Our Impact
Our work helps New Yorkers live safe, stable, and healthy lives, improves systems and policies, and empowers communities to advocate for themselves.
LSNYC Helps LGBTQ+ Immigrants Find Safety and Stability
When Joy realized he was gay, he knew he had to get out of his native Ghana. “My religion is against it, my culture is against it, the law in my country is against it, and I could face jail time…
LSNYC Helps Defend NYC’s Rent Stabilization System Against Landlord Attacks
Legal Services NYC, Legal Aid Society, and Selendy Gay successfully defended New York’s rent stabilization laws against landlord attacks. Landlord groups sued the city, arguing that recent laws to strengthen the rent stabilization system were unconstitutional. Those new laws were designed…
LSNYC Helps Erase Student Debt and Empowers Clients to Achieve Their Goals
Kai Smith, a native New Yorker, decided to dedicate his life to social work and street violence prevention after experiencing a rough childhood. Despite coming from modest means, he put himself through school, and eventually enrolled in a masters degree program…
LSNYC Helps Victims of Identity Fraud Recover Their Savings
James Vesey was nearing retirement at the U.S. Postal Service after a 30-year career. He worked in midtown, sorting mail and unloading trucks. Over the decades, his long days of physical labor had taken their toll on his body, leading to…
LSNYC Helps Make LGBTQ+ Immigrant’s Dream of Citizenship a Reality
As a gay man in Venezuela, Alfredo was at constant risk of violence, blackmail, and kidnapping. Fearing for his life, he sought an education in the U.S. to escape the danger he faced. Alfredo remained in the U.S. on a succession…
LSNYC Fights to Keep Buildings Rent-Stabilized
In April 2021, residents at several buildings in the Bronx received a totally unexpected letter: Their landlord, Emerald Equities, had applied to a state agency to deregulate the buildings, ending their status as rent-stabilized — and giving the landlord the opportunity…
LSNYC Protects Student Loan Borrowers’ Tax Refunds
Each year, millions of Americans who have taken out loans to fund their education receive a notice in the mail from the federal government. The letter, filled with confusing technical and legal terms, tells borrowers that the government will take their…
LSNYC Helps Brooklyn Tenants Win Precedent-Setting Housing Court Decision
Beverly Rivers was one of several families living at 125 Lenox Rd. in Brooklyn who decided to undertake a rent strike. She and her neighbors started withholding rent because of ongoing building issues that their landlords, Joseph Popack and One Lenox…
LSNYC Forces NYC Schools to Change Sexual Harassment Policy
In 2019, Legal Services NYC filed a landmark lawsuit against New York City’s Department of Education (DOE). The suit, brought by four female middle and high school students, alleged that the DOE violated Title IX by repeatedly ignoring their reports of…
LSNYC Helps Veterans Stay in Their Homes
Abdiel, an Air Force veteran who served in the Desert Storm/Desert Shield conflict, was diagnosed with disabilities related to his service and began receiving disability benefits and services from the VA. For years, his landlord had been trying to drive him…
LSNYC Helped Win Unemployment Benefits for Uber Drivers
Governor Kathy Hochul announced a settlement between the New York State Department of Labor and Uber Technologies Inc., in which Uber will begin making quarterly payments into the New York State Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund as well as a retroactive payment…
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