All –

Exactly 2 months ago, Mayor Adams signed the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity (CoYHO) into law. You may remember that I sent out an email blast telling you that “We MUST file a lawsuit against this mess, and we have to do it quickly.”

Since then, our coalition has been working feverishly towards that goal.

Through consistent outreach and generous donations from civic/homeowner organizations and individuals, we have raised over $65,000 so far towards this effort, with all contributions going to the Queens Civic Congress, a registered 501c4 charity, who has agreed to be the fiscal conduit for this effort.

After a careful interview process, we have retained (again, through the Queens Civic Congress) Jack Lester, Esq., as our main attorney to bring the case to court. We also have a stable of other attorneys and experts – including myself – who are assisting in the shaping of the lawsuit.

This is important, as this lawsuit, known as an Article 78 proceeding, must have all of its information introduced at the beginning of the action. Once it has been filed, we only have 20 days to amend it. After that, no additional information may be added.

There is an enormous amount of information that we must submit to make sure that we have all of our arguments well-documented and give us the best chance of getting an injunction, followed by the Courts agreeing that CoYHO was decided in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner and is therefore unlawful.

The Article 78 proceeding must be filed within 120 days of the approval by Mayor Adams, which would be April 17th, 2025. Our plan is to file in mid-March, significantly prior to the deadline.

In order to best represent your community, we still need your help:

If you or your organization would like to be a plaintiff in this case, please get in touch with me. The main criteria are that you, your organization or your neighborhood will be adversely affected by CoYHO – and that’s pretty much everyone who lives in New York City. We already have numerous individuals, organizations and elected officials who have agreed to be plaintiffs, but we can never have enough in this kind of situation.

Contribute to the cause. As we stated previously, we anticipate that we will need to reach $250,000 before this is over.

Queens Civic Congress
P.O. Box 604957
Bayside, NY 11360
(Please put “City of Yes Legal Fund” in the memo)

And the link for electronic donations:
Donate to Legal Fund

Note: These donations are not tax deductible.

I will be giving another update within the month, prior to the lawsuit being filed. In the meantime, as I said before: never forget the elected officials that have supported us from the beginning and during this process – and those that shill for the real estate industry, donors and lobbyists who voted for this City of Mess, or who are now running for Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate, Borough President or City Council.

Thanks,

Paul Graziano
Founder
Save1FamilyNY.org
Reach out at (718) 309-7522 or save1familynewyork@gmail.com