Despite a city program that aims to connect some low-income renters with free legal representation to stave off eviction, thousands of tenants are left to fend for themselves in housing courts.

From March to October, legal services providers declined to take on more than 10,000 eviction cases, according to Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration that oversees the state’s court system. During the same time, providers accepted 21,240 cases.

Another 12,000 cases have “limited” participation by providers contracted by the city to represent low-income tenants in housing courts, Chalfen added.

With the pandemic-spurred eviction moratorium lifted last January and a backlog of cases facing the court system, housing advocates and legal service providers say they simply don’t have enough lawyers to meet the growing need.

But to understand the current predicament (and how to fix it), let's explore how the Right to Counsel program works.

What is Universal Access to Legal Services —more commonly known as Right to Counsel?

In 2017, New York City became the first municipality in the nation to pass a law that gives some low-income tenants facing eviction in housing courts access to free legal services. The goal of the program was to keep people in their homes by providing them a lawyer to represent them in eviction proceedings. Most landlords commonly have lawyers representing them.

The city set aside $166 million in fiscal year 2022 to pay for tenant legal services throughout the five boroughs. The program covers certain tenants living in all types of housing: market rate, rent-stabilized, rent-controlled, Section 8, and NYCHA.

In subsequent years, 17 cities across the country passed similar laws of their own, said Susanna Blankley, coalition coordinator for the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, a tenant-advocacy group that lobbied for the law.

Who is eligible?

Tenants, regardless of their immigration status, whose annual income is less than 200% of the federal poverty guidelines are eligible for this program. For 2022, that means a single person earning less than $27,180 a year, $36,620 for a family of two, or $55,500 for a family of four.

If you or someone in your household is receiving SNAP benefits, you are likely eligible for a free lawyer.

If it’s called a “Right” to Counsel, why are some people not getting lawyers?

“It is not a right in the sense of a constitutional right,” said Nakeeb Siddique, the director for housing at the Legal Aid Society’s Brooklyn office.

The first sentence of the law says it’s “subject to appropriation,” that means the program is determined by how much funding is available, Siddique said. If political headwinds change or there’s a turn in the economy, the City Council and the mayor can decide to shut down the program.

And buried in the body of the law is a sentence that says: “Nothing in this chapter of the administration or application thereof shall be construed to create a private right of action on the part of any person or entity against the city or any agency, official, or employee thereof.”

So, if you’re a tenant facing eviction and you’re eligible to have a lawyer represent you free of charge but didn’t get one, you’re out of luck.

“In other words, you can't sue under the law to get a lawyer,” Siddique said. “It creates no obligation on anybody and no entitlement for anybody.”

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who was the prime sponsor of the bill that became law when he was in the City Council, said lawyers in former mayor Bill de Blasio administration insisted on including that language.

Blankley of the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition disagrees. She said the law creates an “entitlement” program and the city advertises it as such. But an analysis by the news organization The City last month found that fewer than 10% of new cases were assigned lawyers in September.

Why can’t all eligible low-income tenants facing eviction get a lawyer?

There are simply not enough housing court lawyers.

Housing courts are facing an enormous backlog of cases that piled up for two-and-half-year when the court suspended eviction proceedings throughout the state during the coronavirus outbreak. State lawmakers, who had imposed a moratorium on eviction, lifted that order on Jan. 15. Since then, landlords have taken more tenants to court and new cases are adding additional work on an overloaded system.

Advocates have unsuccessfully lobbied former New York State Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and her interim successor to slow down the pace of cases and direct judges to postpone cases in which tenants are not represented by lawyers.

But that’s not possible, said Chalfen. He said there are laws and regulations dictating how judges move cases through the court system.

“The provider’s, along with a number of elected officials, only solution is to continue to ask the Courts to discriminate by assessing which cases to commence, delay, or adjust when they will be heard, solely on who is petitioning the court, which would set a dangerous and potentially unconstitutional precedent,” said Chalfen.

And it’s a problem money can’t solve

At least not in the short term.

Aside from a shortage in lawyers who know housing and eviction law, even if there were enough lawyers, it would take time to hire, train, and bring them up to speed, say housing experts.

If you are facing eviction and can’t get a lawyer through the city program, here is what you can do

  • Call the Housing Court Answers’ hotline at 212-962-4795 or 718-557-1379 from Monday through Friday (9am-5pm) to speak with an advocate.
  • Call 311 and ask for Right to Counsel.
  • The Right to Counsel NYC Coalition put together a 26-page guide to help you advocate for yourself in court. The English guide can be found here. While the Spanish version is here.
  • It’s important that you go to court or file a response. If you don’t, your landlord wins by default.
  • Ask the judge for an adjournment. It buys you time to find a lawyer. A sample of an adjournment letter from the Right to Counsel Coalition can be found here in English, or in Spanish.
  • Ask for emergency assistance under a city program known as One Shot Deal, which gives eligible applicants a one-time payment to cover expenses such as back rent. The program is run by the city’s Department of Human Administration. This program only pays for the rent you owe. It does not pay for rent going forward. Apply here.
  • If your landlord is evicting you for non-payment of rent, apply for money under the Emergency Rental Assistance Program or ERAP. By applying, it suspends the eviction proceeding against you even if you don’t get the money to help you pay the rent you owe.
  • Connect with community organizing groups, like the Right to Counsel Coalition. They will help you navigate the court system and lend support.