NYC PA Letitia James, LSNYC, and MinKwon Take Action after Elderly, Disabled NYers Lose Subsidies

June 4, 2015, New York, NY—Public Advocate Letitia James and eight elderly and disabled tenants represented by Legal Services NYC and MinKwon Center for Community Action have filed a federal lawsuit against the New York City Department of Finance (“DOF”), DOF Commissioner Jacques Jiha, and the City of New York. The individual plaintiffs are widows and adult disabled children whose rent subsidies were revoked after their spouses or parents died, causing them to be at immediate risk of eviction and homelessness.

Press Coverage: New York Times, Gothamist, Sing Tao 

The Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (“SCRIE”) and Disability Rent Increase Exemption (“DRIE”) programs allow low-income households “headed” by elderly and/or disabled New Yorkers to freeze their rent at a given rate, preventing the neediest New Yorkers from being evicted, becoming displaced, or becoming homeless as rents rise. DOF allows surviving members of a household receiving a SCRIE or DRIE subsidy to maintain the same frozen rent rates after the designated “head of household” dies (known as a “benefits takeover”), as long as the next designated head of household meets certain criteria.

Beginning sometime around May of 2014, however, DOF began denying these benefit takeovers to people who did not notify the Department within 60 days of the death of their family member. Because the Department failed to notify anyone of this new 60-day deadline, low-income New Yorkers who have just lost a family member are now at risk of eviction and homelessness. And because DOF does not allow multiple eligible members of a household to be co-applicants for the programs, the new rule is causing benefits to be stripped away from elderly widows and adult disabled children who would have been otherwise been eligible on their own.

Mrs. Qiao Xiao He is the 93-year-old widow of Noi Kwong Lam. She is wheelchair-bound, and lives with 24-hour medical care in the same apartment she shared with her husband for 30 years until he died on May 29, 2014. In November, Mrs. He’s grandson helped her to submit an application for a redetermination of SCRIE benefits because her husband’s death had caused a permanent, substantial decrease in her household income. Out of the $629 a month she was receiving in Social Security Income, $523 was going to rent.

Two weeks later, Mrs. He received a letter from DOF denying her application and informing her that she was not eligible to continue receiving her SCRIE benefits at all, since she did not notify DOF within 60 days of her husband’s death. Since Mrs. He is homebound, her grandson went on her behalf to DOF, where he was told by an employee that there was nothing to be done since she had missed the 60-day window, and that there was no point in appealing.

Mrs. He had no choice but to apply for SCRIE independently, and was approved in December. However, because she was considered a new applicant her rent increased from $523 to $790—almost $100 more than her entire monthly income.

“Government agencies should be in the business of protecting, not hindering the ability of seniors and New Yorkers with disabilities to stay in their homes,” said NYC Public Advocate Letitia James. “Our lawsuit aims to seek justice for our most vulnerable populations who have nowhere else to turn. We must ensure that we do everything we can to help seniors and those living with disabilities survive in an increasingly unaffordable city.”

“Mrs. He and all of our clients have already been traumatized by the death of their loved one, in this case her husband of 30 years,” said Christine Clarke, Staff Attorney at Legal Services NYC’s Equal Rights Initiative. “Because of DOF’s failure to notify either her or her husband about this incredibly important rule change she is now facing further trauma. She is terrified of being evicted and having to leave the home she shared with her husband. This is a program that explicitly serves low-income elderly and/or disabled New Yorkers. To strip them of their benefits because they failed to discover a deadline no one told them about defeats the entire purpose of the program. In the fight for affordable housing for all New Yorkers, we can’t leave our neediest out in the cold.”

“SCRIE and DRIE exist to protect the most vulnerable among us, including seniors and disabled, but with the enforcement of this 60-day deadline it instead leaves them susceptible to eviction and homelessness,” said Grace Shim, Executive Director of the MinKwon Center. “Our clients, who are mostly seniors in their 80s, come to our office asking why their rent suddenly increased after their spouse passed away with no notice even though they have been timely paying the same rent for the past 20-plus years. They cannot sleep, eat, or function because they fear having to move out of their homes.”

The other plaintiffs include five elderly and disabled widows as well as two adult disabled children who recently lost a parent. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, and is brought pursuant to the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution, the City Administrative Procedure Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the New York City Human Rights Law.

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Contact: Kate Whalen, 646-442-3654, kwhalen (at) legalservicesnyc.org