Court of Appeals Upholds DHCR Position

ALBANY, NY (07/03/2007)(readMedia)-- The State’s highest court has upheld the Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s (DHCR) position that rent stabilized tenants who receive a Section 8 rent subsidy are entitled to receive renewal leases on the same terms and conditions as their previous lease.

DHCR Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen said, “This decision will ensure that the 46,000 low-income tenants in New York receiving Section 8 subsidies from the Federal government will not be forced from their apartments when their leases come to an end.”

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who filed a joint brief with DHCR, said, “New York must never be a city where low-income tenants are driven from their apartments when landlords simply decide they no longer want to participate in the section 8 housing assistance program. This decision ensures that low-income families will have the same protections under the rent stabilization laws that other families have, so that New York does not become a place where only a select few can afford to live.”

In essence, the Court of Appeals decision requires owners who are subject to rent stabilization and who accept Section 8 subsidies from their tenants in an existing lease to continue to accept the subsidies when the lease renews.

The decision came in the case of Sonia Rosario, who has lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for 30 years, and received a Section 8 rent subsidy for the past 19 years. In February 2004, her landlords notified her that they were opting out of the Section 8 program and would no longer accept the rent subsidy payments. A month later, the landlords commenced a proceeding to evict her for nonpayment of rent.

Rosario and six other Section 8 tenants commenced a suit arguing that their landlords were obligated to continue accepting their rent subsidies, contending the Section 8 subsidies constituted a material term and condition of their leases and that under New York's rent stabilization laws they were entitled to renewal leases on the same terms.

They also argued the landlords, who were receiving tax abatements under New York City's J-51 tax law were expressly prohibited by that statute from discriminating against Section 8 recipients and, therefore, must accept the subsidies.

The landlords argued that Federal law allowed them to opt out of the Section 8 program and preempted provisions in the state's Rent Stabilization Code and the city's J-51 law.

Complicating matters was the Pataki administration’s determination in 2002 that Section 8 benefits are not part of the terms and conditions of a rent stabilized tenancy.

However, under the leadership of Governor Eliot Spitzer and Commissioner VanAmerongen, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal reversed its position in an April 30, 2007 joint brief with the Attorney General’s office before the Court of Appeals.

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