Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy
Volume XXVIII, Number 2, Winter 2021

ARTICLESPower and Possibility in the Era of Right toCounsel, Robust Rent Laws & COVID-19
Erica Braudy* and Kim Hawkins
New York City (NYC) finds itself in an unprecedented housing crisis as thecoronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic reveals with devastating force that safe,
sustainable and affordable housing is both a human right and a public healthnecessity. The profound humanitarian and economic devastation of COVID-19
puts millions of New Yorkers at risk of eviction—especially those within Blackand Latinx communities. In addition, the pandemic hit just as the legal
landscape for tenants was transformed through landmark legislation ensuring
the Right to Counsel in eviction proceedings and sweeping reforms of New
York’s rent laws. The unparalleled COVID-19 pandemic, the influx ofhundreds of new tenant attorneys resulting from the Right to Counsel, and therobust rent law reforms fundamentally alter the role and powerful potential of
housing advocacy and the very function of NYC’s Housing Court. These three
forces provide an opportunity for housing attorneys representing low-income
tenants to imagine new and creative ways to provide housing security and build
tenant power.
This Article canvasses the fundamental shifts in the NYC housing
landscape and the movement to expand tenants’ rights. It urges lawmakers totake bold action to avoid an eviction pandemic and shield tenants from
homelessness and crushing debt. Next, it lays a blueprint for housing attorneys,
both experienced and novice, to aggressively use the new tenant-friendly rentlaws, creatively maximize underused tools, and leverage their collective
strength to re-envision housing as a human right. The combination of the Rightto Counsel, which has filled the ranks with passionate tenant attorneys, anempowered and progressive state legislature, and a vibrant tenants’ movement
has created a powerful force to demand comprehensive and far-reaching* Clinic Coordinator, New York Law School Housing Rights Clinic, Supervising Attorney in the
Housing Unit of a New York City legal services provider.
Professor of Law, New York Law School, Stephen J. Ellmann Dean for Clinical and Experiential
Learning. The authors would like to thank Veronica Cook, Ed Josephson, and Andrew Scherer for theirthoughtful comments on earlier drafts. Thank you to Dean Anthony Crowell and Academic Dean William
P. LaPiana for summer research support. Thank you to Peggy Earisman, Roz Black, Marika Dias, SethHoy, Yasmina Dardari, Chavette Jackson, Rajiv Jaswa, Stephanie Storke, Roni Druks, and Alessandra
Lacorazza. Thank you to Doni Gewirtzman and Rebecca Roiphe, and members of the Faculty Scholarship
Workshop at NYLS; Michele Gilman, Anika Singh, Patience Crowder, Heather Abraham, and Allyson
Gold from the New Clinical Writer’s workshop held at NYU School of Law; Victoria Borges King and thewonderful team at the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy. Finally, the authors thank Gabrielle
Hain for outstanding research assistance. © 2021, Erica Braudy and Kim Hawkins.

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housing and racial justice for all New Yorkers and redefine the housing worldthat lies beyond the virus.
I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 119
II. THE PROBLEM: THE EVICTION CRISIS ........................................................... 120
A. New York’s Eviction Crisis ....................................................................... 123
B. The Impact of COVID-19 .......................................................................... 124
III. AN ARMY OF HOUSING RIGHTS ATTORNEYS: THE RIGHT TO COUNSEL ..... 129
A. Brief History of NYC’s Housing Court ..................................................... 130
B. The Right to Counsel ................................................................................. 132
IV. HISTORIC CHANGES TO THE RENT LAWS: HOUSING STABILITY ANDTENANT PROTECTION ACT (HSPTA) ................................................................ 134
V. THE FIERCE TENANT ATTORNEY: RE-ENVISIONING THE HOUSINGATTORNEY’S ROLE AND AGGRESSIVELY USING UNDERUTILIZED TOOLS ........ 141
A. Address Systemic Racism .......................................................................... 141
B. Fight Landlord Neglect and Ensure Safe and Habitable Housing ........... 146
1. Prohibit Landlords from Collecting Rent if Documented Repair
Conditions Exist for More than Six Months. ...................................... 147
2. Put Non-Payment Cases on Hold Where a Landlord Refuses to Repair
Apartment. .......................................................................................... 148
3. Force Landlords to Repair Apartment Through an Affirmative HP
Case..................................................................................................... 148
4. Organize Tenant Takeover of Buildings Effectively Abandoned by
Owners ................................................................................................ 149
C. Combat Tenant Harassment ..................................................................... 149
D. Challenge Unethical Behavior in Court with Sanctions ........................... 151
E. Hold Landlords Accountable for Failing to Act........................................ 151
VI. THINKING BIGGER: HOUSING AS A HUMAN RIGHT ..................................... 152
A. Cancel Rent ............................................................................................... 153
B. Expand Right to Counsel, Eviction Prevention & Access to
Affordable Housing ....................................................................................... 154
C. Invest in Community Land Initiatives & End Apartment
Warehousing .................................................................................................. 155
D. Abolish Summary Proceedings & Possessory Judgments in
Housing Court ............................................................................................... 156
E. Reimagine Housing as a Human Right ..................................................... 157
VII. CONCLUSION............................................................................................... 158

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I. INTRODUCTION
New York City stands at a crossroads. In the face of a public health crisis, it
has the opportunity to be bold and unrelenting in its provision of justice for lowincome tenants. After decades of tenant organizing, in 2017, NYC became the firstjurisdiction in the country to provide a Right to Counsel for tenants facing
eviction.1 This was a watershed moment for tenants and resulted in the hiring of a
new army of tenant attorneys.2 In June 2019, the New York State (NYS) legislature
passed historic legislation extending and broadening rent laws, increasing tenant
protections and providing housing lawyers new avenues to fight for tenants’rights. 3 March 2020 brought the destabilizing and dangerous COVID-19
pandemic, a public health and economic crisis of still-unfolding epic proportions.4
Armed with new tools, housing attorneys must continue to combat a reality
where tens of thousands of New Yorkers live paycheck to paycheck and lack safe
and affordable housing. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that safe, secure andaffordable housing is both a human right and a public health necessity—especiallyin communities of color that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. Working
alongside a strong tenants’ movement, housing attorneys can push the newly
empowered state legislature to shift power and win the fight for tenant justice. This
moment invites many to reimagine housing in NYC, rethink how the system
functions, and shift the common understanding of real estate from an investment
for a rich few to a basic right for many.
This Article calls on New York City lawmakers to act boldly in the face of
uncertainty, think expansively and act creatively to guarantee all New Yorkers
secure and sustainable homes. The Article provides a blueprint for capitalizing on
the dual effects of an army of new tenant attorneys and new laws to advance thelegal rights of tenants. Part II locates these changes in the context of the eviction
crisis and the devastating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives andlivelihoods of low-income New Yorkers. Part III summarizes the history andpower of the Housing Court and traces the arc of the movement to secure the Rightto Counsel through tenant organizing and legislative action. Part IV charts thehistoric changes in New York’s rent laws under the Housing Stability and Tenant
1. Mayor de Blasio Signs Legislation to Provide Low-Income New Yorkers with Access to Counsel
for Wrongful Evictions, THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE CITY OF N.Y. (Aug. 11, 2017),
https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/547-17/mayor-de-blasio-signs-legislation-provide-lowincome-new-yorkers-access-counsel-for#/0.
2. See Abigail Savitch-Lew, City Tackles Roll-Out of Right to Counsel in Housing Court, CITY LIMITS(Jan. 17, 2018), https://citylimits.org/2018/01/17/city-tackles-roll-out-of-right-to-counsel-in-housingcourt/ (“Legal Services NYC has expanded its housing units from about 50 to about 250 attorneys andparalegals across the five boroughs over the past couple years”).
3. New Rights for Tenants: Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, LEGAL SERVICES
OF THE HUDSON VALLEY (Sept. 19, 2019), https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/articles/2019/new-rightstenants-housing-stability-and-tenant-protection-act-20191#:~:text=%2D%20Starting%20in%20October%202019%2C%20landlords,help%E2%80%9D%20evicti
on%20is%20a%20crime.
4. See Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), CTR. FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (Feb.
6, 2021), https://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus/coronavirus-2020.html.

