Evictions are soaring in NYC and most tenants don’t have a lawyer
June 11, 2023, 7:21 p.m.
City Comptroller Brad Lander is demanding the state adjourn all eviction cases until everyone entitled to a lawyer can get one.
More than 100,000 eviction cases are clogging the courts, leaving nonprofit attorneys stretched thin and thousands of New Yorkers facing the prospect of losing their homes. City Comptroller Brad Lander is demanding an immediate adjournment on all eviction cases in which low-income tenants are unable to get a lawyer.
There were 164,285 active eviction cases across the state as of early May – up 58% from last fall, according to a letter sent on Tuesday by Lander to the city’s Office of Civil Justice. Roughly 73% of tenants facing eviction did not have a lawyer as of mid-February – almost the reverse of what data showed early last year, when nearly 70% of tenants did have an attorney, the letter said.
“The City must do everything possible to keep New Yorkers in their homes,” Lander wrote, calling on OCJ to push the state Office of Court Administration to adjourn pending cases without counsel.
Spokespeople for OCJ and OCA did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
The city's “right to counsel” law promises an attorney in Housing Court to tenants whose incomes are 200% below the federal poverty level – that’s roughly $29,000 for one person or less than $60,000 for a family of four – free of charge.
The law has a track record of reducing evictions, which fell by around 30% after the legislation was implemented in 2017, according to the Community Service Society of New York. The vast majority of tenants with a lawyer – 86% – kept their homes.
“Legal representation in housing court has proven to be an incredibly effective intervention to prevent homelessness,” Lander’s letter read.
The city’s homeless shelter population fell by 22% when officials froze evictions early in the pandemic, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office.
Nonprofit legal service providers haven’t been able to keep up with the hundreds of thousands of eviction cases filed by landlords since the moratorium was lifted – leaving thousands of New Yorkers without an attorney. Last year, 15% of all tenants were targeted for eviction, according to CSSNY – the highest share in a decade.
In April, a coalition of nonprofit attorneys asked the city to set aside $461 million to make “right to counsel” a reality in housing court.