Tenants Are Finally Getting the Right to an Attorney in Housing Court

In what tenant advocates call a “huge victory,” the City Council passed long-awaited legislation yesterday that will guarantee low-income tenants facing eviction in Housing Court the right to a city-funded lawyer.

The bill, first introduced in 2014 and passed by a 42-3 vote, will fund legal representation for tenants making less than twice the federal poverty level, currently $24,120 for a single person and $49,200 for a family of four. It will launch first in ten to fifteen zip codes around the five boroughs and expand to cover the full city over the next five years. Mayor Bill de Blasio — who initially opposed the measure on the grounds that it would cost too much and that he was already increasing spending on legal services, then endorsed it in February — has indicated he will sign the bill, releasing a statement saying it “will help more people stabilize their lives and keep roofs over their heads.”

“This is truly historic,” says Jenny Laurie, executive director of Housing Court Answers, which provides legal advice to tenants representing themselves in Housing Court (as well as the small minority of landlords who don’t have attorneys). “It means that hundreds of thousands of tenants who go to court without lawyers and face eviction will have access to justice.”

The bill makes New York the first city to establish a right to counsel for defendants in Housing Court, where a substantial majority of tenants facing eviction have no legal representation. Jonathan Lippman, former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, has called the idea “civil Gideon” — a reference to Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 Supreme Court decision that guaranteed criminal defendants the right to a lawyer if they couldn’t afford to hire one. Tenants below the income limits facing eviction cases will get full legal representation, while those who make more will still be entitled to advice and what the council calls “brief legal assistance.”

Read more: https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/07/21/tenants-are-finally-getting-the-right-to-an-attorney-in-housing-court/