With a backlog of 200,000 eviction cases pending in NYC housing courts, residents, advocates and lawmakers braved the freezing weather Monday to protest tenants’ inability to access lawyers.
On March 28, Bronx tenants, organized by New Settlement’s membership-driven tenant organizing project Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA), along with other members of the Right to Counsel Coalition and elected officials, gathered in front of the Bronx Housing Court on Grand Concourse to protest tenants being denied Right to Counsel by the courts.
The rally comes after the refusal of the state Office of Court Administration (OCA) to consider the request of the Right to Counsel Coalition — to only schedule eviction cases in a volume that matches legal service providers’ capacity and adjourn cases that are eligible for representation under the Right to Counsel law.
