The de Blasio administration recently announced that in the citywide implementation of the Right to Counsel program in 2020, 100% of tenants with calendared eviction cases had access to legal services, and 71% of tenants who appeared in Housing Court had full representation by attorneys – nearly double the pre-pandemic rate of 38%, and an exponential increase over the 1% of tenants who had lawyers in 2013.
To date since 2014, the city has provided legal services to more than 500,000 New Yorkers, including approximately 100,000 New Yorkers who utilized this program during the COVID-19 pandemic period in Fiscal Year 2021. To educate New Yorkers about housing instability, raise awareness of Right to Counsel and promote the availability of these anti-eviction resources for tenants, which have achieved proven positive results, the city is also launching a public awareness campaign.
