Judge Tosses Attorney General Letitia James’ Case, and Formerly Homeless Tenants Receive Eviction Notices

Title: Judge Tosses Attorney General Letitia James’ Case, and Formerly Homeless Tenants Receive Eviction Notices

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Janae Pierre: A judge dismisses the case against Attorney General Letitia James, and formerly homeless tenants receive eviction notices. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre. A federal judge has agreed to throw out a criminal mortgage fraud case against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The judge presiding over the case in Virginia ruled the prosecutor who brought the charges was unlawfully appointed by the Trump administration.

James was accused of bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution in connection with a property she owns in Virginia. She pleaded not guilty. The charges were brought by interim US attorney Lindsey Halligan. Halligan took over the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after President Trump publicly criticized the previous prosecutor for not taking action against James.

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Janae Pierre: NYPD officials say they're sending more patrols to northern Queens after a car meetup descended into violence over the weekend. Police say it happened overnight Saturday near the intersection of 141st Street and 11th Avenue near the Whitestone Bridge. Officials say over 50 cars were drag racing on the street, and participants set an empty car on fire while breaking glass bottles and setting off fireworks. Melissa Farah lives in the area with her husband. She says they were assaulted by members of the group when they stepped outside to confront them.

Melissa Farah: I think everybody on the block was calling 911. They set a car on fire. Everybody called 911, and I just don't think that they got here fast enough.

Janae Pierre: Her husband sustained broken ribs and other injuries in the incident, which circulated on social media. Police haven't made any arrests yet.

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Janae Pierre: City Hall is eyeing a possible expansion of its program that lets restaurants operate on sidewalks and streets. The city established the permanent outdoor dining program for businesses in response to the popularity of the practice during the pandemic. Restaurant owners have long complained about the difficulty in getting approved, from the application and review process to certain design requirements. The City Council heard testimony about those issues Monday. The Council is also considering bills that would let grocery stores be eligible for the outdoor dining program, remove seasonal restrictions on roadway cafes, and make it easier for businesses to apply for the program.

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Janae Pierre: Up next, a majority of tenants at a supportive housing unit in Far Rockaway have been sent to eviction court within the past two years. More on that after the break.

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Janae Pierre: In Far Rockaway, there's a 63-unit apartment building where 2 out of every 3 tenants have been served with eviction notices. Most of these families were formerly homeless. This is raising red flags among some tenant advocates. WNYC's Karen Yee has been looking into this. Now, Karen, 43 tenants in a 63-unit building. That's almost 70%, right?

Karen: That's right. That's a majority of tenants, and this is a building that is relatively new. It opened in 2021, so it hasn't even been around that long.

Janae Pierre: Tell me about this building.

Karen: From the outside, it looks like one of those blocky new-build luxury apartments.

Janae Pierre: Oh, nice.

Karen: It's a multi-story apartment building. Yes, it's very nice. There's a playground. It's on a quiet residential block. I was there reporting a couple times, and when I was there, there's kids coming in and out of the building, the maintenance guys are taking out the trash, there's someone that was fixing up that keypad that you scan to get in. They're really taking care of this property. The people who live inside, these are formerly homeless families, many of them with kids, and many of whom also have a mental illness.

The purpose of what supportive housing is, and this is a supportive housing building, is really in its name. This is housing with support, so tenants here are supposed to get extra services to help them stay housed. Maybe that means help with their public benefits, or maybe that means counseling or some sort of case management.

Janae Pierre: How common is supportive housing?

Karen: Across the city, there are 42,000 of these units, and that can look a little different. One model is that there's one unit or a couple units in a private market apartment, that's what's called scatter site, and the other model is entire buildings like this, where the entire building is for supportive housing units. What makes this property unusual is really two things. One is that it's entirely for families, and two, most of the families have been sued by the landlord and eviction court in the last two years.

Nilsa Marie: I started noticing, pass neighbors, they talk in the hallway, or you talk in the lobby, where you hear them saying, "Oh my God, I'm going to court too. Oh yes, me too. Oh my God," and most of them I know is on public assistance.

Karen: Nilsa Marie is one of 43 tenants that's received an eviction notice since 2023. She's actually been sued twice. In many of these cases, we're not talking about too much in owed rent. There's a handful where we're talking about $600 or $800 in owed rent. Because this is supportive housing, tenants are paying less in rent, 30% of their income toward rent, and the city pays the rest. The city also pays providers to provide that maintenance that we talked about, those additional services and support. A lot of this building is subsidized by taxpayer dollars.

