Met Council Joins Bid for Higher Shelter Allowances
By Susan Bahn and Molly Simon

Metropolitan Council on Housing recently joined 18 other non-profit community organizations seeking permission to file a “friend of the court” (amicus) brief in the Jiggetts v. Dowling lawsuit. Through the lawsuit, close to 25,000 families on public assistance who were sued in Housing Court because they were unable to pay their full rent are currently getting their back rent as well as their full ongoing rent paid.

The case began in 1987, when Barbara Jiggetts sued the commissioner of the state Department of Social Services because her shelter allowance from public assistance was so low that she could not afford her rent and she and her children were on the verge of eviction. Other families with minor children joined the lawsuit when they were sued for nonpayment of rent, after falling behind because their shelter allowance wasn’t enough to cover their full rent. In 1990 the state’s highest court ruled on a pretrial motion, finding that the state Social Services Law requires the DSS commissioner to promulgate shelter allowance levels that bear a reasonable relationship to the cost of housing in New York City.

The case was sent back to the trial court for a determination as to whether the shelter allowances were adequate under this standard. After a three-month trial, substantial evidence was introduced which established that the shelter allowances, last set in 1988, were inadequate to meet the housing needs of a significant portion of the families covered by the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (now known as the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program). The trial record was completed in January 1992.

Barbara Jiggetts and the other families in the lawsuit won their case in 1997, when the trial court concluded that the shelter allowances set in 1988 do not bear a reasonable relation to the cost of housing in New York City. It ordered the DSS commissioner to develop a shelter allowance schedule that has a basis in actual New York City rents. The state is appealing, and the Appellate Division is expected to rule on that in the late spring.

Jiggetts and many others were saved from eviction by an interim relief system ordered by the court until the lawsuit is resolved. The state did not appeal that order. At first families were forced to file formal intervention motions, which required a lawyer. Eventually there were so many motions that the state was forced to accept applications filed by advocates trained by Jiggetts’ lawyers, the Legal Aid Society. As a result, thousands of families with inadequate shelter allowances have avoided becoming homeless. They were able to get rent-arrears payments and enhanced shelter allowances in order to keep or secure affordable apartments.

The amicus brief, written by the Davis Polk & Wardwell firm working without its normal fees, makes three points. First, it describes the operation of the interim relief system that has developed since 1990. Currently almost 25,000 families are receiving relief and thousands more have received relief, stabilized their housing, and are no longer in need of public assistance. The interim relief system shows strong corroborating evidence that the shelter-allowance levels do not meet the needs of a substantial portion of families on public assistance.

The brief points out that the shelter allowance is even more inadequate today then it was when the suit went to trial in 1990. Back then, the “fair-market rent” level set by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Renewal for the Section 8 program for a two-bedroom apartment was $519 a month. The fair-market rent today for the same apartment is $831. The shelter allowance for a family of three is $286 a month.

The brief also presents the recent published studies of two of the experts who testified at the trial. A subsequent published article co-authored by the state’s only expert witness, Professor Randall K. Filer, contradicts his trial testimony. The article is the final version of an analysis that Filer relied on to reach opposite conclusions at the trial. It concludes that increased rent subsidies could have a “powerful impact in reducing homelessness.”

The state filed papers in January opposing the acceptance of the friend-of-the-court brief. The court should rule soon on whether the amicus brief will be accepted.

The 19 organizations that signed on to this brief include Met Council, the Community Service Society of New York, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Black Child Development Institute—New York Affiliate, Children’s Aid Society, Church Avenue Merchants Block Association, Citizens’ Committee for Children, Citizens Advice Bureau, City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, Coalition for the Homeless, Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Community Food Resource Center, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, New York Housing Conference, New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition, Puerto Rican Association For Community Affairs, Puerto Rican Family Institute, and Settlement Housing Fund.