Editor’s Note: The following is an updated version of the story that appears in our latest print edition. 

 

On a frigid Monday morning, on March 28, Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), held a rally in front of Bronx Housing Court, the purpose of which was to sound the alarm on reports that some tenants are allegedly being denied their Right to Counsel (RTC), and to ask the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to stop cases moving forward where tenants are, reportedly, being denied such legal representation.

 

According to its website, CASA’s mission is “to protect and maintain affordable and safe housing through collective action.” The Right to Counsel law was enacted in 2017 to ensure low-income New Yorkers receive legal representation in housing court. At the time, New York City was the first in the country to offer this protection to tenants.

 

Randy Dillard, a tenant leader at CASA, and Yoselyn Gomez, a community leader for CASA, were the emcees at the rally. Dillard spoke about the importance of the current moment. “The eviction protections we fought for lapsed in January,” Dillard said, referring to the expiration on Jan. 15, of the State moratorium on COVID-19-related residential and commercial evictions, which had been in place throughout the pandemic.

 

“Now, we have hundreds of thousands of cases moving through the court. We know judges and court staff are overwhelmed by the backlog of cases. We can’t expect our legal service representatives to be able to support folks in a meaningful way if they have 40 or 50 cases and sometimes more.”

 

He then shared the demands of the group. “We need these cases to slow down,” Dillard said. “No one should lose out on their right to counsel. That’s why we are demanding the Office of Administration to send a clear message to court judges to stop putting new cases on the calendar.” He also recognized two individuals who were instrumental in the passage of the RTC law: Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson. In 2014, while serving as city council members, they introduced the RTC legislation.

 

Levine spoke to the crowd in both English and Spanish, explaining why the developments at Bronx Housing Court were concerning. “As Bronx Housing Court resumes in-person eviction cases, there are over 200,000 eviction cases pending in New York City right now, double the number [from] last year. The number of eviction cases is growing so fast that it has now overwhelmed the legal protection system we put in place. There are tenants today who are not receiving their legally mandated right to counsel in New York City Housing courts.”

 

Levine offered some solutions to address these issues. “Slow down the pace of cases,” he said. “Do not allow any case to move forward if the tenant does not have an attorney. The court system has this power. The OCA has this power. We are demanding that the Chief Justice exercise this power to ensure that the legally mandated right to counsel is not violated at this moment when tenants are so vulnerable.” Levine concluded his remarks by praising Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson. “There would not be a right to counsel in New York City without Vanessa Gibson,” Levine said.

 

Paulette James, a tenant leader for Flatbush Tenant Coalition, experienced housing court firsthand. Her group, based in Brooklyn, works collectively to build tenant power. She warned the crowd that there would be dire consequences if the RTC law wasn’t respected by the OCA. “If you do not uphold the law, you will create the worst homelessness crisis that New York City has ever seen,” James said. “If you do not slow down eviction cases and respect tenants’ cases, you will drive us out of our homes. You will make thousands of New Yorkers homeless.”

 

Like James, Councilwoman Althea Stevens (C.D. 16) said she had also had experience of having to attend housing court. “I remember sitting there being scared, thinking that me and my daughter were going to be homeless, and having no one to turn to,” Stevens said. “This is personal. I will do everything in my power to stand with you.”

 

For her part, City Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez (C.D. 14) shared some of the conversations she had with neighbors in her building surrounding housing court. “I’ve had neighbors come to me, knock on my door because they know where I live,” Sanchez said. “They say, ‘Ms. Sanchez, I went to my first appointment, and I did not have an attorney. Miss Sanchez, how come I don’t have an attorney?’”

 

Manhattan City Councilman Shaun Abreu (C.D. 7) later highlighted the burden being placed on legal service providers due to the backlog in cases. Prior to being elected to the city council, Abreu was a tenant rights lawyer. “We’re seeing 80 cases for each lawyer,” Abreu said. “I had 30 to 40 and I was drowning. Imagine having 80 cases? We also know right now that there’s the great resignation of young attorneys. Lawyers are leaving because of how much they’re inundated by the capacity and the caseload.”

 

His solution was for the OCA to set an upper limit on the number of housing cases that one judge can put on the calendar at a time.

