Footnote 1:The Section 8 voucher program provides federal assistance to low-income families to help them rent housing in the private market. The program "works as a rental subsidy," where the New York City Housing Authority pays part of the family's share of rent to the landlord on the family's behalf (NYC Housing Authority, About Section 8,
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nycha/section-8/about-section-8.page [last accessed Apr. 14, 2020]; see 42 USC § 1437f). Thus, unlike HRA's security vouchers, which guarantee future payment in certain circumstances, the Section 8 rent vouchers are cash rent payments to the landlord.
Footnote 2:To the extent defendants argue that plaintiff lacks standing to seek an order declaring the voucher program to be a violation of Social Services Law § 143-c and the Urstadt Law, they waived the argument by failing to raise it in their pre-answer motion to dismiss (CPLR 3211[a], [e]; Matter of Fossella v Dinkins, 66 NY2d 162, 167 [1985]).
Footnote 3:Plaintiff does not appear to argue that the program results in unconscionable agreements. In any event, defendants are correct that plaintiff failed to show, or raise any issue of fact whether, the vouchers were unreasonably favorable to defendants, as is required to establish an unconscionable agreement (Cash4Cases, Inc. v Brunetti, 167 AD3d 448, 449 [1st Dept 2018]; Mazursky Group, Inc. v 953 Realty Corp., 166 AD3d 432, 433 [1st Dept 2018]).