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Protection Act. Against this backdrop, Part V presents underutilized tools that canbe aggressively leveraged by housing attorneys to further tenants’ rights. Finally,
Part VI concludes with a new vision for tenants and their advocates in the fight for
safe, habitable homes in this new era of tenants’ rights.
II. THE PROBLEM: THE EVICTION CRISIS“Eviction isn’t just a condition of poverty; it’s a cause of poverty.”5
The federal government defines “affordable housing” as housing that requires
paying no more than 30 percent of household income toward rent.6 Low-income
families in the United States are increasingly “rent burdened,” meaning they arepaying more than half their income toward rent.7 There are an estimated 30-40
million people – including essential workers and their children—who are at risk oflosing their homes as COVID-19 continues to ravage the economy and health ofmillions.8 However, the vast scale of the impending eviction crisis lays bare theprecarious position that many families faced before COVID-19 hit. Nearly half ofrenter households were rent burdened before the pandemic—spending more than
30% of their income on rent on average.9 For families living under the poverty line,
a majority paid more than 50% of their income on rent, with one in four people
paying an astounding 70% of their income just to keep a roof over their head.10
There is a high cost of such an extreme rent burden. Many individuals are one
job loss or health crisis away from eviction. Evictions can be devastating anddestabilizing for individuals and families and create long-ranging negative effects.
Evidence shows that mothers who face evictions experience significantly higher
rates of material hardship and depression than their peers even two years after theeviction.11 Evictions can lead to high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and evenpost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).12 Evictions have an especially dangerous
and detrimental effect on children. 13 In fact, homelessness for New York City
students continues at disturbingly high rates—topping 100,000 or 1 in 10 kids in

5. Matthew Desmond, First-Ever Evictions Database Shows: ‘We’re In the Middle Of A Housing
Crisis’, NAT’L PUB. RADIO (Apr. 12, 2018), https://www.npr.org/2018/04/12/601783346/first-everevictions-database-shows-were-in-the-middle-of-a-housing-crisis.
6. Defining Affordable Housing, U.S. DEP’T OF HOUS. AND URB. DEV. (Mar. 17, 2020),
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-article-081417.html.
7. Oksana Mironova & Victor Bach, Tenants at the Edge Rising Insecurity Among Renters in N.Y.C,
CMTY. SERV. SOC’Y, at 11 (Apr. 2018), https://smhttp-ssl-58547.nexcesscd.
8. Emily Benfer et al., The COVID-19 Eviction Crisis: an Estimated 30-40 Million People in America
Are at Risk, Aꜱᴘᴇɴ Iɴꜱᴛɪᴛᴜᴛᴇ: BUSINESS & SOCIETY (Aug. 7, 2020), https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blogposts/the-covid-19-eviction-crisis-an-estimated-30-40-million-people-in-america-are-at-risk/.
9. See id.
10. Id.
11. See Matthew Desmond & Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, Eviction’s Fallout: Housing, Hardship, andHealth, SOCIAL FORCES 1, 25 (2015),
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/mdesmond/files/desmondkimbro.socialforces.2015.pdf.
12. Univ. Granada, The Enormous Impact of Home Evictions on Mental Health, Dɪꜱᴀʙʟᴇᴅ Wᴏʀʟᴅ
(Jan. 19, 2018), https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/housing/eviction.php.
13. See Eviction Hits Children Hardest, THE BRIDGE FUND OF N.Y. INC.,
https://thebridgefund.org/2016/06/05/eviction-hits-children-most/ (last visited May 1, 2020).

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2019. 14 In addition to the physical, mental and emotional impacts of eviction,
losing one’s home has severe financial implications.15
Systemic racism and sexism also intensify the eviction epidemic. As John O.
Calmore describes, “[R]acism operates so effectively that we seldom distinguishserious racist harms from a variety of other harms that categorically run from ‘badluck’ to ‘natural catastrophes.’”16 Systemic racism is deeply embedded in housing.
For example, discrimination in the rental market is rampant and welldocumented. 17 Researchers also recognize discrimination in evictions. 18 Studies
show that the racial make-up of a neighborhood is a significant factor in eviction
rates, even after controlling for income, property value, and other factors.19 Thesestudies also show that as the Black population of a neighborhood increases, theeviction rate increases. By contrast, when the share of white population increases,

14. New Data Show Number of NYC Students who are Homeless Topped 100,000 for FourthConsecutive Year, ADVOCATES FOR CHILD. OF N.Y. (Oct. 28, 2019),
https://advocatesforchildren.org/node/1403.
15. See Dyvonne Body & Financial Security Program, A Glimpse into the Eviction Crisis: Why Housing
Stability Deserves Greater Attention, ASPEN INST. (July 24, 2019), https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/aglimpse-into-the-eviction-crisis-why-housing-stability-deserves-greater-attention/ (explaining that losing a homethrough an eviction can have a deep impact on mental and financial well-being); see also Kathryn A. Sabbeth,
Housing Defense as the New Gideon, 41 HARV. J. L. & GENDER 55, 64 n.51, 54 (2018) (explaining thesignificance of housing on lower-income families’ household income).
16. John O. Calmore, Race/ism Lost and Found:The Fair Housing Act at Thirty, 52 U. MIAMI L.
REV. 1067, 1073 (1998).
17. See, e.g., Ali M. Ahmed & Mats Hammarstedt, Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market: A
Field Experiment on the Internet, 64 J. Uʀʙ. Eᴄᴏɴ. 362, 362 (2008) (demonstrating the effect of “ethnic
sounding” names on rental applications); Pouya Bavafa, The Intentional Targeting Test: A Necessary
Alternative to the Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact Analyses in Property Rentals
Discrimination, 43 Cᴏʟᴜᴍ. J.L. & Sᴏᴄ. Pʀᴏʙꜱ. 491, 491 (2010) (explaining how landlords rent
substandard apartments to minority groups for profit); Mariano Bosch et al., Information andDiscrimination in the Rental Housing Market: Evidence from a Field Experiment, 40 Rᴇɢ’ʟ Sᴄɪ. & Uʀʙ.
Eᴄᴏɴ. 11 (2010) (documenting the discriminatory behavior observed based on the names from various
ethnic groups on rental applications); Robert G. Schwemm, Why Do Landlords Still Discriminate (And
What Can Be Done About It?), 40 J. Mᴀʀꜱʜᴀʟʟ L. Rᴇᴠ. 455, 455 (2007) (“…the problem of racial
discrimination in rental housing [is the] painful and debilitating ailment”); see also Gladstone Realtors v.
Vill. of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 101–02 (1979) (“…Congress intended to reach all victims—both direct
and indirect—of housing discrimination by referring generally to those ‘aggrieved.’”); Zuch v. Hussey,
394 F. Supp. 1028, 1046 (E.D. Mich. 1975), aff’d and remanded, 547 F.2d 1168 (6th Cir. 1977)(“Congress’ intention in passing the [Fair Housing Act of 1968] was to end the unfairness of racial
discrimination forever”); United States v. Youritan Const. Co., 370 F. Supp. 643, 647 (N.D. Cal. 1973),
aff’d in part and remanded in part, 509 F.2d 623 (9th Cir. 1975) (finding that discriminatory instructions
given to rental agents resulted in the denial of apartments to blacks because of race); U.S. DEP’T OF
HOUS. AND URB. DEV., HOUSING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES (2012)
http://www.huduser.org/portal/ Publications/pdf/HUD-514_HDS2012_execsumm.pdf, archived athttps://perma.cc/MYT4- TRXV; Ann Choi et al., Long Island Divided, Nᴇᴡsᴅᴀʏ (Nov. 17, 2019),
https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/ (documenting undercoverinvestigation of racism in Long Island New York real estate market) (“For much of the twentieth century,
discrimination by private real estate agents and rental property owners helped establish and sustain stark
patterns of housing and neighborhood inequality.”).
18. Deena Greenberg et al., Discrimination in Evictions: Empirical Evidence and Legal Challenges, 51
HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 115, 115 (2016).
19. See, e.g., Benjamin F. Teresa, The Geography of Eviction in Richmond: Beyond Poverty, RVA
EVICTION LAB, https://cura.vcu.edu/media/cura/pdfs/cura-documents/GeographiesofEviction.pdf (lastvisited Mar. 12, 2021).

