Arnold Fernandez is many things: a father, husband and soon to be grandfather. He’s also one of many struggling New Yorkers facing eviction.

“I’ve never been to a shelter. I’ve seen a lot of news about the shelters, but I’ve never been to one,” he said.

What You Need To Know

  • Arnold Fernandez is one of four New Yorkers facing eviction that are hoping to join a class action lawsuit to expand the city's housing program known as CityFHEPS 

  • CityFHEPS is a program aimed at helping homeless New Yorkers that was expanded by the City Council in the last year to include those facing eviction

  • The lawsuit looks to force the Adams administration to implement the changes to the program.

  • City argues the changes to the voucher program can only be made by the Department of Social Services and not the City Council 

Fernandez, 65, lives in a three-bedroom rent-stabilized apartment in Bayside, Queens, with his family.

The Queens resident said his troubles stem from a traumatic accident in 2018, while driving his 18-wheeler. He said the crash accelerated his vision loss. 

“When the truck flipped over, I fell behind a couple of payments,” Fernandez said.

Since then he has been unable to work full time, his wife has become his caretaker and last year was declared legally blind. 

Fernandez owes around $50,000 in rental arrears and is facing eviction. He has been in his apartment for 15 years and is hoping for a miracle.

“I trust in God. I have very high trust in God. I leave it up to him,” he said as he got weepy at his home. “My family has been separated for many years. I really don’t want them separated more from what I am right now. I want to stay together.” 

Fernandez and three other New Yorkers are hoping to join a class action lawsuit Monday, initially brought against the city by the Legal Aid Society and the City Council over a rental assistance voucher known as CityFHEPS. 

CityFHEPS is a program aimed at helping homeless New Yorkers that was expanded by the City Council in the last year to include those facing eviction. 

“These tenants had reached the very end of the line in housing court eviction proceedings. The marshall was scheduled to come to their apartments and fortunately we ran to court and Judge Frank signed an order that was able to temporarily stop their evictions,” Edward Josephson, a supervising attorney in the Civil Reform Unit at the Legal Aid Society.  

The lawsuit looks to force the Adams administration to implement the changes to the program. 

But lawyers for the city have maintained that the authority to make changes with the program lies with the Department of Social Services and not the City Council. 

The City Council and the Legal Aid Society disagree. 

“The city Department of Social Services is answerable to two different bodies. It’s answerable to the state Department of Social Services and the City Council,” Josephson said. 

In a statement to NY1, City Hall cited all the work the mayor had done on housing from eliminating the 90-day rule for vouchers to helping 9,000 New Yorkers avoid shelter in 2023. 

“But let’s be clear: having already expanded access and eligibility to CityFHEPS, and with roughly 10,000 households in shelter currently using CityFHEPS vouchers to find housing in an incredibly tight housing market, we know that the most important thing we can do right now to connect New Yorkers to housing is to actually build and preserve more housing,” a City Hall spokesperson wrote in a statement Friday. 

But back in Bayside, Fernandez just wants a chance to stay in his home.  

“Somebody [has] to open their heart in New York," he said.