Our Impact in New York State
Since our founding at Columbia University at the height of the Civil Rights Era, NCLEJ has delivered justice for low-income New Yorkers. Over 40% of our casework focuses on empowering low-income communities within the state we call home, and we have deep, collaborative relationships with legal aid and nonprofit advocacy groups within New York City and across the State.
Here are highlights of our recent victories and ongoing advocacy in New York:
IOriginally filed in 2018, we continue to litigate our groundbreaking lawsuit challenging the Buffalo Police Department’s unconstitutional and racially discriminatory traffic enforcement practices. For at least a decade, the City of Buffalo has systematically targeted Black and Latino neighborhoods for unjustified, aggressive traffic enforcement, in a transparent effort to capture revenue for the city budget on the backs of communities of color. Though the City has ceased some of the most extreme practices in response to our advocacy, the policy and practice of ticketing for profit in communities of color remains widespread, and the Buffalo police continue to operate with no meaningful oversight.
In October 2024, we filed a lawsuit against GreatCare Inc., CenterLight Health System Inc., and one or more managed long-term care plans (MLTCs) under contract with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) for unlawfully underpaying homecare workers for only 13 hours of their 24-hour shifts, in what amounts to all out wage theft. NCLEJ has been engaged in a multi-year effort to secure justice for NYC homecare workers, all of whom are low-income immigrant women of color. In August 2023, we sued the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) to force them to reopen their wage theft investigation after hundreds of unpaid wage claims were suddenly closed. This follows the filing of a Federal Title VI complaint in October 2022.
In July 2024, NCLEJ filed a lawsuit against the City of Buffalo over their failure to implement the Proactive Rental Inspections (PRI) Law intended to protect residents in rental housing from lead paint and other health and safety hazards. Our litigation is ongoing.
In June 2024, NCLEJ filed a class action lawsuit against the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) over the agency’s failure to provide timely fair hearings to people receiving adverse decisions regarding their SNAP or Temporary Assistance (TA) benefits.
NCLEJ is currently litigating Andersen v. Roberts in New York’s highest court. The issue before the Court of Appeals is whether disabled New Yorkers have the same right to receive credit for work performed as a requirement of receiving public assistance as non-disabled people do. Though a 2015 ruling held that Public Assistance recipients who are required to participate in the Work Experience Program are protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act and must receive credit for their work, New York State continues to deny such credit to people with disabilities.
NCLEJ continues to enforce the pathbreaking 2014 settlement in Baez v. NYCHA, which obligates the New York City Housing Authority to ensure timely and effective remediation of toxic mold and moisture in public housing. The Baez consent decree, also the first of its kind in the nation, sets out detailed protocols mandating abatement of these deplorable living conditions, under the oversight of a court-appointed Special Master, along with mold and data analyst experts, as a reasonable accommodation to public housing tenants’ respiratory disabilities under the ADA.
NCLEJ reached a favorable settlement in our Federal Title VII complaint against Apple Metro, the NYC-area Applebee’s franchisee, which exposed retaliation towards a worker who organized against discriminatory wages. Apple Metro paid the full minimum wage of $15 an hour, plus tips, to predominantly non-Black and white Applebee’s workers in Midtown, while paying only the subminimum wage of $10 an hour to predominantly Black and Brown South Bronx Applebee’s workers. Following our legal challenge to their racially-discriminatory pay structure, Apple-Metro subsequently fired our client from his position at Applebee’s in the South Bronx. In response, we amended our legal complaint to include a retaliatory filing charge. Under the settlement, Apple-Metro must notify former workers of their organizing rights under federal law. This victory is a powerful affirmation that retaliation against workers who speak out against workplace injustice will not stand.
As a member of the 13th Forward Coalition’s steering committee, NCLEJ is fighting for the passage of legislation that would abolish forced prison labor in New York State; raise wages for those inside, without unfair garnishments; protect worker health and safety; and create job training programs that provide real pathways to employment post-release. Our legislative agenda for 2025-2026 includes advocating for the passage of: the Prison Wage Act, which would guarantee incarcerated workers a minimum wage of half the state minimum wage; a Commissary Bill to place a cap on commissary prices; a statutory version of the No Slavery in NY Act to end slavery as punishment for a crime; the Fairness & Opportunity for Incarcerated Workers Act, which would create a Labor Board to ensure that work opportunities on the inside lead to real opportunities post-release, provide health and safety protections, and take away the preferred vendor status of Corcraft; and the Gate Money Bill to raise the amount of money that individuals receive upon release from $40 to $2,500.
In 2022, NCLEJ secured a settlement requiring the Suffolk County Department of Social Services to provide reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities to allow them to access critically-needed SNAP, Medicaid, and emergency shelter services. NCLEJ continues to monitor compliance with the settlement.
In 2021, NCLEJ filed a Title VI administrative complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies, challenging the racially discriminatory construction and operation of a fracked gas pipeline running through Black and Latino neighborhoods in Brooklyn. National Grid built the pipeline without notice to the impacted communities, without a public hearing, and without considering the environmental and public health consequences for the low-income people of color who live along the pipeline route, and whose rates will be raised to pay for it. An informal negotiation process to resolve the complaint is underway.
Our Community Partners
NCLEJ proudly partners with community organizations on the ground to advance our mission. We understand that the fight for economic, racial, and disability justice is not dictated by strategies created at a distance, but in collaboration with the local communities most affected by the problems we seek to address. Collaborating with local and community-led organizations improves our ability to provide practical and direct legal assistance, as well as expands our geographic reach. In return, we boost the capacity of our partners to achieve their goals
In recent years, we’ve partnered with many local organizations, including:
A Little Piece of Light
American Civil Liberties Union
Asian American Legal Defense Fund
Black Love Resists in the Rust
Brownsville Green Justice
Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
Citizen Action
Color of Change
Consumer Reports
Don Bosco Workers Inc.
Empire Justice Center
Environmental Advocates NY
Flushing Workers Center
Frack Outta Bk
Indigenous Kinship Collective
Laundry Workers Centers
Legal Services of Central New York
Make the Road NY
Manhattan Together
Mi Casa Resiste
Mobilization for Justice
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
National Employment Lawyers Association – NY
National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
Neighborhood Legal Services
New Economy Project
New York Legal Assistance Group
Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation
NYCLU
Ocean Hill-Brownsville Coalition of Young Professionals
One Fair Wage
Public Utilities Law Project
South Bronx Churches Sponsoring Committee, Inc.
The Action Lab
The Legal Aid Society
Western New York Law Center
