The Legal Aid Society brought this class action special proceeding to force the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) to reopen the Emergency Rental Disability Program portal, protecting over 136,000 households from eviction and tens of thousands of families to qualify for millions in funds to address arrears.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of four individual plaintiffs, Housing Court Answers, and Coalition for the Homeless, argued that OTDA’s premature closing of the program despite a pending request to the federal government for additional funds was arbitrary, capricious, and beyond the scope of their authority under the ERAP statute. On January 6, 2022, a judge ordered OTDA to reopen the ERAP web portal within three business days and ordered OTDA to resume accepting applications which afforded new applicants a stay of any eviction proceedings against them.