New York City housing court is literally bursting at the seams just two months after the COVID-era eviction moratorium was lifted.a wave of 18,000 new eviction filings so far this year on top of a backlog of 200,000 pending cases.
In the rush to clear the case backlog, the city’s Office of Court Administration is scheduling cases so quickly that tenants barely have time to secure an attorney, according toWhat’s alarming is the pending eviction case count does not include at least 32,000 New York City Housing Authority households behind on their rent and facing possible eviction. The agency, which was owed more thanin back rent from 2021, thankfully last month dismissed all but 2,300 of the cases.
The program was established in 2017 to provide publicly funded eviction lawyers for low-income families. Under the program, a family of four that earns less than $55,000 a year qualifies for free legal representation in an eviction case.332,000 additional households would become eligible, including 186,000 in New York City, by a small increase in the income threshold to also make moderate-income families eligible for pro bono lawyers.