Borough President Mark Levine and state Senator Brad Hoylman joined forces with a tenant coalition Wednesday to demand city courts stop processing eviction cases without legal representation.
In 2017, the City Council passed a bill that committed to provide free legal services to low-income tenants facing eviction proceedings in housing court.
As housing courts across the five boroughs have begun processing the 200,000-case backlog of eviction filings that the state legislature had put on hold during the pandemic, Levine and the tenants groups are saying that the city is failing to live up to its promise.