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the eviction rate declines. 20 Evictions are especially dire for Black and Latinx
women who suffer the most in the eviction epidemic, even before the COVID-19
pandemic.21
In addition, unemployment filings in the early months of 2020 shatteredprevious records. 22 Pandemic-related job losses fell disproportionately on lowincome households. 23 Black and Latinx communities have experienced
exceptionally high levels of unemployment and slow rates of job recovery.24 The
unemployment crisis has also hit women hardest—especially Black and Latinx
women.25 In December 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that all of the
140,000 jobs lost in that month were jobs held by women.26 The unemploymentcrisis hit Asian communities in NYC especially hard as well. By May 2020,
unemployment in NYC Asian communities jumped to 15% from 2.5% in February
2020, the greatest rate of increase among all racial groups across the country.27
Significantly, renters represent the majority of households with at least one
member in an occupation vulnerable to pandemic-related job loss.28 As many as
one in three renters were unable to pay rent in April and May 2020.29 This trend
continued throughout 2020.30
Harvard University published a study finding that Black households were themost likely to fall behind on rent payments, followed by Latinx, Asian, multiracial,and finally white households. 31 One critique of the study says it undercounts
certain Asian community members since the study was only conducted in English
and Spanish.32 Vulnerable Asian community members who face language barriers,
including those who are low-income, recent immigrants, undocumented, or elderly
20. Id.
21. Sabbeth, supra note 15, at 90.
22. Press Release, U.S. Bureau of Lab. Stat., Employment Situation Summary (2020),
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm.
23. What are the Housing Costs of Households Most Vulnerable to Job Layoffs? An Initial Analysis,
NYU Fᴜʀᴍᴀɴ Cᴛʀ.BLOG: THE STOOP (Mar. 30, 2020), https://furmancenter.org/thestoop/entry/what-arethe-housing-costs-of-households-most-vulnerable-to-job-layoffs-a [hereinafter What are the Housing
Costs].
24. ROGELIO SAENZ & COREY SPARKS, CASEY SCH. OF PUB. POL’Y, THE INEQUITIES OF JOB LOSS
AND RECOVERY AMID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC 1 (2020), https://carsey.unh.edu/publication/inequitiesjob-loss-recovery-amid-COVID-pandemic.
25. CLAIRE EWING-NELSON, NAT’L WOMEN’S L. CTR., ALL OF THE JOBS LOST IN DECEMBER WEREWOMEN’S JOBS 1 (2021), https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/December-Jobs-Day.pdf.
26. Id.
27. AAF, THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ASIAN AMERICAN EMPLOYMENT IN NEW YORK CITY (2020),
https://aafcovid19resourcecenter.org/unemployment-report/?mc_cid=6ffdf5cf0b&mc_eid=ddd4d683c8.
28. What are the Housing Costs, supra note 22.
29. Chris Morris, One-third of American renters didn’t pay in April, FORTUNE (Apr. 9, 2020, 11:03
AM), https://fortune.com/2020/04/09/apartment-renters-april-payments-coronavirus-unemploymentjobless/.
30. Caroline Spivack, As New York Hurtle Toward an Eviction Crisis, These are the Tenants Most at
Risk, Cᴜʀʙᴇᴅ Nᴇᴡ Yᴏʀᴋ (Aug. 19, 2020, 1:31 PM), https://ny.curbed.com/2020/8/19/21368734/new-yorkcity-eviction-crisis-rent-tenants-greatest-risk.
31. The State of the Nation’s Housing 2020, JOINT CTR. FOR HOUS, STUD. OF HARV. UNIV., 2 (2020)
https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/reports/files/Harvard_JCHS_The_State_of_the_Nations_
Housing_2020_Report_Revised_120720.pdf.
32. Amy Yee, It’s a Myth That Asian-Americans Are Doing Well in the Pandemic, SCI. AM. (Mar. 2,2021), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-a-myth-that-asian-americans-are-doing-well-in-thepandemic/.

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were likely excluded from the study and may be at particular risk of being
displaced from their homes outside the formal court process.33 As john a. powellwrites, “[R]acism need not be either intentional or individualist. Institutional
practices and cultural patterns can perpetuate racial inequity without relying on
racist actors.” 34 Put simply, there is nothing accidental about the devastating
economic toll and life cost that COVID-19 and accompanying eviction crisis
continue to have on Black, Latinx and Asian communities. Failing to take bold andintentional action to support those hit hardest by these crises will perpetuate racial
injustice.
A. New York’s Eviction Crisis
Anyone who lives in New York City knows the “Rent is Too Damn High.”35
Even before the pandemic, tenants in NYC, like those around the country,
experienced a convergence of factors that exacerbated the eviction crisis:increasingly unaffordable rents, stagnant wages, inadequate housing conditions
and increased landlord harassment.36 According to a 2017 report, of the 373,000
New Yorkers earning below the federal poverty level,37 seventy-eight percent of
those were severely rent burdened.38 New York City has lost over 280,000 rent
stabilized units since 1993, further leading to an unaffordability crisis in the city.39
In a blistering four-part report published in 2018, the New York Times highlighted
the eviction crisis and the travesty that tenants experience in their homes and in
Housing Court, “often-overlapping modes of harassment: by landlords’ fraudulent
or exaggerated claims, by disrepair and by overall court dysfunction.”40
In 2017, as New York City was on the cusp of passing the groundbreaking
right to counsel law to provide attorneys for low-income tenants in Housing Court,
the eviction crisis was in full swing.41 That year, landlords evicted approximately
21,000 families and individuals. 42 Once evicted, the barriers to finding another
33. Id.
34. john a. powell, Structural Racism: Building upon the Insights of John Calmore, 86 N.C. L. REV.
791, 795 (2008).
35. RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH, http://www.rentistoodamnhigh.org/index.html (last visited Jan. 24,2021). Rent Is Too Damn High is a political party that was founded in New York by Jimmy McMillan. See
Janell Ross, Breaking: The Rent is Indeed Too Damn High, WASH. POST (Jul. 8, 2015, 11:36 AM),https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/07/08/breaking-the-rent-is-indeed-too-damnhigh/.
36. Mironova & Bach, supra note 7; Desmond, supra note 5.
37. Rachel B. Morgan, 2017 Federal Poverty Level Guidelines, NAT’L CONF. OF STATELEGISLATURES (May 30, 2017), https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/2014-federal-poverty-levelstandards.aspx.
38. Mironova & Bach, supra note 7.
39. Kim Barker, Behind New York’s Housing Crisis: Weakened Laws and Fragmented Regulation,
N.Y. TIMES (May 20, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/20/nyregion/affordablehousing-nyc.html, (“Since city and state lawmakers started gutting the rent laws in 1993, the city has lost
over 152,000 regulated apartments because landlords have pushed the rent too high. At least 130,000 more
have disappeared because of co-op and condo conversions, expiring tax breaks and other factors.”).
40. Kim Barker et al., The Eviction Machine Churning Through New York City, N.Y. TIMES (May20, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/20/nyregion/nyc-affordable-housing.html.
41. Mironova & Bach, supra note 7.
42. N.Y.C. RENT GUIDELINES BOARD, 2018 HOUSING SUPPLY REPORT 3 (2018),
https://rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/18HSR.pdf.

