Hi all – I made a promise (in prayer) that if I got my One Shot Deal, I would do an AMA. Feel free to truly ask me anything, and I’ll share what I can.
Briefly:
I got cancer in 2023 and managed to stay on top of rent through exhausting treatment, then completely burned out, had to rest for health reasons, and stopped rent payment in July 2024 (amongst other reasons like landlord’s failure to complete repairs etc) My landlord filed a housing court case due to $20K nonpayment I applied for One Shot Deal first in February 2025 I applied online and submitted all documents through the HRA app portal I called daily to check to confirm all documents were received, sometimes waiting hours on the phone, or 24+ hours in the callback queue I was daily told everything was in order as the court case proceeded Suddenly, in April 2025, I got a notice that my case was rejected (!!) On April 14, I went to my local HRA center (1912 Mermaid Ave, Brooklyn) to find out what the hell happened, bringing all my documents with me The case manager told me my documents were rejected bc they were “blurry” (I was like wtf?? Why didn’t anybody tell me? And it’s due to HRA’s shitty portal!) The desk associate was really rude and dismissive, very demoralizing But she informed me that the agents on the phone are NOT CASE MANAGERS and cannot truly give you updates on your case, plus they’re too lazy to even tell you if documents are clear or not I sat down and filed a new case ON THE SPOT at the center, called for my interview ON THE SPOT while still in the waiting room, and submitted the documents ON THE SPOT to the desk associate, who scanned them (although, again, very incompetent people are at that counter and she wasn’t even checking to confirm all pages were scanned) I was then sent upstairs to another department, because cases at this amount are processed through the Homelessness Diversion Unit The lady at the desk upstairs was kind enough to lobby her boss to take on my case, so she became my case manager ON THE SPOT and gave me her phone number and email address, so I didn’t have to rely on the shitty portal to submit any more documents She also informed me that my first case was never even started (wtf??), never assigned a case manager or anything She told me I needed to submit a few additional documents to her to beef up my case (and trust me, I was grateful bc they are often intentionally opaque when it comes to clarifying what documents are needed) I left the HRA center, emailed her the additional documents, got her confirmation the case was created and beginning to be processed From April through June, she didn’t respond to most of my emails, so when I had another court date coming up, in July, I emailed almost daily till she called with an update I submitted the additional court paperwork, paystubs, etc, to her via email Got my approval notice in the mail on August 1, and apparently the landlord had already been sent the grant money July 25 Emailed to thank my case manager today and she called and told me that, due to IT issues, my case was rejected FOUR TIMES while she attempted to process it and she had to keep resubmitting and work with IT department to fix the system issues I was very grateful, but also, how many people’s cases are rejected due to IT issues? Took 6 months from time of first (failed) case submission to One Shot Deal approved (and about 3.5 months from second submission to grant approved)
Long story short:
Go to your HRA center in person Go first thing in the morning if you don’t want an excessive wait Assume every desk associate is pissed off at you (for no reason) Dot i’s and cross t’s If you don’t get an angel like my case manager, try to establish a rapport and direct line of communication, so they advocate for you and allow you to submit documents via email (the portal is CRAP and they DON’T CARE!) If you’re the spiritual type, pray!
Now, ask me anything. I will try to answer all questions.
submitted by /u/Admayard
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