Definitive and grim, the form letter sent by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) to people on the waiting list for a Section 8 housing voucher gave them the unambiguous deadline of today:

“To remain on the Public Housing Waiting List, you must log on and create an account on the HABC Applicant Portal on or before August 21, 2015,” said the letter, mailed out to about 38,000 people on August 3.

“We encourage you to access this site as often as necessary to update your application on file,” said the letter, part of the agency’s effort to update the list and purge people who have moved, died or no longer need the federal housing subsidy.

Criticism by homeless advocates has caused HABC to push back the deadline to October 9, but not before a flare-up of tempers at Wednesday’s meeting of The Journey Home board, the panel that guides the mayor on homelessness issues.

“Our clients do not have regular access to a computer,” said Antonia Fasanelli, executive director of the Homeless Person’s Representation Project.

Fasanelli described the frustrating experience of a staffer who tested the phone number set up by the city to answer applicants’ questions about the process. After the staffer got through the phone tree, she was transferred and disconnected.

“Our marginalized clients might have only one opportunity to make a call,” said Fasanelli. “This can cause a great deal of stress and anxiety.”

“I was Livid”

Addressing the group at their monthly meeting, Nicholas Calace of the Department of Housing sought to reassure them.

“No one is being purged from the waiting list,” Calace said, noting that a series of efforts would be made to contact people.

That prompted a snort of derision from activist Kim Trueheart in the audience.

When her turn came to speak, she blasted the department for sending out the letter and not informing the advocates and service providers first. (Fasanelli’s group and Health Care for the Homeless are among the groups that did not receive the notice.)

“The fact that they didn’t even recognize what they did, and that this body has not demanded that the mayor get them to understand that they are harming these individuals that they supposedly are helping,” Trueheart said, “is outrageous.”

Giving a first-hand account of his experience trying to secure his place on the waiting list, Percy Jones described to the Journey Home board what it was like going to the city’s 1225 West Pratt Street housing voucher office.

He said it appeared that 1,000 people were there, wrangled by “a manager, two assistants and security guards.”

There was confusion, a mix-up involving a wrong date-of-birth on his records and he was told to come back another time.

“This agency is not customer-service oriented,” he said. “I was livid.”

Agreement Worked Out

Since Wednesday’s meeting, advocates have negotiated, via a conference call, an agreement with HABC designed to insure that no one is precipitously dropped from the list or traumatized by the process.

A second letter will be sent out that will be reviewed “to make sure it does not incite unnecessary fear” and is accessible to people with limited literacy.

The letter will have a deadline of 30 days plus an additional two weeks. (The date has since been solidified to October 9).

The Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services says it will reach out to homeless services providers to identify volunteer sites to process waiting list people in various locations around the city.

New Letter from HABC

In an emailed letter to homeless service providers today, HABC lawyer Jan Goslee said that applicants who fail to respond by October 9 will be given an additional 30 days to comply before they are taken off the Section 8 housing voucher list.

Below is the full text of today’s letter from Goslee, including the information that “HABC will not be advertising this process through any forms of mass media communications.”

Subject: HABC Public Housing Waitlist Response
Date: August 21, 2015

HABC will not automatically remove applicants from the waiting list if they do not respond or create an account on the public housing applicant portal by October 9, 2015. In such cases, HABC will use all other contact information in efforts to notify the applicant. If the applicant fails to respond within 30 days after the October 9^th date, the applicant will then be removed from the public housing waiting list. HABC’s policy provides that applicants who are removed from the waiting list due to lack of a response will be reinstated if they contact HABC within 90 days from the date of their removal. HABC will not be advertising this process through any forms of mass media communications.

Jan Goslee, General Counsel
Office of Legal Affairs
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–Mark Reutter contributed to this article.