44 organizations signed onto a letter in support of New York Housing Conference’s proposal for an Affordable Housing Stability Court Initiative in New York City. The organizations urged the legislature to provide $17 million in this year’s budget to support the proposal, which would establish a special court part to serve tenants of affordable housing with city or state regulatory agreement or building units owned by small landlords to prevent evictions and quickly resolve arrears for owners.
In 2024, there were 43,000 eviction filings in subsidized housing, more than 1/3 of all New York City eviction filings. While tenants may be able to afford initial rents in affordable housing, rent burden can still develop over time and nonpayment of rent is contributing to financial distress for affordable housing buildings. While the median arrears sought at filing is just over $4,500, it can take more than a year to resolve these cases. Over this time, the arrears accumulate, threatening both tenants and owners and raising the cost to the city to assist tenants with “one-shot” emergency assistance, which now averages at almost $10,000 per household.
This funding would provide nonprofit case management staff in a special court part in each borough to prompt early intervention to quickly resolve arrears, stabilize tenancy and connect tenants to needed resources.
Read the full letter here.
The Affordable Housing Stability Court Initiative was covered in Gothamist on Wednesday. Read the story here.