SOUR NOTE

1,424 get NYCHA eviction letter by mistake

OOPS.

More than 1,400 public housing tenants got a nasty little surprise this week: a computer-generated form letter mistakenly informing them NYCHA was moving to terminate their leases.

The scary one-page missive, written in bloodless bureaucratic legalese, went to 1,424 residents across the city but gave no explanation as to why they faced eviction for doing nothing wrong.

“In accordance with the established policies and procedures of the New York City Housing Authority, the entire record of your tenancy is being forwarded to the Housing Authority’s central office for possible termination of tenancy.”

There was no signature, just the signoff, “Very truly yours, Housing Manager.”

NYCHA officials on Thursday blamed a computer glitch that erroneously sent the termination letters to hundreds of tenants who had done everything they were supposed to do.

“We are immediately contacting residents who received the notice incorrectly,” said Jean Weinberg, NYCHA spokeswoman. “This is simply inexcusable. We can and must do better for our residents.”

One of the letter’s recipients was Shahzad Quazi, 53, who says she has paid her rent on time for the 17 years she’s lived in the Williamsburg Houses in Brooklyn.

When she returned home from work at a day care center late Monday, she opened her mailbox. The letter, she said, was was like a poke in the eye.

“The wording of this letter is so threatening. They should not do this,” Quazi said, her voice trembling. “They don’t know how this emotionally kills a person. I did not sleep at all. I tossed and turned. My blood sugar was very high in the morning.”

None of the termination letters offered an explanation of what the tenant did to justify eviction proceedings.

“They think they can send this letter and that’s it,” Quazi said.

Election Day made things worse. Dozens of tenants tried to confront management staff to demand answers on Tuesday, but all offices were closed.

The nonprofit advocacy group Housing Court Answers got 40 calls on its hotline on Tuesday alone, from tenants all over the city.

“The calls came from all five boroughs,” said Jenny Laurie, the group’s executive director. “That’s a lot of calls about one topic. That’s a crazy amount of calls about one topic.”

NYCHA officials said that in August they red-flagged thousands of tenants who failed to fill out forms recertifying their income levels. Tenants are required to do that every year, by a prescribed deadline, and the authority’s computer system was then set to send out termination notices in early November.

In between, hundreds of those tenants recertified as required. But the system sent the notices anyway.

Spokeswoman Ilana Maier said NYCHA has fixed the glitch.

As for the next notice, she noted, “We are revising the possible termination letters so that they offer more clarity to residents about why they are receiving the notice.”