In written testimony submitted to the New York City Housing Authority on July 30, 2025, NYLAG urged NYCHA to include protections in its annual plan for people seeking apartment transfers related to disabilities, domestic violence, and similar circumstances.
Each year, NYLAG represents NYCHA residents in eviction proceedings in which tenants face charges because they cannot live safely in their current homes—whether they need transfers for wheelchair accessibility or safety concerns as victims of crime or survivors of domestic violence. NYLAG’s proposed updates would ensure that residents are not evicted simply because they cannot safely access their apartments while awaiting transfer approval.
Even with these changes, we still expect that there will be residents who have protracted wait times for an acceptable apartment. For those who cannot safely remain in, or physically access, their current apartment while they wait, these lengthy wait times put them at risk of eviction and loss of their deeply and permanently affordable housing because NYCHA’s policies do not currently provide for protections against termination of tenancy cases based on failing to occupy their homes while waiting for a needed transfer…
Delays in NYCHA’s transfer system—whether avoidable or not—result in due process violations, exacerbate existing inequities and destabilize Black and Latinx families and communities. NYCHA residents seeking transfers based on overcrowding, reasonable accommodations, or even safety issues will have to wait months, if not years, for a unit to open up. During this time, NYCHA expects these families to live in unlivable conditions, put themselves at risk of continued violence, or, perhaps most confoundingly, reside in apartments they physically cannot access due to new disabilities. These long wait times for transfers can have cascading effects on clients.
