The Legal Aid Society, Empire Justice Center, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, and Hughes Hubbard filed a lawsuit challenging New York State’s failure to provide adequate public assistance shelter allowances, which have remained unchanged for decades despite skyrocketing housing costs, driving tens of thousands of New Yorkers into homelessness. 

The lawsuit highlights that New York’s shelter allowances are woefully out of step with actual housing costs. In New York City, a single adult on public assistance is allocated just $215 per month for rent, while a family of three receives only $400 per month—a fraction of the $2,406 and $2,780 fair market rent levels set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  

The plaintiffs include 55-year-old Kimberly Maldonado, a Brooklyn resident who has lived in her rent-stabilized apartment for over 30 years. After being forced to stop working due to severe health conditions, she exhausted her savings and now survives on minimal public assistance that falls far short of her rent. Kimberly is at imminent risk of eviction and homelessness.

“The State’s public assistance shelter allowances are so outdated and insufficient that they have effectively become a denial of aid,” said Pavita Krishnaswamy, Supervising Attorney in the Civil Law Reform Unit at Legal Aid. “New Yorkers who qualify for public assistance are legally entitled to support that actually meets their basic housing needs. Instead, they are being forced into homelessness due to the State’s inaction.”