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A Bronx mother avoids eviction for now. Her legal fight could help thousands keep their homes.
By
David Brand
Published Oct 3, 2024
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By
David Brand
Published Oct 3, 2024
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A disabled mother at the center of a court case that could decide the future of the city’s housing voucher program narrowly dodged eviction from her $1,254-a-month Bronx apartment this week, after the city’s social service agency issued two emergency checks covering thousands of dollars in back rent. But the reprieve is only temporary, and she said it won’t stop her from suing the city for ongoing housing help.
Carolina Tejeda, 43, says she and her young daughter could soon face eviction once again without a steady rental assistance voucher to cover part of her future rent. The uncertainty has left her no choice but to stick with a class-action lawsuit she joined in February, after Mayor Eric Adams blocked measures passed by the City Council that were meant to expand access to housing vouchers for New Yorkers facing eviction, she said.
A judge sided with the mayor in the case, prompting a pair of appeals from the nonprofit Legal Aid Society and the Council. Those appeals mark the next chapter of a yearlong dispute between Adams and the legislative body.
“I feel a little calmer because they were able to pay the part that I owed,” Tejeda said. “But I’m still waiting for assistance to pay each month, because if I don’t get the aid, I’m going to be in the same situation.”
Tejeda is one of four plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit over measures that would lift the income eligibility threshold for new vouchers and allow people with active eviction cases to qualify before entering a homeless shelter. A judge sided with Adams in August, ruling the City Council lacked the authority to set eligibility rules for the program. The City Council and the Legal Aid Society appealed that decision on Tuesday.
The city’s current policy doesn't work.
Gillian Stoddard Leatherberry, attorney for Carolina Tejeda
Court records show the city’s social services agency issued an emergency “one-shot deal” loan to Tejeda’s landlord on Sept. 19, two weeks after Gothamist reported on the difficulty she’d faced in getting a housing voucher. Her landlord agreed to stop her eviction case on Monday.
Her family is among thousands locked out of a housing voucher program known as CityFHEPS unless they first abandon the apartments they’re struggling to keep and enter homeless shelters.
A serious car crash left Tejeda with chronic hand, hip and head pain that prevents her from working. Her $1,200 monthly disability check isn’t even enough to cover her below-market rent.
Leaving her apartment and entering a shelter would qualify her for a voucher, but that apartment would be on the open market and likely cost far more than her current rent. The package of laws the Council passed in May 2023 would let families facing eviction qualify for vouchers without first entering shelters, in an effort to help them keep their current homes.
“There are many families in even worse situations than us, with even more children,” Tejeda said.
These laws went beyond the City Council's legislative authority.
Liz Garcia, City Hall spokesperson
Adams vetoed the measures, but the Council overrode his decision in July 2023. The mayor has said the Council’s voucher expansion package would be far too costly for the city and create more competition for the roughly 10,000 families and individuals with vouchers living in city shelters.
City attorneys, meanwhile, argued that the expansion legislation exceeded the Council’s power.
“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 spokesperson Liz Garcia said in a written statement.
About 40,000 families and individuals are currently using CityFHEPS vouchers to help pay their rent, according to city data. Garcia said the vouchers drove a record number of people who moved out of Department of Homeless Services shelters and into permanent apartments last year.
Attorneys representing low-income New Yorkers who are locked out of the voucher program say the city could protect thousands of additional families like Tejeda’s from losing their homes amid an historic shortage of vacant, affordable apartments.
“The city’s current policy doesn't work for Ms. Tejeda and it doesn’t work for New Yorkers,” said Tejeda’s attorney Gillian Stoddard Leatherberry from the nonprofit legal group Bronx Defenders.
The city’s housing voucher program is the only realistic source of assistance for many New Yorkers, absent more support from the state and federal government. Only a fraction of households who qualify for a federal Section 8 housing voucher actually get one. And the state’s own voucher program applies to a narrow group of extremely low-income families with children.
Tejeda, for example, once had a state housing voucher until her $1,200 disability check lifted her above the income threshold, according to court records from her eviction case.
Legal Aid Society attorney Robert Desir, who represents Tejeda and other plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, said the judge’s decision blocking the voucher expansion sets a sweeping precedent that “removes the Council as a voice in policymaking.”
“The executive is not the sole arbiter of laws in the city with respect to benefit provision,” Desir said. “[The mayor] is also answerable to the Council as a co-equal branch of government.”
The Council is challenging the legal underpinnings of the judge’s August decision in its appeal. Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said the voucher program is essential to prevent more New Yorkers from becoming homeless and entering the city’s already-strained shelter system.
“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,” she said in a written statement. “The Council's appeal makes clear the role of the city’s legislative body in shouldering responsibility for supporting New Yorkers in need and why the administration must implement the laws.”
Tagged
new york city
housing
bronx
homelessness
evictions
Politics
eric adams
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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