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NYCHA says staff, call center and portal problems strain Section 8 administration
Summary
NYCHA testified to the City Council that its leased housing team and customer service systems are under strain as the agency expands Section 8 administration; council members and witnesses described long call wait times, portal glitches and recertification errors that have harmed voucher holders.
At a Committee on Public Housing hearing, NYCHA officials described staffing and technology constraints as the agency manages the nation’s largest Section 8 program and a growing pipeline of project-based conversions.
Lakisha Miller, NYCHA’s executive vice president of leased housing, said the leased housing team has an authorized headcount of 520 and 476 active personnel, leaving 44 vacancies. “Our leased housing team has a headcount of 520 personnel. We have…476 active personnel,” Miller said. NYCHA told the committee it intends to use existing voucher-issuance staff to support the EHV-to-HCV transition rather than hire additional personnel immediately.
Council members and public witnesses raised customer-service problems. NYCHA reported the Customer Contact Center (CCC) has 64 staff, including 58 agents, and an average wait time of 17 minutes and 31 seconds for Section 8 inquiries. Legal aid organizations and tenant advocates testified that callers experience dropped calls, long queue times and portal failures that prevent uploads and delay critical processes. “Calls are dropped, disconnected, and our staff calls all the time and they report the same thing,” Legal Aid representative Alex McDougall told the committee during public testimony.
NYCHA described several operational metrics: it serves about 110,000 households in Section 8 programs; the average apartment-search time for new voucher holders is 134 days; the overall voucher “success rate” for 2025 was reported as 54 percent with 46 percent of issued vouchers expiring unused; and the agency’s housing navigation unit—created in August 2023 to assist households nearing voucher expiration—helped 73 percent of the participants it assisted find units. Miller and staff said landlords generally remain in the program because of reliable monthly subsidy payments.
Witnesses and council members raised past technology failures. NYCHA acknowledged a paperwork-processing logic error in 2021–22 that generated roughly 10,500 erroneous termination notices; agency staff said they corrected the logic and have made system enhancements. The panel discussed the citywide HUD “Inspire” inspection/standards system (implementation deferred by HUD to February 2027) and NYCHA’s owner and tenant extranets intended to speed documentation and payments.
Council members asked whether NYCHA will expand in-person help centers. NYCHA said its offices operate primarily by appointment to improve efficiency and that there were no current plans to return to unrestricted walk-ins; the agency said it would consider renaming “walk-in centers” to reduce confusion. NYCHA committed to providing recertification support by phone and in person by appointment for residents who need help.
