While Mobilization for Justice’s staff union has particular grievances—they say their employer has failed to stay competitive with its peers—many members are experiencing a strain familiar to tenant lawyers citywide.
While supporters say New York City’s right to counsel program needs additional funding to cover all the qualified tenants who need the legal help, they’ve also hailed it a success, and are now pushing to replicate it statewide.
“Vulnerable New Yorkers are suffering from predatory landlords, an overburdened court system, and an economy that continues to sideline them. They deserve better from their city.”
Recent clarifications and updates to city funding terms have alleviated some fears among legal service nonprofits while sparking others, as the organizations demand Mayor Eric Adams’ administration stop the contracting process and start over.
An experienced, full-time tenant lawyer can effectively take on 48 eviction cases per year, according to a highly-anticipated report released Aug. 31 by a state court working group.
Nonprofit legal service providers often file group lawsuits that assist tenants fighting landlord harassment across an entire building. But a new solicitation appears to impose limits on this preferred strategy for winning repairs and rent reductions.
New York City is setting unreasonable expectations for nonprofit attorneys tasked with staving off evictions across the city, according to a protest letter submitted Thursday by the Legal Aid Society.
Amid a record-breaking homelessness crisis, there are some bright spots. Mayor Adams has dedicated roughly $4 billion in capital funding to construct affordable housing—a campaign promise that he fell short on last year. Yet staffing cuts and shortages still plague the city agencies tasked with assisting homeless New Yorkers.
Lawyers who represent tenants facing eviction in housing court are poised to see millions of dollars in new funding in the coming year, yet far less than the roughly $350 million boost they’ve said is needed for the Right to Counsel program to live up to its name.
“It’s a complicated question,” said Rosalind Black, citywide housing director at Legal Services NY, which aids tenants under the landmark city initiative to provide free representation to low-income New Yorkers facing eviction in housing court. Though the results have been overwhelmingly positive, the program has never been funded to cover every eligible tenant.
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