## Facts

- New York City, through its Department of Social Services (DSS) and Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), undertook to provide emergency housing for homeless families with children.
- Families alleged the emergency accommodations were grossly substandard, including rooms without furniture, bedding, or appliances, and units lacking adequate heat, hot water, plumbing, electricity, and basic security.
- Plaintiffs sought an order requiring the City to provide emergency housing that was safe, suitable, and adequate for families already receiving emergency housing assistance.
- The trial court issued a preliminary injunction requiring that when the City provided emergency housing to eligible families, the housing meet minimum standards of sanitation, safety, and decency; it did not order the City to provide additional housing.
- After the injunction, DSS promulgated formal regulations governing emergency housing standards that were more rigorous than the trial court’s injunction.
- The Appellate Division vacated the injunction, reasoning that questions about the adequacy of welfare-related benefits were committed to the political branches.
- Plaintiffs appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, which addressed whether the trial court had equitable power to issue the preliminary injunction regulating conditions of emergency housing already being provided.

## Issues

1. Whether a trial court may, through equitable relief, require a municipality that has undertaken to provide emergency housing to homeless families with children to meet minimum standards of sanitation, safety, and decency.
2. Whether such an injunction improperly intrudes on legislative and executive discretion over welfare and housing policy.
3. Whether promulgation of later, stricter administrative regulations eliminates or limits the court’s power to issue or maintain injunctive relief.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed the Appellate Division to the extent it vacated the preliminary injunction and remitted for further proceedings.
- The court held that the trial court possessed equitable power to issue a preliminary injunction regulating the conditions of emergency housing the City had undertaken to provide.
- The court emphasized the injunction’s limited scope: it governed quality and habitability for families already receiving emergency housing, and did not expand eligibility or compel provision of additional housing.
- The court rejected the view that the welfare context categorically barred equitable relief, distinguishing policy formation from judicial enforcement of existing legal duties.
- The later promulgation of stricter DSS regulations did not eliminate the question of judicial power and was consistent with the existence of enforceable standards.

## Legal Principles

- New York trial courts have broad equitable authority to fashion remedies once jurisdiction attaches, including injunctive relief to enforce legal obligations of government officials.
- Courts may require government conduct to conform to existing constitutional and statutory duties, even when the dispute arises in the administration of social services.
- An injunction that sets minimum standards for conditions of services already undertaken is materially different from an order creating or expanding a benefit program.
- Traditional preliminary injunction criteria apply; if supported by the record, courts may act to prevent irreparable harm from unsafe or unsanitary conditions while the merits are litigated.
- Subsequent agency regulations addressing the same subject do not, by themselves, negate judicial power to issue equitable relief enforcing minimum standards.

## Conclusion

The court held that when a municipality has undertaken to provide emergency housing to homeless families with children, a trial court may use equitable powers to require that the housing meet minimum standards of sanitation, safety, and decency, and it reinstated the preliminary injunction subject to further proceedings on remand.


McCain v. Koch, 70 N.Y.2d 109 (N.Y. 1987)