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safe and affordable apartment are nearly insurmountable. 43 The rise ingentrification and the flat-lining of affordable housing created a competitive andshrinking housing market with a low city-wide vacancy rate.44 During a decadeand a half of population growth, the number of families in homeless shelters
tripled,45 further evidence of the intractable nature of the eviction crisis in New
York City.
B. The Impact of COVID-19
New York’s eviction crisis was made exponentially more dire by COVID-19.
In the early months of 2020, the pandemic hit New York City with devastating anddisproportionate force. At one point during the height of the crisis, NYC was theglobal epicenter of the pandemic.46 From late February 2020—the start of dailycase tracking by the NYC Department of Health of known COVID-19 cases—
through May 22, 2021, at least 2,091,142 New Yorkers tested positive for the virus
and 52,555 died.47 Rates of hospitalization and death have been highest among thecity’s poorest neighborhoods.48
Communities of color, especially Latinx and Black communities, have been
ravaged by the virus, 49 with the highest death rates in the city. 50 The
disproportionate health effects of COVID-19 are compounded by the patchwork
public health system in low-income neighborhoods, the history of discrimination
and unequal access to housing, overburdened hospitals and medical centers, andthe lack of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for essential workers
living and working in those neighborhoods. 51 Essential workers such as transit
workers, healthcare workers, food service workers and others have continued towork and risk daily exposure to COVID-19. Essential workers are
disproportionately low-income and from communities of color.52 Thus, these New
43. Barker et al., supra note 41; Oksana Mironova, Addressing the Eviction Epidemic- Analysis of2017 Data, CMTY. SERV. SOC’Y, Sept. 12, 2018, https://www.cssny.org/news/entry/addressing-theeviction-epidemic-2017-analysis#_ednref1.
44. Mironova & Bach, supra note 7, at 4.
45. Id.
46. Ben Guarino & Shayna Jacobs, New York City, Once the U.S. Epicenter of the Coronavirus,
Begins to Reopen, WASH. POST (June 8, 2020, 7:22 PM),https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/08/new-york-city-once-us-epicenter-coronavirusbegins-reopen/.
47. New York Coronavirus Map and Case Count, N.Y. TIMES (May 22, 2021, 1:31 PM),https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/new-york-coronavirus-cases.html.
48. Id.
49 . Jake Dobkin & Zach Gottehrer-Cohen, The Very Unequal Impact of COVID-19 On NYC
Neighborhoods, Gᴏᴛʜᴀᴍɪꜱᴛ (Apr. 13, 2020), https://gothamist.com/news/very-unequal-impact-covid-19nyc-neighborhoods.
50. COVID-19: Data Summary, N.Y.C. HEALTH (2020),
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page.
51. David Madland et.al., How the Federal Government Can Protect Essential Workers in theFight Against Coronavirus, CTR. Aᴍ. Pʀᴏɢʀᴇꜱꜱ, (Apr. 8, 2020),
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2020/04/08/482881/federal-government-canprotect-essential-workers-fight-coronavirus/.
52. See, e.g., Governor Cuomo Issues Guidance on Essential Services Under The ‘New York State
on PAUSE’ Executive Order, N.Y. Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ (Mar. 20, 2020), https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governorcuomo-issues-guidance-essential-services-under-new-york-state-pause-executive-order; Celine

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Yorkers who lack the option to work from home have had little choice but tocontinue working, while putting themselves at heightened risk of infection and theresulting health care costs.53
Apartment overcrowding—which often affects low-income communities andcommunities of color—is creating increasingly negative consequences during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Overcrowding, defined as more than one person per room,
is a symptom of an unsustainable housing affordability crisis.54 The number ofpeople per shared bedroom has become a more reliable indicator of increased
infection than housing density. 55 Reports show that crowded conditions within
homes, rather than housing density in a community, can better explain why someurban areas see higher infection rates.56 Overcrowding is not a new phenomenon
in New York City—the pandemic just shines deadly focus on the issue. 57 The
problem of overcrowding is particularly acute in the Bronx and Brooklyn, andespecially in areas of Queens, including Elmhurst and Corona where there are large
working-class and immigrant populations.58
The staggering scale of the pending eviction crisis, as well as the risk to publichealth presented by the courts themselves, forced the closure of NYC Housing
Courts on March 16, 2020.59 On March 20, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued

McNicholas & Margaret Poydock, Who are essential workers? A comprehensive look at their wages,
demographics, and unionization rates, ECON. POL’Y INST., tbls. 2, 3 (2020),
https://www.epi.org/blog/who-are-essential-workers-a-comprehensive-look-at-their-wagesdemographics-and-unionization-rates/; E. Tammy Kim, When You are Paid 13 Hours for a 24-Hour
Shift, N.Y. TIMES (June 30, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/opinion/coronavirus-nursinghomes.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage.
53. Adie Tomer & Joseph W. Kane, How to Protect Essential Workers During COVID-19,
BROOKINGS (Mar. 31, 2020), https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-protect-essential-workersduring-covid-19/.
54. This definition is provided by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
N.Y. BUR. FISCAL & BUDGET STUDS., NYC HOUSING BRIEF: HIDDEN HOUSEHOLDS 3 (2015),
https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/Hidden_Households.pdf.; Janaki Chadha,
New York City’s most crowded neighborhoods are often hardest hit by coronavirus, POLITICO N.Y.
(Apr.11, 2020, 12:29 PM EDT), https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/04/11/newyork-citys-most-crowded-neighborhoods-are-often-hardest-hit-by-coronavirus-1274875.
55. Conor Dougherty, 12 People in a 3-Bedroom House, Then the Virus Entered the Equation, N.Y.
TIMES (Aug. 1, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/business/economy/housing-overcrowdingcoronavirus.html; Haru Coryne, In Chicago, Urban Density May Not Be to Blame for the Spread of theCoronavirus, PROPUBLICA (Apr. 30, 2020, 2:00 PM CDT), https://www.propublica.org/article/in-chicagourban-density-may-not-be-to-blame-for-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus.
56. Coryne, supra note 53; COVID-19 Cases in New York City, a Neighborhood-Level Analysis,
NYU Fᴜʀᴍᴀɴ Cᴛʀ.: THE STOOP (Apr. 10, 2020), https://furmancenter.org/thestoop/entry/covid-19-casesin-new-york-city-a-neighborhood-level-analysis.
57. Kirk Semple, When the Kitchen is Also a Bedroom: Overcrowding Worsens in New York, N.Y.
TIMES (Feb. 29, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/nyregion/overcrowding-worsens-in-newyork-as-working-families-double-up.html (A 2015 report by NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer found thatbetween 2005 - 2013, overcrowding rose 19% to nearly a quarter million apartments. In 2016, the New
York Times reported that about 9 percent of all households or nearly 280,000 units in NYC were
overcrowded.).
58. Id.
59. Caroline Spivack, New York Halts Evictions Due to Coronavirus Pandemic, Cᴜʀʙᴇᴅ N.Y. (Mar.
20, 2020, 12:51 PM), https://ny.curbed.com/2020/3/16/21180842/coronavirus-new-york-state-evictionmoratorium.

