Weeks after a panel of New York judges ruled to strike down key protections for Section 8 tenants, the New York Attorney General’s Office moved to appeal the decision — providing a glimmer of hope for individuals and families with rental assistance vouchers.
AG Letitia James filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday with the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. James appealed a decision by the state’s appellate division that sided with an Ithaca landlord’s claims about the program violating his Fourth Amendment rights.
Also known as Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 8 is a program administered by over 2,000 local public housing authorities using funding from the federal government to provide rental assistance to low-income tenants.
Ithaca landlord Jason Fane said that the consistent inspections to determine housing quality mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the Section 8 program violates his constitutional rights as it does not allow him to refuse these inspections.
The ruling of the New York appellate court provided an opening for landlords to choose to deny renting to voucher holders.
This sent both Section 8 tenants and housing advocates scrambling over the implications for thousands of New Yorkers in search of safe and affordable housing. According to HUD, more than 246,000 residents across the state depend on the Section 8 program.
In Syracuse, the Syracuse Housing Authority administers 3,600 Section 8 vouchers. Recently, SHA expanded its Section 8 program with $5 million. The expansion will be used to relocate public housing residents on the Southside who may face the pitfalls of construction involved with the removal of the Interstate 81 viaduct.
James, who sued Fane in 2022 for violating state law by refusing to rent out to Section 8 tenants, appealed the entirety of the appellate court’s order.
Local housing advocates were hopeful about pushback to the ruling from the attorney general’s office.
“[The case] was wrongly decided,” CNY Fair Housing Executive Director Sally Santangelo told Central Current on March 19. “[When the attorney general] plans to appeal this decision, we do expect it to be overturned.”
Santangelo’s team at the nonprofit CNY Fair Housing fights housing discrimination.
She said that it was unclear how the decision would immediately affect Onondaga County because the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department made the ruling. That division does not cover Syracuse. Of the 17 counties that CNY Fair Housing serves, 10 counties fall in the third department while the remaining seven fall under the fourth. Onondaga County is part of the fourth department.
Generally, departments follow decisions made by other departments unless they have a separate ruling, she added.
However, discrimination on the basis of income could become more blatant at a time when the city is facing a lack of housing options and rising rents amid a meteoric increase in both family and individual homelessness, Santangelo said.
Source of income discrimination has often been a proxy for discrimination on the basis of disability, race or national origin, Santangelo said. It is often harder to detect discrimination when landlords use more subtle methods instead of outright denials, citing income or credit requirements that are inconsistent with the standards for non-voucher holders, she said.
“Unfortunately, this is going to make it harder for Section 8 voucher holders to find housing,” Santangelo then said. “Housing providers may now deny them outright.”
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