Testimony: With Uptick in Evictions, NYC Must Fully Fund Right to Counsel
Oksana Mironova
Thank you to the New York City Council Committee on General Welfare for holding a hearing on NYC’s Right to Counsel law. My name is Oksana Mironova and I am a senior housing policy analyst at the Community Service Society of New York (CSS). We are a leading nonprofit that promotes economic opportunity for New Yorkers. We use research, advocacy, and direct services to champion a more equitable city and state.
We have been tracking New York’s eviction trends for decades. From 2020 to 2021, New York held off a sharp increase in evictions with rental assistance programs and an eviction moratorium. With the end of the moratorium in early 2022, eviction filings climbed sharply. Our 2022 Unheard Third Survey–the longest running survey of low-income people in the US–shows that 15 percent of all tenants were targeted for eviction, the highest share in a decade. Families with children under 18 account for nearly half of attempted evictions, while making up only 28 percent of New York City’s households.
As a result of the uptick in evictions, one in five tenants of all incomes – and nearly one in four low-income tenants – have had to move in with others because of financial reasons in 2022.
In late 2017, New York became the first city in the country to implement a Right to Counsel (RTC) law. RTC proved to be effective from the onset. Looking back at two years of data in late February 2020, we found that evictions in zip codes covered by RTC declined by 29 percent, 13 points more than in non-RTC zip codes with similar eviction, poverty, and rental rates. Further, 84 percent of tenants with access to counsel in eviction cases were able to stay in their homes. The data shows that RTC was extremely effective in bringing eviction rates down in NYC.
Unfortunately, today, more and more eligible tenants are facing housing court without legal counsel as thousands of eviction cases move forward without RTC. Last year, 14,000 tenants with eviction cases were denied their legal right to an attorney. Analysis by the publication The City last year showed that tenants living in upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and northeast Queens and the Rockaways had the least access to attorneys.
New York City must do more to defend and uphold RTC, including:
- Demanding that the courts pause eviction cases for RTC-eligible tenants until they are able to be represented by a lawyer.
- Working to ensure that all tenants who have been denied RTC are able to access counsel.
- Ensuring that the Office of Civil Justice (OCJ) establishes a regular meeting schedule with tenants and organizers.
More broadly, the City of New York must fully fund Right to Counsel to avoid destroying this highly effective strategy for preventing evictions at a critical time. The city allocated $166 million to cover the cost of Right to Counsel, but extreme labor shortages among legal service providers are proof that this amount is simply not enough. RTC is funded at about 70 percent of its current cost, without accounting for changes that are vital, including fair salaries for legal services workers and caseloads that ensure all tenants receive the best possible representation. The city must increase the RTC budget by at least $70 million, while looking to further increase the funding to achieve its full potential.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. If you have any questions about my testimony or CSS’s research, please contact me at omironova@cssny.org.