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a 90-day state-wide moratorium on evictions,60 which was extended to August 20,
2020. 61 The Office of Court Administration extended the eviction moratorium
through October 1, 2020,62 but made clear that any additional eviction moratorium
would need to be authorized by the governor or the state legislature.63 The order
did not relieve tenants of the obligation to pay rent during the period of themoratorium, 64 thus many tenants fear a huge wave of evictions as soon as themoratorium is lifted.65
It is not an overstatement to describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
on the landscape of affordable housing and Housing Court as unprecedented.
Further, time is of the essence, as one study shows that lifting eviction moratoriums
without sufficient help for renters leads to increased COVID-19 cases and deaths.66
In May 2020, NYS passed a stop-gap bill, which created a $100 million voucher
program for individuals financially affected by COVID-19 making less than 80
percent of the median income.67 The relief would be paid directly to landlords, but
the legislation is widely seen as insufficient to avert an eviction crisis.68
On June 30, 2020, the NYS Legislature passed the Tenant Safe Harbor Act.69
This law provides protections against eviction by allowing landlords to seek only
monetary judgments for rent accruing during the pandemic – not possessory
judgments. 70 In other words, tenants who lost their jobs during the citywide
shutdown and cannot pay their rent will go into debt for the unpaid rent paymentsthat have been accruing since the start of the pandemic, but will not be forcibly
evicted from their homes. The forecast was that by the end of 2020, approximately
1.3 million renter households will accrue $7.2 billion in unpaid rent due to
60. N.Y. Exec. Order No. 202.8 (Mar. 20, 2020), https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-2028continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency.
61. N.Y. Exec. Order No. 202.28 (May 7, 2020), https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-20228continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency.
62. Emma Whitford, NY Courts Extend Residential Eviction Hold at Least to Oct. 1, Lᴀᴡ 360 (Aug.
12, 2020, 3:44 PM), https://www.law360.com/articles/1300646/ny-courts-extend-residential-evictionhold-at-least-to-oct-1.
63. Emma Whitford, NY Courts Say State Has 1 Month to Act on Eviction Hold, Lᴀᴡ 360 (Sept. 1,
2020, 3:09 PM), https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1306310/ny-courts-say-state-has-1-month-toact-on-eviction-hold?nl_pk=8472e572-d914-4884-95049938a98a1842&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newyork&read_more.
64.. Id.
65. Matthew Haag, A Moratorium on Eviction Ends, Leaving Thousands of Tenants Fearful, N.Y.
TIMES (May 4, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/nyregion/nyc-evictions-moratoriumcoronavirus.html
66. Leifheit et al., Expiring Eviction Moratoriums and Covid-19 Incidence and Mortality (Nov. 30,
2020) (unpublished article) (on file with SSRN),
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3739576.
67. Emergency Rent Relief Act of 2020, S. 8419, 116th Cong. (2020),
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s8419 (To be eligible tenants must meet the income
threshold, spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent and be able to document lost
income since March.).
68. Brian Kavanagh, Forwarding: Application for Emergency Rent Relief Act Funding Available
Starting July 16, N.Y. Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Sᴇɴᴀᴛᴇ, (July 14, 2020), https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/brian-kavanagh/forwarding-application-emergency-rent-relief-act-funding (“This rental
assistance program, while still not enough to meet the tremendous need that exist, is a step forward to
lifting a financial burden off our most vulnerable families”).
69. Tenant Safe Harbor Act, S. 8192B, 116th Cong. (2020) [hereinafter Tenant Safe Harbor Act].
70. Id.

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pandemic-related job losses. 71 This growing rental debt will disproportionately
affect Latinx households, Black households and one-adult family households
headed by women.72 In New York City, although the Rent Guidelines Board voted
to freeze rent for one year for rent-stabilized tenants in light of the COVID-19
crisis, 73 this offers no respite for renters who are struggling with current rent
obligations. According to the global advisory firm Stout Risius Ross, a jawdropping 1.2 million NYC renters face risk of eviction due to the pandemic.74 A
recent report shows that over 222,135 tenants have active, ongoing cases inhousing courts across New York State and can face swift eviction once the NYS
moratorium is lifted.75
On December 28, 2020, the NYS Legislature passed the COVID-19
Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020,76 which stayed mostproceedings and evictions for sixty days.77 It allowed tenants to submit a ‘Hardship
Declaration’ to further stay their cases through May 1, 2021.78 The Legislature
further stayed the eviction moratorium through August 31, 2021.79 The law boughttime for struggling tenants, but it did not address the underlying issues of mounting
debt and the risk of future evictions.
Although the Tenant Safe Harbor Act is keeping people in their homes for thetime being, it will create a generation of tenants carrying crippling debt even after
the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us. As such, this Article calls on the NYS
Legislature to take bolder action to cancel all rent accruing during this national
crisis. Nearly every industry in NYC has been ordered to close its doors and asked

71. Eileen Divring & Davin Reed, Household Rental Debt During Covid-19, FED. RSRV. BANKPHILADELPHIA, (Oct. 2020), https://www.philadelphiafed.org/community-development/housing-andneighborhoods/household-rental-debt-during-covid-19.
72. See id.
73 . NYC Rent Guidelines Board, Summary of Guidelines Adopted on June 17, 2020 (2020),
https://rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us/2020-summary-of-guidelines/.
74. Sydney Pereira, Looming Eviction Crisis Has NYC Renters Fearing The Worst, Gᴏᴛʜᴀᴍɪꜱᴛ (July30, 2020, 12:11 PM), https://gothamist.com/news/looming-eviction-crisis-has-nyc-renters-fearing-worst;
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/nyregion/new-york-evictionban.html#:~:text=As%20many%20as%201.2%20million,for%20at%20least%2060%20days;see Estimation of Household Experiencing Rental Shortfall and Potentially Facing Eviction, Sᴛᴏᴜᴛ,https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNzRhYjg2NzAtMGE1MC00NmNjLTllOTMtYjM2NjFmOTA4
ZjMyIiwidCI6Ijc5MGJmNjk2LTE3NDYtNGE4OS1hZjI0LTc4ZGE5Y2RhZGE2MSIsImMiOjN9 (lastvisited Jan. 24, 2021).
75. Lucy Block, 22,000 Tenants on the Brink and Counting, ASSOC. FOR NEIGHBORHOOD & HOUS.
DEV. (Mar. 17, 2021), https://anhd.org/blog/220000-tenants-brink-and-counting.
76. Emergency Eviction Prevention Act, S. 9114, 2019 Leg. (N.Y. 2020).
77. Id. Part A § 9. (The eviction stay provisions of the Act created a ‘Nuisance Exception’ and do
not apply where a pending or new petition alleges that the tenant is “persistently and unreasonably
engaging in behavior that substantially infringes on the use and enjoyment of other tenants or
occupants or causes a substantial safety hazard to others.).
78. Id. (Tenants need to submit the form stating that they or someone in the household lost income or
had increased costs during the pandemic, or if moving would pose a significant health risk for the tenantor their family.); See The COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020, N.Y.
COURTS (Dec. 28, 2020), https://www.nycourts.gov/covid-eefpa.shtml.
79. Sarah Taddeo, Cuomo Signs Bill Extending Eviction Moratorium to Aug. 31, DEMOCRAT &CHRONICLE (May 4, 2021, 6:00 PM EST),
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2021/05/03/ny-state-eviction-moratorium-extendedto-aug-31/4925995001/.

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to sacrifice financially in the name of public health and safety.80 Big landlords andreal estate management companies that have continued to profit over the past
decade81 should be asked to endure the same financial sacrifice as other industries
without putting a generation of people in insurmountable debt.
Congress earmarked approximately $50 billion in rental assistance money tohelp struggling renters.82 In its 2021 budget, New York State announced that it
received $2.3 billion in federal funding, and approved an additional $400 million
to expand eligibility, to assist tenants to pay up to one year of rent arrears and threeprospective months of rent for tenants affected by the pandemic who earn at or
below 80% of the area median income (“AMI”).83 To that end, NYS has createdthe Emergency Rental Assistance Program (“ERAP”) to administer applications
and distribute funds to landlords.84 While this allocation of money is positive andsubstantial, it will likely fall short of assisting all tenants in need.85 According to acomprehensive report, an estimated 800,000 – 1.2 million households will owe
between $2.5-3.4 billion in unpaid rent by January 2021.86 While the large influxof financial assistance will help many struggling New Yorkers, it may not go far
enough to stop a large wave of evictions caused by the COVID-19 economic crisis.
Given the dramatic impact of the eviction crisis, New York must take quickand decisive action to assist struggling tenants and keep them in their homes
without asking them to endure generational debt. NYS leaders must reimagine,strengthen and establish laws and policies to ensure all New Yorkers haveaffordable and sustainable housing, especially in the communities of color thathave been hardest hit by years of structural inequities and the newest assault of
COVID-19.

