Spiking Evictions Renew Calls to Reform NYC Marshals System

Last year, marshals served more than 13,000 evictions, up from 5,000 in 2022, and just 268 in 2021, when the pandemic eviction moratorium was still in place. Over the past five years, six of the city’s 28 marshals were cited for errors during evictions.

If you’re on the business end of an interaction with a city marshal, it’s probably one of the worst days of your life.

New York City’s marshals enforce court orders on behalf of the city. They carry out evictions, garner wages, boot cars, and seize property. But marshals aren’t city employees; they’re private contractors paid to enforce civil court orders—and some of them make millions doing so.

Last year was the most profitable on record for the city’s marshals, according to revenue data on the city’s open data portal. Income for 28 active Marshals totaled more than $19 million in 2023, up from the $11 million they made 2022.

The financial boon comes amid surging evictions and newly public investigations into marshal misconduct. Last year, marshals served more than 13,000 evictions, up from 5,000 in 2022, and just 268 in 2021, when a pandemic eviction moratorium was still in place. Over the past five years, six of the 28 marshals were cited for errors during evictions.

Most cities and states use salaried city sheriffs, not private contractors, to carry out evictions, according to Eric Dunn, litigation director at the National Housing Law Project.

“Why do we do it this way?” asked Nakeeb Siddique, a supervising attorney with the Legal Aid Society.

In New York City and Albany, legislators want the government to take a closer look at the marshal system to see if it needs to be tweaked—or eliminated. But it’s not clear what an alternative system would look like, or if it would improve outcomes for tenants.

When evictions rise, marshals profit

New York City Marshals get paid per eviction by private litigants—typically landlords—and the city gets a cut. The more orders they serve, the more they make.

Last year, city marshals served 13,448 evictions and made $19.5 million in income, both highs since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. During 2020-2021, when the eviction moratorium protected vulnerable renters from eviction during economic uncertainty, marshal revenue plummeted to just $4 million each year. 

Marshals also make money from garnishing wages, booting cars, and collecting other debts. Some marshals do more evictions than others—but it's challenging to tell how much money they make from evictions specifically.

“We don’t track our numbers by type of marshal action,” said Department of Investigation (DOI) Director Jocelyn Strauber at a City Council oversight hearing in May. Marshal revenue data is released once a year, and while the city’s DOI has the power to collect records from marshals, most of the data lies with the private businesses.

“There should be a lot more transparency in what they're doing,” said Councilmember Gale Brewer, who convened May’s oversight committee meeting. “Maybe some of what they earn or what they do should be more on some kind of a dashboard.”

The health of many marshals’ businesses, and the amount of money the city collects in fees, are linked to how many evictions the courts order.

The revenue the city receives from marshals—some $1.8 million in 2023—also fluctuates with how much business marshals do. Marshals pay the city an assessment fee each year: $1,500, plus 5 percent of their income.

The business can be quite lucrative. In 2023, Marshal Ileana Rivera served 1,012 evictions and made over $1.3 million in net income (when reached for comment, Rivera’s office referred City Limits to the DOI). In all, eight marshal businesses raked in over $1 million in net income last year.

“It’s obscene that someone would be profiting off this,” said Jenny Laurie, executive director of Housing Court Answers, an advocacy group that aids tenants and small homeowners. 

Errors during evictions

On Aug. 11, 2023, Marshal George Essock Jr. arrived to evict a 76-year-old veteran. A few days before, he contacted the city’s Adult Protective Services (APS) office, standard procedure when evicting a vulnerable older adult.

But Essock arrived at the eviction 15 minutes early, and completed it swiftly, leaving the site before APS arrived. The DOI cited Essock for the incident, writing that in doing so he “failed to allow [APS] the opportunity to provide aid as APS deemed appropriate.”

It’s one of six investigations by DOI in the past five years into errors by marshals during evictions, according to records obtained by City Limits through a Freedom of Information Law request. Essock did not respond to messages seeking comment. 

While New York is not the only city to contract out eviction responsibilities, it does have robust regulations on marshal procedures. The city’s DOI is responsible for making sure they are followed.

“At least in theory, this marshal system seems at least as good, if not significantly better, than the procedures available in most jurisdictions,” said NHLP’s Dunn. But enforcement is another matter. 

“Just because you have this handbook [with] detailed rules and procedures to follow doesn't always mean that the actual marshals doing the work are adhering to all that,” Dunn said.

Many of the errors cited in DOI investigations were the result of miscommunications between marshals and a web of agencies and actors involved in executing an eviction, records show.

In addition to the failure to notify APS, other misconduct included failing to report the theft of drugs and money from an apartment, verbal altercations with tenants, executing an eviction without providing proper notice, and failing to contact animal control, leaving a cat alone in an apartment. 

Many marshals contacted for this story deferred comment to the Marshals Association of the City of New York, a trade group that represents marshals and lobbies on their behalf in Albany. 

“The overwhelming majority of marshal interactions are successful executions as officers of the court,” a spokesperson for the organization said in response to written questions from City Limits. 

Marshals have packed schedules—often serving multiple evictions each day—and a lot to oversee in a short time. They might need to coordinate with APS, DOI, lawyers, and their own staff, take inventory, and liaise with landlords and tenants.

“They're on the clock and that led to some of the problems that I've seen,” said Munir Pujara, deputy director of the public benefits unit at Legal Services NYC.

That hastiness has led to other errors, sometimes unreported, that Pujara says he's observed in his work, like marshals shorting inventories of tenants’ belongings, failing to provide all necessary documents, or not allowing people to grab important medication or essential items.

Marshals counter that errors are rare: “marshals effectively communicate on thousands of interactions,” said Michael Woloz, spokesperson for the Marshals Association.

