The Legal Aid Society announced a settlement today in B.D. v. New York City Department of Housing and Preservation (HPD), litigation brought last January challenging the HPD’s practice of excluding domestic violence survivors from Section 8 voucher “bifurcation” hearings that determine whether or not a survivor is able to stay in their home. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is serving as counsel on this matter and helped negotiate the settlement.

Per the terms of the settlement, HPD created a new Section 8 voucher preference for domestic violence survivors enabling a survivor to obtain a new voucher in the survivor’s name, thereby removing the need to obtain the voucher through a termination proceeding, according to POLITICO.

“No New Yorker should be deprived due process in any housing context, especially those suffering domestic violence,” said Ellen Davidson, Staff Attorney with the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society.