NYC Anti-Discrimination Agency Fails to Address Explosive Need

BoroPark24 Staff

Despite the growing number of laws passed in New York City to protect New Yorkers against discrimination, the agency responsible for carrying out that process, in many cases, simply doesn't. 

Reasons such as lack of adequate staff attrition increased caseloads for the City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) thrown at a continuously reduced staff, and the premature closure of solid cases to reduce workloads and create more impressive numbers are just some of the reasons named behind the clog in the slow-turning wheels of justice.

According to the Mayor's Management Report from 2022, the average commission complaints take almost two years to resolve, and the quicker pre-complaint interventions take more than six months.

Both current and former CCHR workers point to the agency's severe staffing shortage, exasperated earlier this year by Mayor Adam's elimination of 20 positions. This left the CCHR with 70% fewer staff attornies responsible for most of the agency's investigative work than what the agency had five years ago. 

One of the main frustrations of New Yorkers is their inability to stop landlords and brokers who do not suffer consequences, even for outright refusing to rent, to those receiving government assistance to pay their rent. This is despite the fact that source-of-income discrimination has been illegal since 2008. 

And as CCHR staff has petered out, the City Council has continued to expand the definition of human rights law violations without an equal expansion on the City's ability to enforce the law. 

The agency's investigative branch currently has fourteen staff attorneys, whereas the CCHR boasted forty-nine nearly six years ago. 

As far as the source of income discrimination complaints, according to Gothamist,  56% of the complaints during 2022 – were administratively closed, which means the commission did not make any final determinations as to whether or not there was probable cause in discrimination allegations.

In the meantime,  the commission still has the right to administratively close cases for any reason, including if the complainant can't be located, if a case requires a "disproportionate investment" of agency time, or if the case sat idle for 180 days.

According to the Gothamist, CCHR staff have admitted that administrative case closures are the only way to clear the backlog, especially regarding cases requiring months of investigation. The method is allegedly utilized even more near the end of the year due to pressure from higher-ups who feel the need to improve performance data for the mayor's biannual management report used in the Comptroller's assessment.

In a first concrete step to address the ongoing hue and cry, the mayor agreed last week to create seventeen new positions for the special unit that enforces the laws for source-of-income discrimination. Only time will tell if seventeen will be enough.