"New York City has agreed to pay $130,000 in legal fees and damages to 10 older or disabled residents who said they were unfairly removed from the Rent Freeze Program after their spouses or parents died.

In June, the residents, joined by the city’s public advocate, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan to seek relief and bring attention to what they considered flaws in the laws, which were created in 2014.

The new laws were expected to help more people qualify for a rent freeze by raising the limits on income. But the city’s Finance Department also instituted a rule giving people just 60 days to reapply for the programs if the head of the household who had initially qualified for the benefit died. The Rent Freeze Program, which includes the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption Program and the Disability Rent Increase Exemption Program, had previously given survivors as long as six months to reapply."

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