Janae Pierre: Karen, I can't help but wonder, how does what's happening here compare to other supportive housing sites?

Karen: The city doesn't track eviction filings, but tenant advocates say that this is a very high rate. Almost 70% is a lot. The Legal Services NYC did compile some numbers about eviction warrants. They said that there's been 550 eviction warrants issued in the last 11 months, and this is the last step before a marshal comes to your door. Providers say that evictions are a tool of last resort. These are the supportive housing providers that are saying, "We really are only resorting this after we try multiple times to get a tenant to pay." Craig Hughes, who's a social worker from Legal Services NYC, say the numbers really tell us a different picture.

Craig Hughes: What we're seeing in many cases is that jumping to housing court is actually not the last option. Jumping to housing court becomes a very quick option that providers take.

Karen: He says what's happening in Far Rockaway is indicative of a much larger problem. That's that the city isn't holding supportive housing providers accountable, and these are providers that receive millions of dollars in city funding. He says the city really needs to crack down to make sure providers are actually doing what they need to do to keep vulnerable New Yorkers housed.

Janae Pierre: What do these housing providers have to say about these numbers?

Karen: The landlords in this case are two companies. One is a for-profit company called Related Companies, and the other is a non-profit called WIN. They're the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing for families with children in the city. Now, WIN told us that it doesn't have control over when evictions are filed. They're not making those decisions, but it did acknowledge that it wasn't aware of the high numbers until we brought that to them. They said the rate of eviction filings was aggressive. Now they're working with Related to slow down how quickly cases are filed against tenants because going through eviction court, even if the case gets dropped or resolved, it can be really traumatic for residents like Nilsa Marie.

Nilsa Marie: I suffer from depression. I suffer from anxiety. I have cancer. I have high blood pressure, diabetes. I'm sorry that I'm crying, but it's a lot.

Janae Pierre: Yes, really traumatic. Karen, you've been reporting on this problem for months now. Has there been any change since you started?

Karen: The city says it's rolling out a database to track eviction warrants. Now, this is the last step before a marshal comes to your door. The Department of Social Services says it's going to consider tightening the contracts that it holds with supportive housing providers, and these are contracts for providers to provide services. They want to tighten those contracts to ensure that eviction truly is a last resort for providers.

The problem with supportive housing is it's a very patchwork system that's overseen by multiple city and state agencies, so it's really hard to get system-wide change. The city made those assurances about creating a database months ago, but you're still seeing the same pace of eviction warrants being filed across supportive housing units in the city.

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Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Karen Yee.

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Janae Pierre: It's Thanksgiving week, and hopefully you've given some thought to what you might make for Friendsgiving or your family gathering. If not, we've got your back. Amelia Tarpey is a program and publicity manager for GrowNYC Greenmarkets. She says, head to your local market for fresh squash or pumpkin and try making some Thanksgiving favorites from scratch this year.

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Amelia Tarpey: They make for beautiful additions on the table. The nice thing about a lot of squash varieties, too, if you're a vegetarian household or if you have vegetarians coming to your Thanksgiving dinner, squash can make a really good alternative for the main. You can do a stuffed delicata squash, slice it in half, scoop out the seeds, and then you can fill it with wild rice, cranberries, onions, garlic, put it all in there, top it with a little cheese, and roast it in the oven. That's a meal in and of itself, not just for Thanksgiving.

You can do a savory butternut tart. Get a pie crust, fill the bottom with spreadable, farmer's cheese, layer the top with thin slices of the butternut, brush the whole thing with butter or olive oil, and bake. Again, it's going to be beautiful, delicious. The Long Island Cheese Pumpkin is actually one of the oldest pumpkin varieties in the Americas. It has almost this tan, light brown color to it, instead of the classic orange. The Long Island Cheese Pumpkin is lauded as one of the best pumpkins for pumpkin pies.

If you are going to do a homemade pumpkin pie like that, a four-pound pumpkin is going to be enough pumpkin for a pie. When you're making pumpkin puree, you just take your pumpkin, slice it in half, poke a few holes in it with a fork, and then a little bit of water just to make sure it doesn't burn, and throw it in the oven at 375 and roast until it's fork tender, about 40 minutes, give or take. You scoop it out of the skin and then just get it into a blender or a food processor and process until it's nice and smooth. Put it in your freezer if you have extra leftover from your pumpkin pie recipe, and then make pumpkin bread a little later this year.

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Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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