The New York City Council announced on Wednesday that it filed court papers to join a lawsuit against Mayor Eric Adams’ administration for allegedly failing to implement a series of laws that would help more residents pay their rent and avoid homelessness.
The Council’s motion, which was filed in New York state Supreme Court, aims to add the Legislature as a petitioner in the class-action lawsuit, which the Legal Aid Society originally filed earlier this month on behalf of several low-income New Yorkers who stand to benefit from an expansion of the city’s housing voucher program, known as CityFHEPS.
The move, which was signaled as a possibility since late last year, represents an escalation in the Council’s deep-seated rift with the mayor. It comes after the Adams administration said it could not enact the full scope of legislation the Council passed to broaden eligibility for CityFHEPS, due to cost and legal concerns. The legislation went into effect on Jan. 9, nearly six months after councilmembers overrode Adams’ veto against it.
The Council and the Legal Aid Society allege the administration is illegally refusing to put the new voucher rules into effect as the city faces skyrocketing rents and a widening affordability crisis.
“His refusal not only deprives New Yorkers of housing benefits to which they are entitled under the law; it usurps the powers of the Council, a co-equal branch of city government, and it upends the separation of powers enshrined in the City Charter,” court papers filed by the Council state. “What he could not secure through the Charter-established process, the mayor is now attempting to achieve by unlawfully abdicating his duties.”
Adams’ spokesperson Kayla Mamelak told Gothamist his office plans to review the Council’s filings. She also repeated the administration’s previous claims that the CityFHEPS bills violate state law by seeking “to legislate in an area where authority is resolved to the state” and would burden the…
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