The New York City Council's decision to offer free counsel to low-income tenants facing eviction is being applauded by legal service providers and the New York City Bar Association, which praised passage of the "historic legislation."
The city council on July 20 approved the "Right to Counsel in Housing Court," a bill that would establish programs to ensure legal representation for all tenants facing eviction within the next five years.
"Providing a lawyer to a tenant facing eviction not only increases the likelihood that the tenant will be able to avoid eviction, thereby reducing displacement, disruption and homelessness, but should also be highly cost-effective," the city bar said in a statement.
According to a 2016 study by the city bar, there is a 77 percent decrease in eviction warrants issued to tenants who had an attorney in Housing Court compared to those who did not, independent of the merits of the case.
The bill would provide low-income tenants access to full representation, whereas others would be eligible for brief legal assistance. A coordinator would designate legal service providers to tenants in specific geographical areas.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has signaled his support for the bill. He previously had objected to providing lawyers for New York City Housing Authority tenants, but the bill was amended to include a pilot program to provide tenants with legal services in NYCHA eviction proceedings, but only at the discretion of the administration.
The program is expected to help more than 400,000 tenants.
City Councilman Mark Levine, who introduced the bill last year with Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, said it would help "keep families together and in their homes" and signals a new era for tenants in the city.
"Never will tenants be evicted to homeless shelters because they could not afford a lawyer," he added during his speech before the council.
According to a report by the New York City Office of Civil Justice, only 27 percent of tenants who appear in Housing Court are represented by an attorney, in contrast to 99 percent of landlords. There were 22,000 evictions in the city last year, the report said, with the highest number in the Bronx.
Leyla Martinez, a longtime Bronx resident who testified in favor of the bill last fall, was evicted in June 2015 and had to struggle for a year to get back into her home until Kamilla Sjodin, a lawyer with the Urban Justice Center agreed to represent her pro bono and helped her return home in about a month.
Beth Goldman, president and attorney-in-charge of the New York Legal Assistance Group who also testified at the 2016 hearing, said that every day "tenants unwittingly waive crucial rights and defenses in their eviction proceedings because they are unrepresented and unaware of their legal options and remedies."