A judge has blocked New York City from ending a temporary program putting up Hurricane Sandy evacuees in hotels while they find permanent housing. As city officials prepared to terminate the program at the end of this month, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Margaret Chan (See Profile) issued a preliminary injunction in Sapp v. City of New York, 450677-2013, holding that while plaintiffs did not have a property interest in an indefinite stay under the program, they did have such an interest in receiving the housing benefits for more than seven months.
"The hotel program was created to automatically provide assistance to all Sandy evacuees. This creates a reasonable expectation of the benefit of housing assistance in these evacuees. But, does that reasonable expectation rise to the level of a constitutionally protected property interest? The answer is yes, it does," Chan wrote yesterday. As of May 13, there were 395 households remaining in the program but 156 households had no transition plans.
