Legal Services NYC Issues Statement After Mayor Eric Adams Weighs in on City’s Chronic Payment Delays, Putting Nonprofits Near Collapse and New Yorkers at Risk

New York, NY – Today at a press conference, Mayor Adams was asked what he would say to nonprofits who are owed millions of dollars in city contract payments that the city is now five months past due in paying. The mayor responded that the problem is “not the worst it’s ever been” and “that cities are not always good at paying on time,” but that they are “on top of this issue.” 

The following is a statement from Shervon M. Small, Executive Director of Legal Services NYC, in response to Mayor Eric Adams’ comments:

“While we acknowledge and appreciate the Mayor’s initial efforts to address long-standing payment backlog issues, including the $4.2 billion expedited during the twelve-week sprint that took place in early 2022, the current fiscal reality for Legal Services NYC and other legal service providers remains dire.

“The City still owes Legal Services NYC nearly $30 million, forcing us to make difficult financial decisions that jeopardize the services we provide to New Yorkers in need, including those facing eviction, landlord harassment, immigration orders, domestic violence, and other critical issues.

“We understand that systemic change take time, but the current payment pace is unsustainable. Despite assurances from the City, the delays we face are not merely administrative inconveniences—they threaten the stability of our operations and, by extension, the well-being of our clients. But we remain hopeful that the City will take decisive and immediate action to clear the backlog and prevent future delays so that vulnerable New Yorkers can access the services they so desperately need.” 

Background: 

Earlier this month, Legal Services NYC, The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, NMIC, the New York Legal Assistance Group, CAMBA Legal Services, Brooklyn Defender Services, the Human Services Council, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, The Bronx Defenders, TakeRoot Justice, Mobilization for Justice, the Urban Justice Center, and BronxWorks sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams urging him to fix payment delay issues that currently threatening non-profits’ ability to provide critical housing and immigration services to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. 

Legal service providers are currently facing major delays in payments on registered contracts with the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the department in charge of the majority of the City’s social services programs. These include contracts for the anti-eviction Right to Counsel (RTC) program, Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection (AHTP), and the Immigrant Opportunities Initiative (IOI) — critical programs that help keep New Yorkers housed, as well as protect the rights of migrants and new arrivals. 

Despite these contracts being registered on-time for Fiscal Year 2025, none of the non-profit legal service providers have been able to submit invoices to HRA for payment because the agency has not yet approved their Fiscal Year 2025 budgets, meaning all providers are currently in month five of not being able to invoice and receive any payments outside of a previous one-time advance payment. These payment delays threaten the ability of non-profits, particularly smaller organizations, to maintain basic operations — including making payroll — resulting in fewer New Yorkers having access to the critical legal services they need and deserve.

The letter also urges the City to halt the implementation of a plan to pay non-profits only 90 percent of their invoices on the anti-eviction Right to Counsel contracts, whether they are meeting performance targets or not. This is a punitive, counter-productive approach to implement new performance-based payment provisions in FY25 housing contracts. This payment model is typically used with for-profit organizations that contract with the City; however, it will be detrimental to non-profits who only receive payment for the actual costs they incur. Essentially, the City will be holding back vital funding to providers, exacerbating already crushing cash flow challenges. 

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