![\"CEO](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/DSC06487-2.jpg\" "\\"Court")
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CEO of WIN Christine Quinn stood alongside fellow service providers and homeless and immigrant rights advocates on the steps of City Hall in January 2025 and denounced President-elect Trump\u2019s promise of mass deportations and cuts to social services allegedly a part of what has become widely known as Project 2025.<\/p>\n
Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n
Homeless families and individuals in NYC shelters waiting for permanent homes won a victory in court on Thursday that requires landlords to hold their apartments while tenant casework is being processed.<\/p>\n
The ruling upholds a temporary restraining order barring Mayor Eric Adams and the city\u2019s Department of Social Services (DSS) from eliminating the unit hold incentive \u2014 one-month rent payments to landlords that ensure apartments are held for prospective tenants while their housing paperwork gets processed.<\/p>\n
The Legal Aid Society<\/a>, representing Win (Women in Need) shelters and other advocacy groups, sued DSS on June<\/a> 25 over its plan to shut down the incentive. DSS claimed it was no longer needed as processing times have gotten faster.<\/p>\n The Aug. 21 ruling was the second win for the plaintiffs after DSS planned a June 30 end to the program, which has been in place since 2017. A preliminary injunction was granted that required the unit-hold payments remain while the case was litigated.\u00a0<\/p>\n Quinn: NYC must \u2018fully comply with the law\u2019<\/p>\n Plaintiffs in the case maintain that unit holds are important for getting people out of shelters and into permanent housing. Christine Quinn, president and CEO of Win, and former speaker of the NYC Council, applauded the judge\u2019s decision while criticizing the Adams administration.<\/p>\n \u201cNew Yorkers are crying out for change, yet it seems the Adams administration will go to the ends of the Earth, including through frivolous legal action, to make life even more difficult for New Yorkers in need,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cWe are pleased that a judge has again ruled the unit hold incentive must be preserved, and look forward to seeing Mayor Adams and DSS fully comply with the law.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She also described the unit hold as a \u201ckey tool\u201d for helping homeless New Yorkers.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThis unit hold policy has been critical and very helpful for getting people out of shelter and into permanent homes,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cDoing away with it would have resulted in people staying in shelters longer, which is the last thing we want, particularly as it relates to children.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for DSS told amNewYork that the incentive served as a stop-gap solution to address the \u201clack of robust mechanisms\u201d for processing rental subsidies to secure housing that is \u201cquickly\u201d leasing up.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, we rolled out a technological overhaul to reduce the agency\u2019s long-standing reliance on manual tracking and outdated systems, which were more prone to inconsistencies resulting in processing delays,\u201d the spokesperson explained. \u201cThe full implementation of the new end-to-end processing system and capital upgrades has equipped the agency to comprehensively track and streamline applications to meet processing targets while realizing fiscal efficiencies by phasing out the use of short-term fixes.\u201d<\/p>\n According to court documents, DSS\u2019s policy change is \u201carbitrary and capricious\u201d since it lacked \u201cany statement [of] rationale.\u201d The documents also stated that ending the incentive would deepen the homelessness issue, increase shelter stays and cost the city more money.\u00a0<\/p>\n