Fighting Discrimination Against Section 8 Recipients We are enforcing the City’s laws against source of income discrimination against dozens of landlords and real estate brokers in both state and federal court. A federal judge recently upheld our right to pursue the claim that the defendants’ conduct also constituted racial discrimination against persons of color with housing subsidies.
Defending Rent Regulation We represented tenant groups intervening in five different federal cases that challenged the constitutionality of New York’s longstanding rent stabilization system. If successful, these cases would have eliminated affordable housing for over a million families. Thanks to a strong partnership between New York State, New York City, and the tenants, all five cases were dismissed at the trial and appellate court level, and all were rejected by the US Supreme Court. We are now defending the Rent Laws against a sixth challenge recently filed in federal court.
Securing Timely Benefits for Vulnerable Families In 2023, we filed two class action cases to end the City’s outrageous delays in providing cash, food stamps and rental assistance to New York’s most desperate and vulnerable families. As a result of settlements in these case, the City has substantially eliminated the backlog in processing housing subsidy, food stamp, and cash assistance applications and renewals, including emergency applications, and significantly reduced waiting times for clients seeking telephone interviews for City benefits. We continue to seek additional systemic reforms of City procedures.
Defending NYCHA Residents We are working with NYCHA residents to ensure a smooth transition to a program restructuring that will unlock hundreds of millions of federal dollars for desperately needed renovations in public housing throughout the City.
Defending the Right to Shelter Defending the Right to Shelter The Adams Administration sought to use the recent influx of migrants as an excuse to undermine the right to shelter that has existed since Legal Aid’s landmark 1981 victory in Callahan v. Carey. We reached a settlement with the City that preserves the right to shelter for all New Yorkers, including recent arrivals, and creates procedures for new migrants to seek continuing help while they apply for asylum and seek employment and permanent housing. We filed supporting papers in the case that stopped Mayor Adams from allowing ICE to open an office on Rikers Island.