The Legal Aid Society filed this class action lawsuit to challenge supportive housing provider Pathways’s systematic failure to pay rent on hundreds of apartments. Our named plaintiffs were five individuals with serious mental illness and long histories of homelessness. Our plaintiffs were living in “scatter-site” supportive housing units leased by Pathways. Despite receiving both client income and government funds earmarked for rent, Pathways allowed rental arrears to accumulate across numerous buildings in New York City and Westchester County, leading landlords to bring hundreds of nonpayment eviction proceedings and to evict at least dozens of Pathways clients. Many others faced active eviction warrants and imminent displacement.

A settlement was reached whereby the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health ("PCMH") agreed to step in as the tenant of record for certain apartments and assume the liability of the rental arrears accrued to date and to allow current occupants to remain in the subject apartments. Certain landlords agreed to offer two new lease agreements and to assume liability for the rental arrears owed. Certain landlords also agreed to discontinue the underlying housing court proceedings.