More than 1 in 10 households living in public housing in New York City owe at least one month in back rent, a rise of nearly 50 percent over the past year, according to an article by Fernanda Santos in the September 26, 2010 edition of The New York Times.

"Tenants of nearly 22,000 public housing apartments, or about 12 percent of the total, owed back rent as of Aug. 31, according to the New York City Housing Authority, which runs the largest public housing system in the United States. The comparable figure in August 2009 was about 15,200."

The problem is the worst in Queens, the article said, "where the number of households owing back rent increased nearly 70 percent between August 2009 and last month, to 2,424 from 1,431. In six of the public housing developments in the western part of the borough, more tenants missed payments than anyplace else in the city, according to Housing Authority statistics. At the Astoria Houses, for example, the number more than doubled, to 157 households from 64; the latest number is 14 percent of the development's 1,103 apartments."

The housing agency, which provides subsidized apartments for about 8 percent of the city's residents, usually moves quickly to remove tenants who fall behind on rent, but as the sluggish economy continues to eat into tenants' pocketbooks, the agency has decided to try to find a way to keep people in their homes.

Under a new program, the article noted, "it will start offering payment plans, longer extensions and other incentives to help tenants pay their back rent before they end up in court. The program is aimed mainly at residents who are unable to keep up with their bills after losing a job or are facing other unforeseen difficulty. The idea is to reward those who commit to actions like following budget plans and opening a bank account."

In most cases, after a tenant fails to pay rent for more than a month, a disciplinary process unfolds that is at once costly and cumbersome for the Housing Authority and stressful for the resident.

"The authority spends about $1 million a year issuing warning notices and holding administrative hearings, John B. Rhea, the chairman of the housing authority, said," the article continued, "not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars or more that it spends on lawyers representing the agency in housing court. There is also the money it does not collect in rent while evictions are under way, he said."

"The process is necessary, but it doesn't necessarily give the residents the tools they need to manage their lives better," Mr. Rhea told The Times in an interview, adding that "at the end of the day, our goal is to provide housing, not to put people out on the street."

Rent is the Housing Authority's largest source of revenue, but it is also one of its worst headaches. Sheila Stainback, an agency spokesperson, said that in an average month, the authority is owed more than $20 million in uncollected rent.

As the economy went into decline, the article said that "officials started weighing whether it might be in the Housing Authority's best interest to get some payment from tenants who are struggling while working to make sure they eventually get back on their feet."

The program will start on a small basis, focusing on tenants in six public housing projects in Queens with some of the worst records for missed payments, and may expand citywide if it is judged to be a success.

Potential participants include tenants who have stopped paying rent abruptly after years of regular payment or who have been late sporadically in recent years, as well as residents already seeking financial assistance from one of the Housing Authority's partners in the program, the East River Development Alliance, a nonprofit agency in Queens.

The alliance's president, the Rev. Mitchell G. Taylor, said that the program's goals involved "creating a plan and budget that will stabilize families moving forward."