The Marshals Bureau within DOI oversees marshals, fields complaints, and makes referrals. But there’s no central office coordinating the eviction docket. Marshals coordinate with law firms and landlords to carry out the business of evictions, and the DOI steps in as needed to audit their finances or investigate complaints.

During testimony before the City Council oversight committee, representatives from DOI said they have received 550 complaints, conducted 30 investigations, and taken disciplinary action against 11 marshals since 2019.

“DOI, like every City agency, could always use more resources for the work we do, including in our oversight of the marshals. However, DOI continues to meaningfully and properly oversee the marshals with its four-person Marshals Bureau,” said DOI Director of Communications Diane Struzzi in a statement to City Limits, adding that the team has an annual budget of $361,700.

That accountability structure—where courts, agencies, law firms, and private companies must collaboratively operate to get the market for evictions to function—puzzles some.

“That is not how government works,” said Brewer. She contrasted it with how other city agencies operate, from the City Sheriff to the Department of Consumer Affairs. “You know, it's public, you can make it public so it’s clear what the issue is. It's harder here because it's a private individual.”

Marshals’ occasional missteps and miscommunications aren’t always high-profile enough to get the attention of the DOI, advocates say. 

“Those everyday mistakes have consequences for tenants,” said Laurie.

A common frustration is knowing when an eviction is actually going to be served. Usually, tenant lawyers and advocates call marshals’ offices to find out if a warrant has been issued and when an eviction is scheduled. But some marshals are easier to reach than others, advocates and lawyers working with tenants say.

“Some marshals are very chill… And the other situations, I don't know why, there's hostility for people asking simple questions about a life-changing thing,” said Imani Henry, the founder of Flatbush for Equality, a community group that helps tenants facing eviction.

Attached to a bill renewing marshals’ responsibilities this year, legislators in Albany made a tweak to fix one communication gap: requiring that marshals post warrants of eviction on the state court system site, where tenants, lawyers, and advocates tracking cases can access them.

The changes took effect immediately. “DOI is working with relevant stakeholders to issue guidance on this issue as quickly as possible,” said DOI’s Struzzi.

Siddique warned that in order to be effective, the notice needs to be posted on the same day paper notices are served.

“This doesn't create any new or substantive right for tenants. But what it does do is provide more real time notice to tenants,” said Siddique.

“I think for those folks who don't have access to the internet or don't have a smartphone, can’t use a computer, this particular measure doesn't really help them that much,” he added.

Calls for change

Marshals have served court orders in New York since the city was a Dutch colony in the 1600s.

Advocates have long called for changes to the system, citing the potential for corruption, little oversight, and criticizing an incentive structure where marshals do well when New Yorkers face economic hardship.

But reform requires elusive city and state coordination. In 2019, City Marshal Vadim Barbaraovich resigned for serving levies outside of New York City and lying to the DOI about it. In 1980, 10 marshals were criminally convicted in an auction-rigging scheme.

“They’ve been trying to reform this as long as I’ve been doing this work. None of it has worked,” said Housing Court Answers’ Laurie, a 20-year veteran of eviction defense. “Without a movement to organize voters, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Marshals’ authority must be extended in Albany every two years. According to lobbying records from the New York State Open Data Portal, the Marshals Association spent $519,000 on lobbying since 2019, meeting with legislators about laws to renew marshal authority, increase fees, and renew the power of marshals to collect debts from court-ordered money judgments. 

Political contribution records show donations to various campaigns totalling $54,400 from addresses associated with the Marshals Association in the past 10 years.

In 2019, the association met with former Manhattan Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou about a bill she introduced to study the system, including investigating “the feasibility of abolishing the office of city marshal.”

Assemblymember Harvey Epstein reintroduced the bill in the 2024 session.

“The marshal system is really under the radar,” Epstein told City Limits in an interview, adding that he couldn’t find a Senate sponsor for the bill. “What are we doing by incentivizing it and what options are available to us? Those are the questions I think require answers.” 

Councilmember Brewer, who leads the City Council’s oversight committee, told City Limits that she wants to convene a working group of state and city leaders to study the role of marshals and put some solutions on the table.

The next opportunity for reform would come with a renewal in 2026, according to legal experts. 

One common proposal is to make marshals more like sheriffs—salaried city employees who enforce court orders. Supporters suggest it may be easier to provide oversight of public servants rather than private contractors.

“DOI has not studied the costs and benefits of such a change and therefore cannot offer a view,” said DOI’s Struzzi.

There’s no guarantee that a sheriff-like system would be better. Sheriffs execute some residential evictions—they served 36 from January to May 2024, according to Department of Finance Director of Public Information Ryan Lavis—but advocates warn that they are not as experienced with residential evictions.

A spokesperson for the Marshals Association argued that making marshals into city employees would cost taxpayers “many millions of dollars annually.”  

“There are hundreds of employees that work for marshals offices and they are provided salaries, healthcare and retirement plans by these marshal offices—not the city,” Woloz said in an email. 

But a 2019 Internal Budget Office report suggested that when accounting for the revenue the city would capture from serving judgements, making marshals city employees would net the city $11 million annually.

“Making the marshall, you know, work for the government more directly, and have a different relationship with the landlord and have it monitored—those are definitely great ideas,” said Legal Services NYC’s Pujara.

But questions of oversight and incentives are downstream of a housing crisis that is accelerating evictions at a rapid pace. Until legislators take to reform, or the housing market cools, marshals will be busy.

The key is making sure the system works so that no one falls through the cracks, housing advocates say, and trying to prevent evictions before they are warranted by improving rental assistance programs or fully funding the city’s right to counsel.

“Even one unnecessary and pointless eviction that could have been avoided is one too many,” said Legal Aid Society’s Siddique.

Had an interaction with a marshal or failed to receive your eviction notice? Email [email protected] or [email protected] 

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