In Response to Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City Address, New York’s Leading Civil Legal Service Providers Call on City Hall to Correct City’s Fraught Contract and Payment Process
Longstanding Payment Issues Continue to Jeopardize New Yorkers’ Access to Critical Housing and Immigration Representation
(NEW YORK, NY) – The Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, The Bronx Defenders, New York Legal Assistance Group, The Children’s Law Center, Lawyers For Children, New York Immigration Coalition, Mobilization for Justice, Housing Conservation Coordinators, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, CAMBA Legal Services, and Human Services Council of New York, in response to Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City address, released the following statement calling on City Hall to immediately correct the payment issues and delays currently threatening non-profits’ ability to provide critical housing and immigration services to New Yorkers in need:
“Mayor Adams today laid out a robust agenda in which he promised to increase affordability, combat homelessness, and keep all New Yorkers, including new arrivals, safely and stably housed. Notably, the Mayor failed to mention that these goals are wholly reliant on the support of the City’s nonprofit legal service organizations, who each year provide critical housing and immigration services to thousands of low-income individuals and families in need.
“Yet, going into 2025, many of these organizations continue to face egregious payment delays as they are unable to submit current invoices for payment on all registered contracts with the Human Resources Administration, the department in charge of the majority of the City’s social services programs.
“These significant backlogs and delays threaten the ability of nonprofits — particularly smaller organizations — to maintain basic operations such as making payroll and jeopardize New Yorkers’ access to lifesaving legal services. Mayor Adams’ silence on this issue today, one that impacts hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, is deafening.
“If Mayor Adams truly wants to deliver on his promise of improving the lives of New York’s most vulnerable community members in 2025, he must prioritize resolving these longstanding issues to ensure all nonprofits are paid without undue delay for the invaluable services they provide to New Yorkers in need. Anything short of a decisive, long-term solution will profoundly harm the people and communities we serve.”
###