Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

294 Amy E. Schwartz and Sharon Stapel
116. Local PHAs should be contacted to determine specific eligibility
requirements.
117. To demonstrate evidence of abuse, an applicant will need to present:
A. A current order of protection (with a provision excluding the batterer
from the home, if the batterer has ever lived with the applicant) or, in the
alternative, a letter from the Court Dispute Referral Center explaining why
the applicant does not have an order of protection; AND
B. Two police reports regarding incidents that occurred within the last
twelve months, OR one incident report regarding an incident other than
that alleged in the order of protection petition. NYCHA requires proof of
two separate incidents of violence, unless the initial incident resulted in
serious injury or a charge of a felony offense; AND
C. One of the following attesting to her status as a survivor of domestic
violence:
1. Letter from Safe Horizon; OR
2. Letter from a social services agency, medical center or court; OR
3. Letter from a public/private shelter counseling facility, indicating the
name of the survivor, the name of the batterer and an explicit description of
where and when the abuse occurred.
118. This rule used to be a “borough of exclusion” rule, where Section 8
applicants were excluded from finding a new apartment in the borough in
which the violence occurred. NYCHA, which runs the Section 8 program
in New York City, has changed this policy to a zip code exclusion to allow
survivors more housing choices.
119. For a list of criminal convictions that may affect Section 8 eligibility in
New York City, see New Destiny Housing Corporation, Criminal
Convictions, http://www.newdestinyhousing.org/convictions.htm (last
visited June 30, 3006).
120. New York City Housing Authority changed its emergency transfer policy in
April 2006. NYCHA established three categories of documents, and to
qualify for a transfer, a client must have one document from each category.
Category A includes: a current order of protection, a DIR within six
months of the emergency transfer request, a hospital In-Patient Admission
Letter resulting from an assault, a Court Dispute Referral Center Letter, or
a letter from the NYCPD or a Parole Officer if the batterer is incarcerated.
Category B includes: an additional DIR (between the same parties but as a