 

Andy Jones, staff attorney at Mobilization for Justice, echoed those sentiments. The mission of his organization is to “achieve social justice, prioritizing the needs of people who are low-income, disenfranchised, or have disabilities.” “We are all at max capacity,” Jones said. “Nonetheless, the Human Resources Administration has no plan to deliver the necessary funds to hire enough attorneys to meet the demand. The OCA, here, has no plans to slow down the number of cases despite numerous pleas from legal services providers. It’s fully within all the judge’s powers to adjourn the cases.”

 

Atenedoro Gonzalez also spoke, saying that both he and Councilman Oswald Feliz (C.D. 15) were former tenant attorneys. He delivered a message on behalf of Feliz. “Having a lawyer makes the process of applying for government aid and applying for public assistance easier, and the numbers show it,” Gonzalez said. “More than 85 percent of tenants who are represented by lawyers were able to keep their homes. Lawyers find ways to help those families afford their homes.”

 

Indeed, according to a 2019 Office of Civil Justice report entitled “Universal Access to Legal Services,” 84 percent of households represented in court by lawyers were able to stay in their homes.

 

One of the last speakers at the rally was Manhattan Councilwoman Carmen De La Rosa (C.D. 10), who vowed to continue fighting for tenants. “We are here to stand in solidarity, but also say that this is a call to action,” De La Rosa said. “Because if you don’t stand with tenants, you don’t stand with people. We are a city council that responds to the pain of our community. So, we’re here and we’re going to stand with you. We’re going to continue to fight and we’re asking this court right here to do right by the tenants that have built up The Bronx.”

 

The rally concluded with Yoselyn Gomez thanking everyone for attending and leading the chant,“Inquilinos, unidos, jamás serán vencidos! Tenants, united, will never be defeated!”

 

Norwood News contacted the Office of Court Administration (OCA) for comment on the rally, and a spokesperson responded, saying, “We have repeatedly maintained that the inability of Right to Counsel providers, such as LSNYC and Legal Aid, to meet their contractual obligations and to be able to manage their operations, will not adversely affect the functioning of Housing Court.”

 

The spokesperson continued, “The providers are contracted through New York City’s Office of Civil Justice, not the court system. We have been in conversations with OCJ about this continuing issue. Last month, LSNYC declined more than 475 cases in The Bronx. The cases were sent to resolution parts for both parties to begin settlement negotiations. Also, the tsunami of filings […] predicted have not materialized.”

 

Norwood News has contacted both The Legal Aid Society and LSNYC for comment. The Legal Aid Society responded and referred us to a press release which read, in part, “According to recent reporting, there are currently more than 200,000 eviction cases pending in New York City Housing court, with an additional 7,000 new cases filed each month. Last month, Legal Services NYC had to reduce its intake in the Bronx, yet the OCA moved tenants’ eviction cases forward anyway without legal representation.”

 

The statement continued, “This past November, RTC providers notified stakeholders, including OCA, about these looming issues. During the pandemic, the City abandoned RTC’s staggered rollout by zip code, instead opening up RTC citywide, including those households earning more than 200 percent of the federal poverty line to keep New Yorkers safely housed during the pandemic. RTC providers met the challenge, representing all tenants who needed help in response to the extraordinary circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, even with constant changes in the law. Now providers are at capacity, and OCA’s unwillingness to cap the calendaring of cases to provider capacity is compromising RTC’s ability to provide competent, client-centered representation.”

 

Adriene Holder, attorney-in-charge of the civil practice at The Legal Aid Society, said, “We are disappointed that OCA will not engage with all stakeholders to address the post-pandemic surge in demand, and instead is calendaring cases in such a way to deny tenants legal representation. Simply put, this will gut New York’s historic Right To Counsel initiative.” She added, “Our clients need OCA to both immediately slow down and cap the calendaring of cases to ensure that pending and future cases receive the highest quality of representation and due process, as required by the Right To Counsel legislation. Our clients, low-income Black and Latinx New Yorkers, will continue to suffer should OCA fail to act.”

 

The same press release contained a statement on the issue by Raun Rasmussen, executive director of Legal Services NYC, who said, “We are facing a crisis in our housing courts right now with tenants facing eviction without representation.” Rasmussen added, “Now more than ever, we need the Court’s and the City’s help to find solutions that ensure as many tenants as possible get the legal help they need to stay in their homes, by slowing the calendaring of cases in housing court and capping the number of cases according to our capacity. We all fought hard to make the Right to Counsel a reality and we must all work together now to make sure we continue to make good on our promise of free legal representation for all tenants who need our help.”

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.