Legal Aid sues mayor for failing to expand housing voucher program
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The Legal Aid Society on Wednesday sued the Adams administration for its failure to enact City Council legislation to expand the city’s housing voucher program.Photo via LAS
By Jacob Kaye
The Adams administration was sued on Wednesday by the Legal Aid Society for allegedly failing to enact a recent package of legislation that expands the eligibility of the city’s housing voucher program.
The class action lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan, was brought on behalf of four New Yorkers who’s income makes them eligible for the City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement program but who have been unable to be accepted into the program as the Adams administration has refused to expand its eligibility, as mandated by law.
The expanded eligibility was passed by the City Council in May of last year only to be vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams about a month later. In July, the City Council overrode the mayor’s veto, marking the first time, but not the last, the legislature overturned Adams’ rejection of one of their bills.
The laws detailed in the legislative package were supposed to have taken effect on Jan. 9 but have been stymied by the Adams administration after the mayor said the expansion would be too expensive and ultimately ineffective in its efforts to reduce the number of homeless New Yorkers.
“The law is clear,” said Adriene Holder, the head of the Legal Aid Society’s civil practice. “The New York City charter requires city agencies to enforce and implement all measures enacted into law, including those enacted by a Council override.”
“These are laws, they are not discretionary,” she added. “The mayor has to obey them, like the rest of us have to obey laws.”
Prior to the passage of the legislation, CityFHEPS vouchers were previously only available to homeless individuals living in the city’s shelters.
The City Council’s suite of bills expanded eligibility to also include New Yorkers facing eviction or those who meet a certain income threshold. Under the Council’s law, the program is now available to those making 50 percent of the area median income – instead of those making at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, the previous standard.
The law also expanded the definition of “at risk of eviction” to include households that have received a rent demand letter or termination notice, which comes before eviction proceedings.
The suite of bills also eliminated the requirement that an individual or family prove that they are employed to be eligible for CityFHEPS.
The Legal Aid Society said that their four clients – the plaintiffs named in the class action lawsuit – fit squarely into the city’s expanded eligibility but have thus far been unable to be connected with financial assistance.
They include Marie Vincent, a cancer survivor living in the shelter system with her 12-year-old grandson after her and her family were evicted from their longtime home in the Bronx in May 2023 – the eviction came after a new landlord purchased the building and kicked out all of the tenants, the Legal Aid Society said.
According to the lawsuit, Vincent, who works as a housekeeper at a local hospital, would be eligible for the CityFHEPS program if her eligibility were considered by the AMI standard and not the federal poverty level standard.
Vincent currently makes $48,000 a year, which is nearly $10,000 over the maximum income allowed under the federal poverty level standard. However, 50 percent of the AMI is $56,500.
“If respondent implemented Local Law 100, Ms. Vincent’s income would allow her to obtain a CityFHEPS shopping letter required to secure an apartment,” the lawsuit reads.
According to the legal filing, Vincent reduced her hours at the hospital in an effort to meet the income eligibility for the program – the reduced income also made it difficult for her to meet other financial obligations, like buying food for herself and her grandson.
Despite the lessened income, Vincent was again denied acceptance into the program.
“I would be qualified if Mayor Adams followed the law and I would be able to secure a new apartment,” Vincent said from the steps of City Hall on Wednesday. “I feel like the current CityFHEPS program is not designed to help working people such as myself.”
“I feel punished for making a living,” she added.
Also bringing the lawsuit is Mary Cronniet, an 86-year-old, who is facing eviction from the Brooklyn apartment she’s lived in for over two decades.
Cronniet, who lives in a rent stabilized apartment for $1,006 a month, has been unable to pay her rent since her husband, who managed the family’s finances, died during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the suit.
Cronneit’s landlord brought eviction proceedings against her in 2021 and is seeking around $16,000 in back rent.
In the meantime, she has been unable to obtain entry into the CityFHEPS program and the Legal Aid Society warned in the suit that without the Adams administration’s implementation of the new laws, “she will be evicted and enter the homeless system at 86 years old.”
The mayor’s resistance to implementing the law is two fold. Adams said that the cost of expanding eligibility could cost $17 billion. The Independent Budget Office has put the cost of the changes somewhere between $3 billion and $36 billion over the next five years.
He also claims that the City Council overstepped its authority when passing the law.
“We're going to always follow the law – lawful law,” Adams said during an unrelated press conference on Tuesday. “‘We believe that their move was unlawful.”
In a statement to the Eagle, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office defended the administration’s work “connecting as many New Yorkers to permanent, affordable homes as possible” and said that lawsuit was under “review.”
The spokesperson also claimed that there are currently 10,000 households with CityFHEPS vouchers inside the city’s shelter system who are unable to find housing, a problem that would only be exacerbated if eligibility for the program were expanded.
The city’s rental vacancy rate is around 1.4 percent, the lowest figure in the last 60 years.
“We always seek to work collaboratively with our colleagues at the City Council and look forward to identifying more areas of common ground to support New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, including an aggressive, citywide effort to build more housing in every neighborhood,” the spokesperson said.
But members of the City Council argue that the mayor is operating “in flagrant defiance of his legal obligation.”
“The mayor’s disrespect for everyday New Yorkers, especially those facing homelessness, not to mention this Council and our speaker, is shameful,” Queens Councilmember Tiffany Cabán said in a statement. “He has proven that he cannot be trusted. This city deserves so much better.”
“I salute Legal Aid for fighting back and urge the courts to compel the mayor to implement the law, as his fabricated reputation would seem to demand,” she added.
Though the City Council last week overwhelmingly voted to authorize Speaker Adrienne Adams to sue the administration over its failure to implement the legislation, the Council was not a party to Legal Aid’s suit on Wednesday.
Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala said that the Council was still “exploring our options.”
“We believe strongly that the plaintiffs that filed the suit need to be part of the conversation and I think that’s what you’re kind of seeing play out today,” she added.
