A proposed class of people who receive Section 8 vouchers from the New York City Housing Authority are accusing the agency of unlawfully allowing certain landlords to raise their rents so high that their tenants risk being evicted.

In their suit, filed Monday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, named plaintiffs Joshua Larkins and his mother, Lisa Larkins, alleged that starting in December 2022, the housing agency "misapplied" the state's Private Housing Finance Law in a way that allowed specific landlords of rent-stabilized residential properties to overcharge Section 8 voucher holders and violate the state's rent stabilization law.

According to the Larkinses, the purpose of the Private Housing Finance Law was to let landlords for "some city- and state-regulated projects" collect more rent from housing vouchers without saddling voucher holders with more rent.

"However, in the case of the Larkins family and potentially those of numerous other tenants, NYCHA allowed the landlord to charge illegally high rents that resulted in tenant rent shares far in excess of the 30 percent of income they had previously been paying," they claimed. "In the Larkinses' case, their rent rose to an unaffordable 90 percent of their household income, subjecting them to the threat of eviction."

The Larkinses said their landlord, Diego Beekman Mutual Housing Association HDFC, sent them a lease renewal agreement in February 2024 and the new lease was supposed to take effect in June 2024.

The document also notified the family that the actual rent of $3,789 was going to be higher than the regulated rent of $2,386, they said.

The landlord based the new actual rent on the standard New York City Housing Authority rent that's paid for four-bedroom homes and not on the Larkinses' two-bedroom housing voucher, they also claimed.

The landlord sent in the $3,789 lease the housing agency, which unlawfully accepted the lease, according to the Larkinses. The family's share of the rent increased from $549 to $1,653 as a result, they alleged.

In December, the housing agency and several city and state government agencies sent out guidelines for how landlords are supposed to properly apply the Private Housing Finance Law, according to the Larkinses. The guidelines primarily told landlords that the state law shouldn't affect how much tenants pay for their share of the rent but the housing agency didn't rectify the Larkinses' rent problems, the family claimed.

"Despite respondent NYCHA's promulgation of the December 2024 guidelines, it still has not corrected petitioners' rent share or required respondent Diego Beekman to issue a corrected lease for the period commencing June 1, 2024," the Larkinses alleged. "NYCHA has taken the position that it cannot act until the landlord, Diego Beekman, submits a new lease with corrections."

"To date, Diego Beekman has refused to issue a new lease compliant with [state law] and the December 2024 guidelines retroactive to the date the current lease commenced," they added.

Additionally, according to the Larkinses, their landlord started eviction proceedings against them in January 2020 and the landlord pushed to restart those proceedings in 2024 after they were paused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the family's Emergency Rental Assistance Program application.

The Larkinses further claimed that raising the family's share of the rent made them ineligible for a city grant that could help them pay off owed rent. According to the family, they're ineligible for the grant because they can't show that they can keep paying rent.

"Although a motion to dismiss [is] pending in the eviction case, unless petitioners' rent share is correctly adjusted to 30 percent of their income, petitioners will be unable to pay their arrears and will ultimately be evicted," the Larkinses said.

The family wants to represent a class of households that receive Section 8 vouchers administered by the housing agency and that had to pay more rent because the public housing authority approved a lease renewal under state law. They also want to represent a subclass of Diego Beekman tenants who've had to pay more rent because the landlord misinterpreted state law.

According to the Larkinses, their classes could include hundreds of members.

In a statement Tuesday, class counsel Edward Josephson said that due to the increased rent shares, the housing agency "is placing numerous families at risk of eviction."

"We demand immediate action to prevent widespread displacement and to uphold the fundamental right to safe and affordable housing," he said. "This case represents a critical fight for housing justice and the preservation of affordable housing protections in New York City."

On Tuesday, Josephson added that the housing agency "misinterpreted" the state law and although it has "acknowledged" that the law isn't supposed to affect rents, it is "refusing to correct their mistake."

The New York City Housing Authority declined to comment Tuesday and the Diego Beekman Mutual Housing Association couldn't be reached for comment.

Counsel information for the public housing authority and the landlord wasn't immediately available.

The proposed class is represented by Twyla Carter, Judith Goldiner, Edward Josephson, Laboni Rahman, Matthew Tropp, Carmine Annunziato and Leslie A. Caraballo of the Legal Aid Society.

The case is Joshua Larkins et al. v. New York City Housing Authority et al., case number 451238/2025, in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

--Editing by Karin Roberts.