Council Files Appeal Over Adams Admin’s Refusal to Expand Rental Vouchers

The appeal announcement included the launch of a website tracking the number of days since the Council says its laws should have been implemented—447, as of Tuesday—and the number of evictions filed across the city during that time.

City lawmakers filed a legal appeal on Tuesday, asking the court to overturn an earlier ruling that sided with the Adams administration in its refusal to implement a package of laws to expand the city’s rental voucher program.

The appeal, filed by the City Council and the Legal Aid Society in New York Supreme Court Appellate Division–First Department, is the latest in an ongoing legal battle over reforms to the City Family Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement voucher program, known as CityFHEPS.

The vouchers help qualifying low-income households pay their rent. Last year, the City Council passed a series of bills to make more New Yorkers eligible for the subsidies, raising the income threshold and allowing those at risk of eviction or homelessness to apply without first having to enter the shelter system.

Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the legislation, citing potential costs and increased competition for existing voucher holders in a tight rental market. And while the Council overrode the mayor’s veto of the bills—the first time it had done so since the Bloomberg administration—City Hall still refused to implement them, as City Limits was the first to report last year.

“As New Yorkers face a housing and affordability crisis that leaves many without homes or at risk of losing them, it is our city government’s responsibility to support them,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said in statement Tuesday announcing the appeal.

That announcement included the launch of a website tracking the number of days since the Council says its laws should have been implemented—447, as of Tuesday—and the number of evictions filed across the city during that time.

“The Administration’s refusal to fulfill its duty to implement the laws has inflicted harmful consequences at a time when New Yorkers need housing security and stability,” Speaker Adams said.

The Council and Legal Aid are looking to reverse a ruling issued in August in which the New York Supreme Court dismissed their petition, agreeing with the Adams administration that New York State’s Social Services Law precludes city lawmakers from legislating on public assistance reforms.

Their appeal argues that the earlier court decision ignores “decades of social services policy enacted by the City Council and implemented by the executive branch,” as well as earlier binding precedent, according to Legal Aid.

They point to a 1999 case in which then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused to implement legislation eliminating arduous eligibility requirements for welfare recipients with HIV/AIDS; in that instance, the state’s highest court ruled that the city “had to enforce the legislation codified by the City Council.”

“The City Council has a long and established track record of legislating on social services-related issues, and the lower court’s ruling is wrong on the law and simply ignores this history which stretches back decades,” Robert Desir, a staff attorney with Legal Aid’s Civil Law Reform Unit, said in a statement.

When reached for comment, a City Hall spokesperson cited other efforts the Adams administration has made to aid CityFHEPS recipients, including eliminating a 90-day waiting period for people in shelter to apply, and plans to build 844 affordable apartments specifically for homeless voucher holders.

“Last year alone, we helped a record 18,500 move out of shelter and into stable homes in addition to over 10,000 New Yorkers we helped avoid shelter upfront,” the spokesperson said in a statement shared with City Limits.

“The trial court agreed with us that these laws went beyond the City Council’s legislative authority, and the Law Department will review the next steps,” City Hall added. “We remain committed to working to connect New Yorkers in need with safe, affordable, permanent housing.”

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