80. COVID-19: New York and Connecticut Among States Ordering Non-Essential Businesses
Closed, NAT’L L. REV. (Mar. 25, 2020), https://www.natlawreview.com/article/covid-19-new-york-andconnecticut-among-states-ordering-non-essential-businesses.
81. N.Y.C Rent Guidelines Board, 2020 Income and Expense Study, (Apr. 15, 2020),
https://rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2020-IE.pdf
82.Chris Arnold, Landlords Struggling to Stay Afloat See Lifeline in Covid-19 Relief for Renters,
NPR (Mar. 17, 2021 5:00AM), https://www.npr.org/2021/03/17/977441157/landlords-struggling-to-stayafloat-see-lifeline-in-covid-19-relief-for-renters.
83. Press Release, New York State Senate Brent Kavanaugh, Senate Majority Budget Resolution
Provides for Huge Investments in Housing and Homelessness Prevention (Mar. 15, 2021)
https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/brian-kavanagh/senate-majority-budget-resolutionprovides-huge-investments.
84
https://otda.ny.gov/programs/Emergency-Rental-Assistance
85. NAT’L COUNCIL STATE HOUS. AGENCIES, ANALYSIS OF CURRENT AND EXPECTED RENTALSHORTFALL AND POTENTIAL EVICTIONS IN THE U.S. (Sep. 25, 2020), https://www.ncsha.org/wpcontent/uploads/Analysis-of-Current-and-Expected-Rental-Shortfall-and-Potential-Evictions-in-theUS_Stout_FINAL.pdf.
86. Id.

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III. AN ARMY OF HOUSING RIGHTS ATTORNEYS: THE RIGHT TO COUNSELThe Right to Counsel law represents a dramatic shift in tenants’ rights that canupend the status quo and infuse fundamental fairness through the halls of Housing
Court. In the Spring of 2017, New York City became the first jurisdiction in the
country to provide a Right to Counsel for tenants in eviction proceedings.87 The
shift to guaranteeing attorneys to tenants in Housing Court significantly levels theplaying field and expands tenant power.88
The idea that equal justice for low-income tenants in civil cases required theassistance of counsel emerged soon after the Supreme Court extended the right tocounsel for defendants in criminal proceedings in Gideon v. Wainwright. 89
Following that case, many hoped that the Court would also recognize that due
process and fundamental fairness in civil cases were compromised in a system
where one party appeared with counsel and the other appeared pro se, and apply
the right to counsel where basic liberties were at stake.90
In the years following the Gideon decision, however, it became clear that thepath to a civil right to counsel would not arrive via the Supreme Court; rather, it
would be up to states and municipalities to create structures and processes forappointing counsel in civil cases. 91 In New York, the victory for tenants wasdecades in the making and the result of a broad coalition of housing advocates,
tenants, community organizers, legal services attorneys, and elected officials.92
This section discusses the history of the Housing Court and examines how NYC’s
Right to Counsel legislation led to the hiring of a new army of housing lawyers.

87. Mayor de Blasio Signs Legislation to Provide Low-Income New Yorkers with Access to Counsel
for Wrongful Evictions, OFF. WEBSITE OF CITY OF N.Y. (Aug. 11, 2017), https://www1.nyc.gov/office-ofthe-mayor/news/547-17/mayor-de-blasio-signs-legislation-provide-low-income-new-yorkers-accesscounsel-for#/0. The legislation uses the term “universal access” to counsel. The terms “universal accesslaw” and “right to counsel law” are used interchangeably in the literature and will be used interchangeably
here.
88. Id.
89. See Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 344 (1963) (holding that the Sixth Amendment right tocounsel in federal court applies to state court criminal proceedings, and that the appointment of counsel isfundamental to a fair trial); see also Laura Abel, A Right to Counsel in Civil Cases: Lessons from Gideon
v. Wainwright, 40 CLEARINGHOUSE REV. J. OF POVERTY L. AND POL'Y 271, 271 (2006); John Pollock, It's
All About Justice: Gideon and the Right to Counsel in Civil Cases, 39 ABA HUMAN RIGHTS 5, 5 (2013),
See generally, Kathryn A. Sabbeth, Housing Defense as the New Gideon, 41 HARV. J. L. & GENDER 55(2018); John Pollock & Mary Deutsch Scneider, A Retrospective on the National Coalition for a Civil Rightto Counsel, 47 CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW, J. OF POVERTY L. AND POL’Y 35, 37 (2013).
90. Sabbeth, supra note 91; Rachel Kleinman, Comment, Housing Gideon: The Right to Counsel in
Eviction Cases, 31 Fᴏʀᴅʜᴀᴍ Uʀʙ. L. J. 1507 (2004); Pamela Cardullo Ortiz, How a Civil Right to Counsel
Can Help Dismantle Concentrated Poverty in America’s Inner Cities, 25 Sᴛᴀɴ. L. & Pᴏʟ’ʏ Rᴇᴠ. 163(2014).
91. John Pollock, It's All About Justice: Gideon and the Right to Counsel in Civil Cases, 39 ABA
HUMAN RIGHTS 5, 5 (2013); Sabbeth, supra note 91.
92. Legal scholars have been writing about the need for a right to counsel in housing court for overthirty years. See Andrew Scherer, Gideon's Shelter: The Need to Recognize a Right to Counsel for
Indigent Defendants in Eviction Proceedings, 23 HARVARD C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 557 (1988). The right tocounsel in housing court would not have happened if not for the work of tenant organizers and tenantorganizations working in the context of the tenant’s rights movement in New York City. See generally
RIGHT TO COUNSEL NYC COALITION, NYC TENANT MOVEMENT HISTORY (2018),
https://www.righttocounselnyc.org/nyc_tenant_movement_history.

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A. Brief History of NYC’s Housing Court
Before 1972, tenants, attorneys and civil court judges were powerless toenforce housing standards to ensure safe, secure and humane housing in New York
courts. 93 While violations of the housing maintenance code were within thepurview of the state’s criminal court, the NYS Legislature decried the“ineffectiveness of criminal sanctions against owners as a means of securing
compliance.” 94 The miniscule fines imposed by overburdened and uninterested
criminal court judges became the “cost of doing business” for New York City’s
landlords.95 A tenant averaging four repair violations in their home would have tobrave the maze of criminal court proceedings where a judge would order an
average fine of $3.00 per violation.96 Thus, $12.00 became the average fine for alandlord unwilling to upkeep an apartment. 97 This process made it easier andcheaper for landlords to ignore repair violations than to provide a safe and sanitary
apartment. At the same time, landlords had substantial power to use the civil courts
to evict tenants for withholding or failing to pay their rent or for an alleged breachof the landlord/tenant relationship. 98 The small fines and the unequal power
dynamic between tenants and landlords systemically benefited landlords to thedetriment of tenants.
Heeding the call by the tenant movement for safe and secure housing and toaddress this judicial fragmentation, the Legislature created the Housing Court in
1972.99 That year, the NYS Legislature amended Section 110 of the New York
City Civil Court Act (“CCA”)100 to create a Housing Part (referred to in this Article
as the “Housing Court”) for the “establishment and maintenance of housing
standards.” 101 The legislation expanded the power and jurisdiction of the civil
courts to maintain and preserve a deteriorating housing stock.102 In passing the Act,
the NYS Legislature also intended to help balance the rights and needs of tenantswith those of landlords who long held a monopoly of power in the courts.103
The new Housing Court was granted “broad powers in landlord-tenant
proceedings” and the ability to enforce housing standards to ensure tenants lived
in safe and secure homes.104 In crafting the legislation, lawmakers authorized the
Housing Court to enforce local and state laws to establish and maintain housing
93. Leonard N. Cohen, The New York City Housing Court –An Evaluation, 17 URB. L. ANN. 27, 28(1979).
94. Leo Zucker, The New York City Civil Housing Court: Consolidation of Old and New Remedies,
47 ST. JOHN'S L. REV. 483 (1973) (internal quotation marks omitted).
95. Id. at 485 (internal quotation marks omitted); Cohen, supra note 95.
96. Zucker, supra note 96, at 489.
97. Id. at 489 (internal quotation marks omitted).
98.. Cohen, supra note 95.
99. Tenant Movement History, RIGHT TO COUNSEL NYC,
https://www.righttocounselnyc.org/nyc_tenant_movement_history (last visited Mar. 14, 2021).
100. Zucker, supra note 96, at 488.
101. City Civ. Ct. Act § 110(a) (2019) (“A part of the court shall be devoted to actions and proceedings
involving the enforcement of state and local laws for the establishment and maintenance of housing
standard, including but not limited to, the multiple dwelling law and the housing maintenance code,building code and health code of the administrative code of the city of New York…”).
102. Cohen, supra note 95, at 27.
103. Id. at 34.
104. Prometheus Realty Corp. v. City of N.Y., 911 N.Y.S.2d 299, 300–301 (App. Div. 2010).

