Department of Homeless Services’ New Eligibility Procedure Triggered the Notice and Hearing Requirements of the City Administrative Procedure Act

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Graffeo, determined that the NYC Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS’s) adoption of a new Eligibility Procedure for temporary housing assistance triggered the notice and hearing requirements of the City Administrative Procedure Act (CAPA).  The failure to comply with the act prohibited implementation of the new rules.  In explaining that the Eligibility Procedure met the definition of a rule or regulation, the Court wrote:

DHS argues that the Eligibility Procedure is not a rule because DHS workers exercise some measure of discretion in resolving certain issues relevant to eligibility, such as whether an applicant has provided adequate cooperation during the need assessment process.  But the procedure itself is mandatory — all intake workers must follow it, regardless of the circumstances presented by an individual applicant — and many of the standards articulated in it are mandatory in the sense that their application will dictate whether an individual will or will not receive benefits.  For example, applicants are required to produce documentation pertaining to prior housing, financial resources and mental or physical impairment (which may necessitate the signing of a medical release) and if they fail to do so without a valid reason (mental or physical impairment), this “constitutes a failure to cooperate” mandating denial of benefits.  Similarly, the procedure specifies that a single adult who has $2,000 of on-hand assets “must utilize his/her resources to reduce or eliminate his/her need for emergency shelter” prior to being eligible for benefits.  Another section directs that “if an applicant has tenancy rights at any housing option, that residence will be deemed the viable housing option and the applicant will be found ineligible, provided there is no imminent threat to health or safety.”  These concrete provisions substantially curtail, if not eliminate, an intake worker’s discretion to grant THA (temporary housing assistance) benefits.  In fact, there are several specific directives in the Eligibility Procedure that appear to compel intake workers to deny benefits based on the presence or absence of a single factor, regardless of other circumstances that might support a determination of eligibility.  The procedure, which is itself mandatory, requires the application of standards that are dispositive of the outcome.  Matter of the Council of the City of New York v The Department of Homeless Services of the City of New York, 193, CtApp 11-26-13