Represented by MFY Legal Services, tenants in a Crown Heights building filed suit against their  landlord on June 7, 2016, demanding an end to almost two years of unbearable living conditions. Tenants say the landlord began a gut renovation in February 2015 without proper building permits. Tenants have lived through periods with no heat or …

MFY Legal Services is representing one of five plaintiffs in a federal fair housing lawsuit filed May 12, 2016 charging discrimination against African Americans and people with rental subsidies. The suit details testing done over six months by the Fair Housing Justice Center and three African American testers that show a pattern of discrimination by …

MFY Legal Services joined three-quarter house residents and City Council members on the steps of City Hall on April 20, 2016 to draw attention to a package of bills that will require more public information on the three-quarter houses, prevent landlords from requiring tenants to attend specific substance-abuse programs or get physicals from certain doctors, …

MFY joined with other advocates in submitting an amicus brief supporting the city’s position that Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels must rent rooms for a minimum of one month. On March 17, 2016 the appeals court ruled in the city’s favor in a case involving the 227-room Imperial Court Hotel in Manhattan, which had been …

MFY Supervising Attorney Leah Goodridge joined forces with City Council Member Vanessa Gibson to conduct a “Youth Court” for 50 Bronx teens who debated NYCHA’s policy of evicting entire families if one household member is arrested for a drug-related offense. See NY1’s coverage of the event.

MFY’s lawsuit on behalf of tenants at 159 Suydam Street in Brooklyn was highlighted in an article in City Limits, which laid bare the problems faced by tenants in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods and the difficulties in getting aggressive enforcement of city regulations in small buildings where tenants are faced with unlivable conditions. MFY will be …

City Council Member Margaret Chin presented a proclamation from the City Council to MFY Paralegal Fanny Chan in recognition of her tireless work over the past decade to help low-income residents of Chinatown with housing and public benefit issues. The presentation took place at a Lunar New Year celebration on February 29, 2016.

Scores of tenants at 159 Suydam St. in Brooklyn held a press conference today to publicize their lawsuit against their landlord and their demand that the city appoint a 7-A Administrator to manage their building. For many months the tenants have endured severe harassment and neglect, including illegal evictions and hundreds of uncorrected housing violations. …

MFY Legal Services’ SRO Law Project is one of the many organizations working to preserve SRO housing and fighting against illegal hotel rooms in SROs, which are a critical part of NYC’s housing stock.  The practice of short-term rentals in residential SROs is widespread on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, significantly contributing to the lack of …