LSNYC Bronx Wins Client’s Right to Remain in NYCHA Housing with Caretaker Son

December 8, 2010- A unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, yesterday ruled that the New York City Housing Authority’s decision to exclude from one of its apartments the caretaker son of a 69-year-old tenant must be set aside. “Under these circumstances,” the panel concluded, “the permanent exclusion of this crucial member of the household shocks the conscience of the court.” The tenant, Ms. Matos, was represented by Legal Services NYC-Bronx Staff Attorney Katie Neilson.

From a front-page December 8th New York Law Journal  article:

“The courts generally give wide deference to the housing authority’s determinations, but the First Department’s ruling for the first time in more than a decade made it clear that there are limits to that deference and that a family member may not be excluded without clear evidence that the relative poses a danger,” said Kathryn Neilson, who represented Ms. Matos.

Ms. Neilson, a staff attorney at Legal Services NYC-Bronx, said in an interview that as best as she could determine, the last time either the First or Second department had overturned a decision to exclude an “undesirable” relative was in 1999 in the First Department’s ruling in Powell v. Franco, 257 AD2d 509.

Sheila Stainback, a spokeswoman for the authority, declined to comment on the ruling.

In arguing that exclusion was too harsh a sanction, Ms. Matos contended in her brief on appeal that both she and her grandson “rely completely on Mr. Hernandez [her son] for their daily care, and his exclusion from the household would be devastating.”

[…]

The appellate panel concluded that Ms. Matos had the better side of the argument. Although her son pleaded guilty to “two misdemeanors in 2007, he had no prior criminal record and has an unblemished record of compliance with NYCHA rules over the 23 years he has lived in public housing,” the panel noted.

Read the full NYLJ article by clicking here (subscription required).