Tenant's Federal Lawsuit Against NYCHA for Lack of Heat and Hot Water Dismissed

Tenant sued landlord NYCHA in federal court, claiming that NYCHA deprived her of adequate heat and hot water, and may have sent an employee into her apartment when she wasn't home and without her consent. Landlord asked the court to dismiss the case. The court ruled for landlord. Tenant argued that she had been back and forth to housing court for years with complaints regarding the lack of heat and hot water but that the conditions continued. But tenant's complaint didn't raise a federal question. And while, arguably, tenant's complaint raised a claim for the violation of federal statutory and regulatory provisions concerning access to adequate housing, these federal laws don't provide a private right of action to individual plaintiffs based on landlord's failure to maintain the premises in a safe and sanitary condition. Tenant also made no claim of a violation of due process rights. Finally, while a search of a person's home by a state agent such as NYCHA's employee may, in some circumstances, constitute a Fourth Amendment violation, no such claim was asserted here because tenant didn't allege that any search of her home occurred.

Jenkins v. NYCHA: Index No. 21-CV-10364 (SDNY; 10/11/22; Parker, J)