The nonprofit Legal Aid Society is suing New York City Mayor Eric Adams for failing to implement laws that expand rental aid to low-income New Yorkers, intensifying the battle among the City Council, advocates and the mayor over the best way to address the city’s affordable housing crisis.
The group filed a class-action lawsuit in state Supreme Court on Wednesday on behalf of four plaintiffs who claim they are unable to access housing vouchers they are entitled to under a law passed by the Council last year.
The city was legally obligated to put the new rules into effect this month but has yet to enact them. The new policies would lower the income threshold for poor New Yorkers to qualify for housing vouchers and provide aid to those facing homelessness.
But the plan exposed a bitter divide between councilmembers and the mayor.
Adams vetoed the package of bills last summer, citing their expected costs, but the Council overturned his veto. The Council is currently weighing its own legal options and could file its own lawsuit or enter a motion to join the Legal Aid Society’s case.
Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Adams, said in a statement that there are more than 10,000 households with housing vouchers in the city shelter system that have been unable to find permanent housing.
“Furthermore, the bills violate state law as they seek to legislate in an area where authority is reserved to the state,” she added.
Adams has said the expansion of rental subsidies is prohibitively expensive and that the billions of dollars in costs would be better spent on building new affordable housing.
The Council and housing advocates have accused the mayor of exaggerating the legislation’s costs. They argue that helping low-income New Yorkers afford permanent housing is an established and necessary policy that should be adopted alongside the city’s efforts to build new housing.
“I feel punished for making a living, even though I still struggle to pay rent or purchase groceries,” said Maria Vincent, a plaintiff in the case who joined Legal Aid Society attorneys outside City Hall on Wednesday.
Vincent, who works as a housekeeper at a hospital, said she lives in a homeless shelter with her 12-year-old grandson and that her annual salary of $42,000 excludes her from housing aid under current rules. But the new law would make her eligible to receive a rental voucher, according to the Legal Aid Society.
“My situation is not unique,” Vincent added. “There are many New Yorkers out there in similar positions who are struggling and who would be better off if these laws were implemented.”
Several councilmembers who sponsored the bill joined the press conference, along with Christine Quinn, a former Council speaker who now heads Win, a nonprofit that provides shelter for homeless families.
“What kind of message does it send to the rest of our city that our government is okay with looking the other way and denying help that should be available under the law as our older adults face evictions?” said Diana Ayala, the Council’s deputy speaker, who represents East Harlem and parts of the Bronx.
At his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Adams suggested that the expansion of housing vouchers would invite people to file fraudulent applications.
“A person gets a letter stating that they are behind in their rent, now they’re eligible for a voucher,” he said, noting the law had “good intentions” but would impose “a real financial burden on the city and taxpayers’ dollars.”
On Wednesday, Quinn sharply refuted the mayor’s claims — and likened the process of applying for one of the highly coveted housing vouchers to a prostate exam.
“It is thorough to the absurd,“ she said. “There is no evidence that there is any abuse.”
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