According to The City, an independent, nonprofit news outlet, in October, the city's Department of Social Services launched an online platform that was supposed to modernize its ability to process applications for city-funded rent assistance programs, but five months later tenants and many caseworkers still don't have access to this new technology and they are struggling to get the benefits and some even facing eviction as a result of the malfunctions.

The DSS online portal is called Current and is supposed to streamline the application and recertification process by offering a central place for tenants to upload documents and communicate with the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the DSS division responsible for administering and delivering the benefits and, eventually, HRA has said that it will be scaled up to process all CityFHEPS (Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement) applications but has not offered a concrete timeline for when that may happen.

As of now, only caseworkers at the city's 26 Homebase eviction-prevention locations and a small handful of the homeless shelters that partner with the city can use Current.

We will have to wait to see what happens with this technology and we hope soon those who need it will have access to it.

Riddle, F., The City (2023) City struggling to connect housing benefits app to New Yorkers who need it most https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2023/02/27/city-struggling-to-connect-housing-benefits-app-to-new-yorkers-who-need-it-most/