Right to Counsel Success

One factor that has increased the number of people experiencing homelessness in New York City is the eviction of low-income tenants from their homes. Historically, a low-income tenant facing an eviction proceeding in Housing Court was at a serious disadvantage compared to their landlord because of one very important factor, landlords always had legal representation.

To counter this imbalance, in 2017, NYC became the first city to adopt the Right to Counsel (RTC), also known as Local Law 136, that established a right to free legal counsel in eviction cases. This major step forward in protecting low income tenants came after many years of advocacy by dedicated organizations and individuals supporting the rights of tenants facing the potential loss of housing. RTC provides tenants with household incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, $50,200 annually for a family of four, with no cost access to attorneys. Legal representation for an individual facing an eviction proceeding helps to ensure a ‘level playing field’ for the tenant; something that was not available before RTC.

Recently, the Community ServiceSociety (CSS) published an analysis of the first-year results of RTC. It concludes that the first phase of the program (with $15M in funding for the first year) has been extremely successful. RTC initially targeted 20 of the City’s 200+ zip codes. The 20 zip codes selected are high need areas of the city that have offered a clear picture of the impact of RTC. So the question is...Is having counsel important to protecting a poor tenant from eviction? The answer is a resounding YES! Navigating Housing Court procedures requires expert advice and understanding of often confusing and seemingly incomprehensible rules. Comparing RTC zip codes to non-RTC zip codes in just over one year has shown that evictions declined more than five times faster in RTC zip codes than in similar non-RTC zip codes. Legal counsel – a determinant factor. On top of that, the number of eviction cases filed in NYC’s housing courts has started to drop--down almost 10 percent since 2014.

According to the City Office of Civil Justice (OCJ) – which oversees RTC, “56 percent of tenants facing evictions in RTC zip codes had attorneys…[and] of the approximately 22,000 New Yorkers represented by OCJ-funded attorneys in FY 2018, 84 percent were able to remain in their homes.” It is impossible to imagine that this result would have been possible without the presence of legal counsel protecting the rights of the households faced with eviction. Of course, other policies such as rent regulation, just cause evictions laws and code enforcement, etc. must be present in order to reduce evictions and increase housing stability, but RTC is a decisive step in preserving housing stability for low income tenants.

The Right to Counsel program is set to expand across the entire city by 2020.  All told, it is predicted to potentially impact 784,000 households. The program’s impact will be great and will be felt for years to come! In addition, the two principal sponsors of RTC, Council members Vanessa Gibson and Mark Levine, are fighting to expand the right to counsel to households with incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty level that would also include legal representation in appeal cases with Intro 1104. This is an even stronger stance in empowering tenants and preventing homelessness for New Yorkers struggling to afford the rising costs of living in New York City, join us in contacting your City Council representative to ask them to co-sponsor Intro 1104. You can find your representatives here. 

Click here for May 2019 Policy Matters Newsletter