What You Need to Know About Verifying Housing History with PATH

When you apply for shelter at PATH, you will be asked where you lived for the last two years. PATH looks at any place you have stayed in the last two years to see if you can go back there. PATH will also look at the homes of close relatives, emergency contacts, and addresses you have used for public assistance.

It can be hard to prove where you lived for two years and, if you have trouble proving your housing history, PATH may say you are “ineligible,” which means they do not think you have completed all of the steps to qualify for shelter. If that happens, you will get a notice that has a box on the bottom of the first page that looks like this:

If you get a notice from PATH like the one above that says you have “failed to cooperate with agency efforts to verify your eligibility by: Non-Cooperation for Failure to Provide a Complete Accurate and Verifiable Two Year Housing History,” it means PATH does not see enough proof of where you stayed for the past two years. It could mean they don’t know where you were on certain days OR that they have not been able to reach anyone by phone who can say when you were there. The notice they give you should show the dates that PATH was unable to confirm – if there are no days listed, ask a PATH worker what dates they still want you to tell them about.

If you get a notice like the one above, and the only box checked is that you failed to cooperate by providing an accurate and verifiable housing history, then you will get another shelter placement when you reapply. To make sure you get another shelter placement, you must return to PATH and reapply, where you will be able to turn in new documents and information.

The best way to prove where you lived is to provide mail from every month that you were staying at each address (such as ConEd bills, phone bills, etc.) and something showing the dates you moved in and out from that address (such as leases and eviction notices). Make sure your PATH worker has these documents.

If you don’t have mail or proof of when you moved in and out, the next best way to prove an address is to have someone who knows where you were staying (including a friend, family member, neighbor, coworker, or social service worker) write a letter to say when you were there. The person writing the letter does NOT have to have lived at that address with you, but they must know you were there. The letter should have the exact day you started staying there, the exact day you left, how the person knows when you were staying there, and a phone number where PATH can contact the person writing the letter. The letter does not need to be notarized. If you can, you should find someone who is able to talk on the phone during business hours. The person should say in their letter when they can talk.

If you have already done everything above and were still found ineligible for missing housing history, you should request an emergency Fair Hearing at 14 Boerum Place in Brooklyn by calling 800-205-0110. The hearing will be scheduled within 2-3 business days (Monday through Friday). At the Fair Hearing, you will be given a chance to prove your case to a judge. It can be helpful to bring a new piece of evidence of your housing history to the hearing (for example, a new letter, additional mail, or other records). If you can’t provide evidence for a certain time period from your housing history, write down a clear and organized timeline that shows every place you lived for the past two years. It is possible that DHS will accept your timeline and verbal statements during the hearing as proof, especially if the missing time period is only a few days. When you get to the Fair Hearing, ask for a copy of your case file (you have a right to the file). It is important to get a copy of your case file to understand why PATH is unable to verify your housing history. You should also ask the judge for a few minutes to review the case file before the hearing starts.

If you had a Fair Hearing and lost or you are waiting for a decision, you can bring your case file to Coalition for the Homeless at 129 Fulton Street in lower Manhattan, and they can help you figure out what went wrong and how to get what you need. Coalition for the Homeless offers walk-in appointments every weekday starting at 9 a.m. Coalition for the Homeless is only able to see a limited number of people each day, so you should get there between 8 and 8:30 a.m.

The information in this document has been prepared by The Legal Aid Society for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. This information is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. You should not act upon any information without retaining professional legal counsel.