considers “severely rent burdened,” according to the city’s most recent housing survey. A city assistance program freezes rents for people with disabilities, but doesn’t help people looking for an apartment.
About 9,500 people aged 50 and older live in the city shelter system, according to the city’s Department of Homeless Services. Many of those older adults have serious medical issues that can further complicate housing searches and shelter exits.
In December, Baird was on the verge of joining them. It was a shock after a long career in government and health care.
“I was a working woman and to have this happen is just really devastating,” she said that month “Now I know what it feels like to be facing homelessness, to be homeless.”
She said several owners and brokers told her they would accept rental assistance vouchers, but Baird had no way to get one under current city rules. Mayor Eric Adams is blocking a law that would allow low-income New Yorkers facing eviction to get city-funded vouchers. City officials argue it would cost too much to implement and the requirements for eligibility are too lax.
City Hall spokesperson William Fowler said more than 11,000 families and individuals in shelters are already looking for housing with the vouchers and that the Adams administration has helped thousands of people find apartments.
“Our robust and wide-ranging prevention-based programs are helping tens of thousands of households at risk of eviction stay in their homes, and our efforts to expand access to CityFHEPS vouchers — already the largest city-funded housing voucher program in the nation — are reaching more New Yorkers than ever before,” Fowler said in a statement.
Baird said her two-bedroom apartment on Fox Street cost just under $1,500 a month and she never had a problem paying rent when she was living there with her mother while working a variety of jobs in government and health care.
But in 2020, Baird was diagnosed with advanced-stage breast cancer and required spinal surgery. The next year, her mother died.
Baird said her disability payments of around $1,000 a month weren’t enough to cover the full rent. She worked with her landlord to secure nearly $10,500 from the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program in the summer of 2022, according to court documents. The relief fund rules prohibited landlords from evicting tenants for at least a year after receiving the money, unless they were giving the apartment to a family member.
Baird said she packed essentials, in case she was locked out of her apartment or had to leave quickly.
Photo by David Brand
About a month after getting the check, the landlord issued Baird a 90-day notice that she had to leave because he was planning to give the unit to his daughter, the court records show. After months of litigation, a Bronx judge ordered an eviction. Baird and the landlord reached an agreement allowing her to stay until the end of the year if she paid $600 a month.
She said she could understand the landlord’s desire to get her out of the three-unit rowhouse:
“He has a mortgage, and it was rough,” she said.
The landlord, Delin Matos, and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment, but Matos’ daughter said he was losing patience, and thousands of dollars, as the court process dragged on over about eight months.
The daughter, Dariana Matos, told Gothamist her father was receiving workers compensation following a foot injury. He needed steady rental income to cover his own bills, she said.
“Everyone was kind of giving my parents money, the children, just to keep up with the mortgage,” said Matos, a teacher. “It was definitely stressful.”
She said the eviction process was unfortunate, but it was the only way to get Baird out of the apartment.
“Going through housing court was our only option,” she said. “We were paying someone’s rent and that’s just not OK.”
But as the Jan. 1 deadline to leave approached, Baird was still scrambling to find another place she could afford. She feared the owner might change the locks or a marshal would arrive to remove her.
She packed her vital documents and favorite family photos in case she had to leave abruptly.
She and a friend stuffed clothes, handbags and other paperwork into large containers she hoped to move into storage. Both women paused frequently to rest their injured backs as Baird decided what possessions she would simply throw away or donate, including her mother’s dresses.
As the days passed, she continued calling brokers and looking at listings with assistance from her sister and brother-in-law in Maryland.
She said a family friend offered her space in her cramped one-bedroom apartment in Harlem, but there wasn’t enough room for Baird’s specialized bed. A well-lit, $1,200-a-month studio on Marion Street in the Bronx seemed promising, until the broker stopped taking her calls without explanation. Another apartment in Harlem got scooped up by someone else.
Baird said she feared entering the city’s crowded homeless shelter system because of her advanced cancer and severe back injury.
“Rents are sky high now,” she said. “I’m not begging or anything. I’d just like a voucher so I could afford rent.”
Homeless Services United Executive Director Kristin Miller said the state and federal government also bear responsibility for the sharp rise in homelessness and lack of affordable housing.
“All levels of government need to invest in housing and subsidies or more people are going to become homeless,” said Miller, whose organization represents social service nonprofits in the city.
She said state lawmakers failed to create a sought-after housing voucher program as part of a new housing package, and the federal government has issued a paltry number of rental assistance vouchers in recent decades.
Baird tried other routes. She said she applied for dozens of affordable apartments through the city’s housing lottery system over the past two years, but with no luck. As Gothamist has reported, the odds of landing one of those units are extremely slim, especially for New Yorkers earning less than $30,000 a year, like Baird.
But Baird finally got a unique break in February.
It came after her attorney and social worker from the organization Mobilization For Justice appealed directly to high-ranking officials in the city’s Department of Social Services to intervene, she said.
Baird opens the red door of her new apartment in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Photo by David Brand
The Department of Social Services agreed to open a case through Adult Protective Services, an office that provides some assistance for people with disabilities. APS accepts less than a quarter of its 23,500 referrals, according to the city’s most recent report on agency performance. They do not usually assist with finding housing, a spokesperson said.
But the agency agreed to help Baird identify apartments and issued her a CityFHEPS voucher that would cover the majority of the rent if she found a place. It was an extremely rare method for obtaining a housing voucher, dependent on the intensive advocacy of her social worker and lawyer.
Mobilization For Justice social worker Craig Hughes assisted Baird but declined to comment on the intervention because he is among more than 100 members of the organization striking for higher pay and other benefits. Baird’s attorney, who is also on strike, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
In mid-February, Baird said a city caseworker notified her of an available first-floor apartment in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
She decided to take it and signed the lease a few days later.
Her sister Cathy Barzey visited from Maryland to help her move. Friends and her home health aide made the trip from the Bronx to inspect the apartment and help her clean.
“For two and a half years, we were looking desperately and for every turn, there seemed to be a roadblock,” Barzey said. “It’s a joyous moment.”
The voucher will pay most of Baird’s rent and she’ll cover $177 of the total.
“It just feels so good just to be able to sleep at night and not have that stress,” Baird said. “It’s just such a relief.”