The majority of the 43,000 eviction filings were for nonpayment of rent

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Even New York City’s affordable housing is getting too expensive for many low-income tenants, leading to a spike in eviction filings, a new report finds.

An analysis from the policy group New York Housing Conference shows owners of government-subsidized, or “affordable,” housing filed more than a third of city’s roughly 120,000 eviction lawsuits in 2024 — often as a way to pressure tenants into paying back rent or to compel the city to intervene with aid. Rents for the apartments are capped for low- and middle-income tenants in exchange for property tax breaks, low-interest financing or other funding,

The vast majority of the 43,000 eviction filings were for nonpayment of rent — a growing problem spurred by early pandemic job losses, wage decreases and rising costs that many low-income renters have struggled to recover from, the report authors said.

New York Housing Conference Executive Director Rachel Fee urged the state to increase rental assistance. The organization has also proposed the creation of a new diversion court to speed up the distribution of emergency aid for tenants facing eviction.

Fee said it could reach resolutions, set up payment plans and issue funding to cover arrears more quickly to keep tenants in place and buildings financially stable. She called on state lawmakers to set aside about $17 million in New York’s next budget to establish the program.

“It’s a better outcome for the tenant, the landlord and, potentially, savings for the city of New York,” Fee said. “We really need to be thinking about comprehensive policy solutions here to make sure that once a family gets into affordable housing, they can stay there and get the support they need.”

The recommendation to speed up one-time aid comes as state lawmakers have shown a reluctance to expand ongoing rental assistance for New Yorkers in need. Last year’s state budget included a modest $50 million to establish a new Housing Access Voucher Program.

The city’s own rental assistance program, known as CityFHEPS, costs more than $1 billion a year and helps more than 60,000 households. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has declined to expand the program to cover even more low-income tenants due to its increasingly expensive price tag.

Affordable housing loans to developers are typically calculated by counting on 95% of households to pay their rent in order for landlords to make their payments. A separate October 2025 report, cited by the New York Housing Conference, shows that rent collection rates have dipped to 90% in government-subsidized housing, and less than 80% for about one in 10 buildings.

Tenants living in affordable units, like apartments featured on the city’s Housing Connect lottery, qualify based on their incomes and typically pay no more than 30% of their earnings on rent. The rising cost of living or a sudden destabilizing event, like a job loss or unplanned expense, can strain a tenant’s finances and make even regulated rent hard to cover.

The New York Housing Conference, which receives funding from owners of affordable housing, analyzed housing court data compiled by NYU’s Furman Center. It found landlords of subsidized housing sued to evict over 38,000 households for nonpayment of rent and just under 5,000 for other reasons, such as breaking the terms of their lease.

The median back rent at the time of filing was less than $4,600, which meant subsidized tenants are being forced into eviction proceedings over lower amounts than market-rate renters. Landlords who don’t receive government subsidies filed nonpayment cases when tenants owed a median rent of $5,500 that year, the data shows. The data excluded about 3,700 eviction filings against tenants living in public housing.

Only a fraction of nonpayment cases result in actual evictions because tenants work out payment plans, receive assistance or voluntarily leave, often to city homeless shelters, before marshals arrive to remove them, the report said. Nearly half of the cases were filed in the Bronx, which has long led the state in eviction filings.

New York City’s Human Resources Administration issues tens of thousands of emergency loans called “one-shot deals” to cover back rent each year, but typically not until a lengthy court process that can last over a year. By that time, the household’s initial debt can balloon, costing the city even more money — or discouraging the city from intervening because the amount is too high.

During the 2024 fiscal year, the city issued $484 million in one-shot deal assistance to over 47,600 households — an average of nearly $10,000 that was double the median arrears for affordable housing tenants sued for nonpayment.

State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, a Manhattan Democrat who chairs the Senate’s housing committee, said he supports the diversion court idea because it would hasten the distribution of aid to help tenants and landlords alike.

“The cost of resolving the issue grows over time and this is about getting cases adjudicated promptly,” Kavanagh said. “It’s the right thing to do for tenants and the right thing to do for affordable housing providers.”

For non-subsidized housing, Kavanagh urged the state to issue more ongoing rental assistance. He also said he hoped small property owners could participate in the diversion program.

Human Resources Administration spokesperson Nicholas Jacobelli said the agency is aware of the proposal and that they would work with the organization and the state court system to speed up rental assistance. He said they are already intervening early in eviction cases involving CityFHEPS recipients.

“We remain committed to using every available resource to keep New Yorkers in their homes,” Jacobelli said.

The diversion court idea isn’t the first time building owners have proposed a speedier court process with the stated goal of getting assistance more quickly. A group representing owners of rent-stabilized apartments described a similar system in 2023. Tenant advocates opposed the idea, saying it would merely fast-track evictions for renters unable to access aid.

Housing experts have criticized the use of eviction court by landlords that receive government benefits as a tool to compel rent payments, especially in supportive housing for formerly homeless New Yorkers moving in from shelters. Fee, from the New York Housing Conference, said the analysis did not include a breakdown of supportive housing-specific cases.

Legal Aid Society attorney Ellen Davidson, who advocates for tenant protections, said the New York Housing Conference proposal could connect renters with assistance more quickly if the city also increases its staff capacity in the social service division that handles emergency aid.

“We always support more resources in housing court and we’ve seen challenges for tenants with receiving one-shot deals,” said Legal Aid Society attorney Ellen Davidson. “Helping people get assistance is great for keeping people in their homes, and we want to learn more about how the program would lead to that result.”

Nonprofit groups and other owners of affordable housing say they are in a bind when their mission is to house low-income renters, but they’re not making enough to cover operations.

The nonprofit organization WHEDco runs three affordable housing complexes and has filed nonpayment cases against 167 households in its 566 units.

WHEDco President Davon Russell said his organization’s goal is to spur the city to issue one-shot deals or ongoing rental assistance through the threat of eviction.

“Typically, not-for-profit landlords in the business don’t want to evict people,” he said. “Either [city officials] have to move more quickly on these or there’s a separate conduit for processing these cases.”

Source: Gothamist