The Legal Aid Society has filed a lawsuit on behalf of six young people, all of whom are homeless or unstably housed, who were illegally denied rental apartments based on their source of income, as reported by THE CITY.

The prospective tenants qualify for the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program and each has a Section 8 voucher. Under the federal American Rescue Plan, EHV offers thousands of Section 8 vouchers to unhoused New Yorkers, an unprecedented opportunity given that Section 8 waitlists have largely remained closed for many years.

The action was also brought on behalf of Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project, a non-profit organization that assists homeless and unsheltered youth. In early December 2022, Streetwork Project clients were initially approved for an apartment in the newly-constructed building at 3823 Carpenter Ave. Soonafter, the landlord reversed his approval. Upon investigation, Streetwork learned that the building lacked a Certificate of Occupancy (CO), without which a landlord cannot legally rent an apartment. The lawsuit alleges that because the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) would not approve Section 8 rentals in a building without a CO, the landlord pulled out of the deal.

“Source of income discrimination takes many forms, including refusing to complete paperwork required of a program or declining to rent an apartment to a person with a voucher because the unit would never pass inspection,” said Stephanie Rudolph, an attorney with The Legal Aid Society.

“Source of income discrimination–-no matter the form–- exacerbates an already overburdened shelter system and causes irreparable and long-lasting harm,” she continued. “Our clients have a finite time period to rent an apartment using their vouchers without which they miss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stabilize their lives.”

The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to stop the landlord from renting the vacant units to other tenants and includes a request that the Streetwork clients have their Section 8 vouchers extended past the standard 300-day search period.

This litigation is funded by the citywide Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection (AHTP) Program, which has served over 75,000 New York City tenants. AHTP is a crucial program that protects thousands of low-income tenants, largely from communities of color, across the City against landlord harassment, discrimination, and displacement.