16,000 Claims a Year Suck Billions of Dollars out of New York City's Affordable Housing Market
NEW YORK, March 11, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Milford Street Captive Insurance Company, a members owned-insurance company for affordable housing providers, today released the first of its kind data on the extent and scope of the litigation environment in which New York City's affordable housing and rent-stabilized providers operate. Using housing data provided by New York University's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, New York City's PLUTO (Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output) and Legal Claims AI extracted data from the New York State's Court System, Milford Street has analyzed, sorted and aggregated the first ever data set that exposes the stress that New York's highly active litigation environment puts on the affordable housing market. The data was presented at the New York Housing Conference's Affordable Housing Policy Forum.
Summary of findings:
- New York City has approximately 199,000 multi-family (Class 2) residential buildings
- Approximately 41,000 (20%) of these buildings are either rent-regulated and/or received another form of public subsidy
- Approximately 158,000 (79%) are market rate buildings
- There are currently 27,000 lawsuits against these 199,000 buildings. They are premises, slip and fall and negligence claims
- 15,000 (56%) are targeted against the affordable and rent-stabilized buildings
- 12,000 (44%) are targeted against the market rate buildings
- Affordable and rent-stabilized housing buildings are 2.9 times as likely to have a claim brought against them than market rate housing
"New York City and State invest billions of dollars each year into New York City's affordable housing market," said John A. Crotty of Milford Street Captive Insurance Company. "These claims, when aggregated, add up to billions of dollars each year that get sucked out of the market and much of it ends up in the pockets of plaintiff attorneys and litigation finance lenders. The Legal Litigation Industrial Complex file claims at an unrelenting pace and upwards of 90% get settled with payouts average close to six figures.
"This money is diverted from keeping our affordable housing stock in a state of good repair, keeping rents low and from having government invest in the development of new affordable housing. With thousand distressed buildings, a shortage of new housing and housing quality declining, we have a stark decision to make. We either enact the necessary reforms, or we allow the affordable housing market to collapse under the weight of litigation claims and insurance premiums."
"It is a privilege to work with Milford Street to bring transparency to New York's Courts and legal system," said Keith Minella, CEO of LegalClaims.AI. "We have connected the dots and can paint a vivid picture of New York's claims environment. This information can be used to create better public policy, increase efficiencies and help root our fraud."
"Rising insurance costs are a growing threat to affordable housing," said Rachel Fee of the New York Housing Conference. "We commend Milford Street for conducting this analysis and expect this new data to help inform urgently needed policy solutions."
"New York State's confusing and opaque litigation reporting systems has lacked transparency until now," said John A Crotty. "We can now see law firms, their claims and targets, and disturbing trends and pattens have been revealed. Law firms with 20 attorney who somehow manage thousands of clients and file multiple claims every day. New York is a litigation mill; with aggressive attorneys and eager litigation financiers who financial heft overwhelms New York's tort system.
About Milford Street Captive Insurance Company (Milford Street):
Milford Street is domiciled in Vermont and will be regulated by Insurance Division of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. The program has been reviewed by New York State Department of Financial Services and conforms to all applicable regulations.
About LegalClaims.AI
LegalClaims.AI is a technology company that develops litigation analytics and data-matching platforms to identify and analyze legal claims across court systems. The company's platform integrates court filings, insurance information, and external datasets to create structured insights regarding litigation activity, claim patterns, and legal exposure. LegalClaims.AI's technology is used by healthcare providers, insurers, and other institutional stakeholders to better understand the legal and financial environment in which they operate.
Media Contact
Jordan Barowitz, Milford Street Captive Insurance, 1 9175773402, [email protected], https://milfordstreetassociation.com/
SOURCE Milford Street Captive Insurance
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