Katrina Toma testifies for Legal Services NYC on income threshold
Katrina Toma of Legal Services NYC reports assisting nearly 1,200 families with SCRIE/DRIE from 2023-2025 and over 300 in 2026, noting many clients are ineligible due to the $50,000 cap and that household income rules pressure families to split up to qualify.
Good afternoon, Chairperson Lee Zhuang and Hanif and members of the committees.
My name is Katrina Toma, and I'm an advocate representing individuals with disabilities at Legal Services of NYC.
I appreciate the opportunity to testify concerning Intro 978-A, which, if enacted, will increase the maximum income levels for screen injury
rent-freeze programs from $50,000 to $75,000 as permitted by the 2026-2027 state budget.
Legal Services of NYC is the largest civil legal services provider in the country.
We handle over 32,000 cases annually, benefiting 108,000 New Yorkers, including around 10,000 clients receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance, and 14,000 clients who are SANS.
From 2023 through 2025, LISNI assisted nearly 1,200 families, totaling more than 1,700 people, with obtaining screen injury benefits.
So far in 2026, we have assisted more than 300 households with these applications.
However, many more...
of our clients and other low-income people throughout New York are ineligible for screen injury benefits because their household income exceeds the current cutoff of $50,000 per year.
As a result, they are subject to rent increases at each lease renewal of their rent-regulated apartments despite often being on the fixed incomes, and many are subsequently priced out of their rent-regulated apartments despite the existence of the rent-freeze programs,
which were created precisely to avoid such an outcome.
Since the screen injury income limits were last increased at $50,000 in 2014, the national inflation rate and the average cost of rent in New York City have skyrocketed, forcing low-income elderly and disabled
individuals to stretch their incomes further and further just to survive.
Moreover, because eligibility is determined by household income, low-income families are often under significant pressure to split up their households to become eligible for a screen injury.
Not only does this defeat the purpose of screen injury, it also threatens to take away critical support systems to elderly.
I'll turn it over to Ms.
Fox.