Mayor Eric Adams won a legal victory on Thursday when a state judge blocked a lawsuit seeking to force New York City to expand a housing voucher program to address rising homelessness.
Last year, the City Council passed a package of bills to make more people eligible for vouchers. Mr. Adams vetoed the legislation, saying it would be too costly.
The Council overrode his veto, and tenants sued to force the city to implement the law.
On Thursday, the State Supreme Court judge, Lyle E. Frank, ruled in favor of the mayor, arguing that the Council did not have the authority to approve the laws and that it was a state matter.
Mr. Adams, a Democrat in his first term, celebrated the ruling in a statement, adding: “We are hopeful that our partners in the Council will join us in remaining committed to working to connect New Yorkers in need with safe, affordable, permanent housing.”
The city has been facing a homelessness crisis, with more people living in the streets and subways than anytime in nearly two decades. It has been exacerbated by an influx of 200,000 migrants arriving from the nation’s southern border.
The battle over housing vouchers is part of a growing rift between the mayor and Council leaders. Mr. Adams recently blocked two of the legislative body’s priorities: a law banning solitary confinement in city jails and an effort to allow the Council to have more input over mayoral appointees.
Rendy Desamours, a spokesman for the Council, said in a statement that the Council disagreed with the ruling and would pursue an appeal.
“It’s unfortunate that Mayor Adams’s administration has fought to delay help to New Yorkers that can prevent them from evictions and homelessness amidst a housing crisis,” he said.
Legal Aid, a group that represents low-income New Yorkers, had filed the lawsuit as a class action on behalf of those eligible for the vouchers, known as CityFHEPS.
Robert Desir, a staff attorney with Legal Aid’, said on Thursday that the ruling would have a “devastating impact on thousands of New Yorkers on the brink of eviction or already experiencing homelessness.”
Mr. Adams has argued that the city simply does not have enough housing to accommodate everyone with a voucher. A city survey showed that the rental vacancy rate was 1.4 percent in 2023, the lowest in more than 50 years.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Marie Vincent, a cancer survivor who lived in a shelter in Harlem with her grandson, said she had been evicted from her home. She said she had struggled to find an apartment because her income is above the threshold to qualify for a voucher under the old guidelines.
Mr. Adams has made some changes to the voucher program by executive order, such as eliminating a rule requiring people to stay in a homeless shelter for 90 days before they are eligible, a change long sought by homelessness advocates.
But the package of laws passed by the Council went further and would have made tenants eligible for a voucher after receiving a demand for unpaid rent from their landlord. Previously, people typically had to show in housing court that they were facing eviction.
The post Mayor Adams Wins Legal Battle Over Housing Voucher Expansion appeared first on New York Times.