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standards. Lawmakers chose expansive language—“including, but not limited to”—in granting the Court broad authority to enforce the multiple dwelling and otherlaws to protect the rights, health and safety of tenants.105 The law further imbued
the Housing Court with expansive power to “recommend or employ any remedy,
program, procedure or sanction authorized by law for the enforcement of housing
standards, if it believes they will be more effective to accomplish compliance or toprotect and promote the public interest.” 106 Courts have upheld the expansive
power of the Housing Court’s jurisdiction. 107 In 2006, the legislature further
expanded the Housing Court’s authority, broadening the court’s equity powers insummary proceedings and its injunctive power to ensure compliance with state andlocal housing codes to promote the public interest.108 As part of the Court’s equity
powers, it can issue orders to enforce housing standards and impose civil penalties
for violations of the multiple dwelling law, the housing maintenance code andother laws.109
Despite the ambitious goals that drove the creation of the Housing Court,
within a few short years critics noted how it fell far short of achieving thesegoals.110 Calls to reform the Housing Court began not long after it was created,111
and advocates recognized that the court was failing tenants and enriching landlordsat the tenants’ expense.112 Seven years after the Court's creation, a study showedthat in Manhattan only fifty-five tenant-initiated actions seeking repairs werecommenced in the Court. 113 One commenter noted that rather than acting topreserve and improve the housing stock in the city, Housing Court “function[ed]merely to expedite rent collection” and operated as “a rent collection agency.”114
Moreover, in a forum where there is usually a huge wealth imbalance between theparties, it quickly became the norm for most landlords to be represented bycounsel, and most tenants to appear pro se. Unsurprisingly, the absence of legal
representation for tenants was a major contributor to the fundamental lack of due
process at every stage of the proceedings.115 Every aspect of the Court's evolution

105. Id. (citing Missionary Sisters of Sacred Heart v. Meer, 517 N.Y.S.2d 504, 507 (App. Div.1987);
CCA § 110(a)).
106. D'Agostino v. Forty-Three E. Equities Corp., 842 N.Y.S.2d 122, 123 (App. Div. 2007) (quoting
CCA § 110) (internal quotations omitted).
107. CCA Section 110; Prometheus Realty Corp., 911 N.Y.S.2d at 301 (upholding theconstitutionality of laws to stop tenant harassment and the Housing Court’s power to enforce them);
Espino v. N.Y.C Hous. Auth. Patterson Houses, 78 N.Y.S.3d 872, 874–875 (Civ. Ct. 2018) (ordering the
New York City Housing Authority to install a wheelchair ramp on its property to ensure the comfort andsecurity of a disabled tenant to enforce City building codes).
108. Unif. City Ct. Act § 203; Tardibone v. Hopkins, 842 N.Y.S.2d 864, 865 (City Ct. 2007).
109. City Civ. Ct. Act §§ 110(a), 110(a)(1); Espino, 78 N.Y.S.3d at 874; Schanzer v. Vendome, 801
N.Y.S.2d 242, *2 (Civ. Ct. 2005).
110. See generally Emily Jane Goodman, Housing Court: The New York Tenant Experience, 17 URB.
L. ANN. 57, 57 (1979).
111. Zucker, supra note 96, at 484-85; See Goodman, supra note 112.
112. Goodman, supra note 112.
113. Id. at 59, n. 5 (citing MONITORING REPORT ON THE PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE NEWYORK CITY HOUSING COURT (1979)).
114. Id.at 59.
115. Id. at 60.

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in the years since its inception took place on this fundamentally uneven playing
field, and the Court struggled to provide justice for tenants.116
B. The Right to Counsel
The Housing Court’s inequities cried out for redress. In 2012, Community
Action for Safe Apartments (CASA) launched a campaign to reform the Bronx
Housing Court, and later formed the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition in 2014, withthe explicit mission of securing representation for tenants in Housing Court.117 The
Right to Counsel legislation was introduced in March of 2014, and after three yearsof tenant-led actions and pressure from various stakeholders, the law passed in thespring of 2017.118 The law provides “full legal representation” free to incomeeligible 119 New Yorkers in Housing Court. 120 It also provides “brief legal
assistance” to otherwise eligible tenants who do not meet the income
requirements 121 and to tenants in termination proceedings in NYC public
housing.122 The law has a five-year implementation timeline to allow for a stagedroll-out by zip code. As of March 2021, the Right to Counsel program formallycovered twenty-five NYC zip codes. 123 In May 2021, the NYC Council passed
two bills to strengthen and expand the Right to Counsel by accelerating the rollout
by more than a year, making it take full effect by June 1, 2021124 and obligating
NYC’s civil justice coordinator to work with community groups and organizers to
educate tenants about their rights in housing court.125.

116. OFF. CIV. JUST., N.Y.C. HUM. RES. ADMIN. & OFF. EVALUATION & RSCH, N.Y.C. DEP’T OF
SOC. SERV., NYC OFFICE OF CIVIL JUSTICE 2016 ANNUAL REPORT (2016),
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/hra/downloads/pdf/services/civiljustice/OCJ_Annual_Report_2016.pdf;
NEW YORK CITY’S HOUSING COURT AT 40: CONTROVERSIES, CHALLENGES, AND PROSPECTS FOR THE
FUTURE (2013), https://s3.amazonaws.com/documents.nycbar.org/files/2007336NYC_Housing_Court_at_40_HOUCOURT_3.11.13.pdf.
117 . Campaign for Justice in Housing Court, CMTY. ACTION FOR SAFE APARTMENTS,
https://nsacasa.wordpress.com/campaign-to-reform-housing-court-2 (last visited February 24, 2021).
118. Brian Bieretz, A Right to Counsel in Eviction: Lessons from New York City, URB. INST., (Dec.
31, 2019), https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/right-counsel-eviction-lessons-new-yorkcity#:~:text=In%202017%2C%20New%20York%20City,other%20cities%20considering%20similar%20
legislation.
119. Income eligibility is defined as having an annual gross household income not to exceed 200
percent of the federal poverty guidelines. N.Y.C. ADMIN. CODE § 26-1301 (2017).
120. N.Y.C. ADMIN. CODE § 26-1302(a)(2) (2017).
121. Id. § 26-1302(a)(1).
122. Id. § 26-1302(b).
123. See Oksana Mironova, Right to Counsel and Stronger Rent Laws Helped Reduce Evictions in
2019, Cᴍᴛʏ. Sᴇʀᴠ. Sᴏᴄ’ʏ (Feb. 24, 2020), https://www.cssny.org/news/entry/right-to-counsel-andstronger-rent-laws-helped-reduce-evictions-in-2019 (“RTC is being rolled out on a zip code by zip code
basis, with full implementation expected by 2022. Since January 2020, the law covers 25 zip codes.”).
124. N.Y. Local Law 54 of 2021 (Int. No. 2050-2020-A); See N.Y. City Council, Legislation Detail(Int 2050-2020), N.Y. LEG. RES. CTR.,
https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4624861&GUID=FEF6E3D8-8BFA-4281AABF-F36EF7A2BC40&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=2050 (last visited May 26, 2021).
125. N.Y. Local Law 53 of 2021 (Int. No. 1529-2019-A); See N.Y. City Council, Legislation Detail(Int. No. 1519-2019-A), N.Y. LEG. RES. CTR.,
https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3923900&GUID=93564381-0704-43F39599-244BA2545155&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search= (last visited May 26, 2021).

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The effect of infusing the Housing Court system with tenant attorneys has beenabundantly clear: within the law’s first year of implementation, 87,000 New
Yorkers received free legal services and 21,955 tenants “were able to stay in theirhomes.”126 Evictions in Right to Counsel zip codes have declined by 29% since2017, with a decline of 15% in 2019 alone. 127 Additionally, in 2019, eviction
filings have dropped by 20% since 2018 and by 30% since 2017.128 “[T]he default
rate for evictions . . . has dropped by roughly 35% from 2016 to 2019.”129
After the passage of the Right to Counsel legislation, it became clear that law
schools needed to respond to the demand for new housing lawyers by creating new
pathways into the profession.130 In fall 2017, New York Law School (“NYLS”)
established the Housing Rights Clinic.131 The clinic operates in conjunction with
Manhattan Legal Services as a “hybrid” clinic. 132 Other New York area law
schools have either revived dormant clinics or created new courses to support thetraining necessary to prepare law graduates for the field.133 Filling out the ranks oftenant attorneys is a significant step toward greater justice for tenants.
An equally pressing concern with the implementation of the Right to Counsel
is the precious few supervisors available to provide adequate, quality supervision
for this new army of tenant attorneys. With the addition of hundreds of new
housing attorneys, it was clear that a more substantial and wide-reachingsupervisor training program was necessary. Thus, the Housing Justice Leadership
Institute (HJLI) was born in 2019. 134 Housed at NYLS, HJLI is a ten-day
supervisor training program that seeks to ensure high-quality supervision in the126. Evictions, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL, https://council.nyc.gov/data/evictions/ (last visited May
6, 2021).
127. Mironova, supra note 125.
128. Id.
129. All About the Right to Counsel for Eviction in NYC, Nᴀᴛ’ʟ Cᴏᴀʟ. ꜰᴏʀ Cɪᴠ. Rᴛ. ᴛᴏ Cᴏᴜɴꜱ. (May14, 2020), http://civilrighttocounsel.org/major_developments/894.
130. The New York State Unified Court System’s Permanent Commission on Access to Justice has
stressed the need for additional law school commitment to preparing law students for this work. See
PERMANENT COMMISSION ON ACCESS TO JUSTICE, REPORT TO THE CHIEF JUDGE OF THE STATE OF NEWYORK 32-33 (2017), http://ww2.nycourts.gov/sites/default/files/document/files/2018-03/2017-ATJCommission-Report.pdf.
131. Housing Rights Clinic, N.Y. L. SCH., https://www.nyls.edu/housing-rights-clinic/ (last visited
May 6, 2021).
132. Id. Students in the clinic work in teams of two and are supervised by an adjunct faculty member
on staff with MLS, as well as under the supervision of a full-time NYLS faculty member. The students
work directly with MLS clients, and participate in a weekly seminar covering a range of doctrinal andskills-related topics.
133. See, e.g., Housing Law Externship – The Legal Aid Society, NYU LAW,
https://www.law.nyu.edu/academics/clinics/semester/housinglaw (last visited May 6, 2021); Community& Economic Development: Anti-Displacement Project, CUNY L. SCH.,
https://www.law.cuny.edu/academics/clinics/ced/(last visited May 6, 2021); Clinic – Housing Rights,
BROOKLYN L. SCH., https://www.brooklaw.edu/Courses/Clinic---Housing-Rights (last visited May 6,2021).
134. See David Brand, NY Law School Launches New Housing Justice Leadership Institute,
QUEENS DAILY EAGLE (Jan. 15, 2019), https://queenseagle.com/all/2019/1/15/ny-law-school-launchesnew-housing-justice-leadership-institute; See also New York Law School Announces Housing Justice
Leadership Institute, N.Y. L. SCH.,
https://images.law.com/contrib/content/uploads/documents/389/7593/cn_nyls_training2019x.pdf.;
Housing Justice Leadership Institute N.Y. L. SCH., ,https://www.nyls.edu/academics/specialtyareas/centers-and-institutes/impact-center-for-public-interest-law/housing-justice-leadership-institute/.

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right to counsel era.135 The curriculum, developed in collaboration with the Shriver
Center on Poverty Law, allows cohort members to develop leadership andsupervision skills, sharpen their understanding of the mission, vision and values of
the Right to Counsel movement and the intersectional fight for racial justice, whilebuilding collaboration between new housing supervisors.136 The Right to Counsel
is a fundamental shift toward justice and the tenant attorneys at the forefront havethe creative potential to expand tenants’ rights for years to come.
IV. HISTORIC CHANGES TO THE RENT LAWS: HOUSING STABILITY AND TENANTPROTECTION ACT (HSPTA)
A second major force in the transformation of New York tenant advocacy is
the passage of historic changes to rent regulation and other NYS housing laws. The
tenant movement scored this significant legislative victory on June 14, 2019, when
the newly empowered, progressive NYS legislature passed the Housing Stability
and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (“HSTPA),” touching virtually all aspects of
the regulatory scheme governing over a million apartments in New York City. 137
The meaning and effect of the rent law changes are unfolding with ongoing
litigation; it is clear, however, that the new laws have ushered in a new era ofpossibility for tenants’ rights. For the purposes of this Article, this section willsummarize a few significant changes in the law and highlight the new opportunities
available in the fight for justice for tenants.
First, HSTPA makes rent regulation permanent. 138 Previously, the rent
regulatory rules expired every few years, creating opportunities to remove or
significantly weaken tenant protections at each renewal period. 139 The
groundbreaking legislation removes most financial incentives for landlords to evict135. Brand, supra note 135.
136. Topics covered over the course of the ten-week Housing Justice Leadership Initiative (HJLI)
program include providing effective constructive feedback on lawyering skills and legal writing, nurturing
talent, systems thinking and strategic intent, working and supervising across difference, handling difficult
conversations, dealing with contract-driven performance goals, addressing motivation and burnout,
and time management.
137. Vivian Wang, New Rent Laws Pass in N.Y.: ‘The Pendulum Is Swinging’ Against Landlord, N.Y.
TIMES (June 14, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/nyregion/rent-laws-ny-deal.html. See
Gerald Lebovits et al., New York’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019: What Lawyers
Must Know—Part I, 91 N.Y. STATE BAR ASS’N J. 35, 36-45 (Sept./Oct. 2019) [hereinafter Lebovits PartI] (explaining the significant changes in the regulatory scheme under HSTPA); Gerald Lebovits et al., New
York’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019: What Lawyers Must Know—Part II, 91 N.Y.
STATE BAR ASS’N J. 26, 28 (Nov. 2019) [hereinafter Lebovits Part II] (noting the reach of the HSTPA toover one million apartments).
138. Christopher Schwartz, 6 Things to Know About the New NYC Housing Stability and Tenant
Protection Act, CITY BAR JUSTICE CENTER (Feb. 11, 2020), https://www.citybarjusticecenter.org/news/6things-to-know-about-the-new-nyc-housing-stability-and-tenant-protection-act/.
139. See Summary of Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, REBNY: NEWSROOM
2019 (June 25, 2019) (“In prior years, the rent regulation law was up for examination and renewal, basedon whether a housing crisis still existed, every 4-8 years.”),https://www.rebny.com/content/rebny/en/newsroom/in-thenews/2019/Housing_Stability_Tenant_Protection_Act_2019.html/.

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rent-stabilized tenants.140 The new law repeals the so-called “vacancy bonus,”141
which allowed landlords to raise the rent in rent-stabilized apartments by twenty
percent when a tenant vacated, a powerful incentive for landlords to evict longtime
renters. 142 The law repeals “high-rent vacancy” provisions that authorized thederegulation of a rent-stabilized apartment once the rent reached a certain threshold
amount, another incentive for landlords to push out rent-stabilized tenants.143
The new law significantly strengthens protections against sudden, large rent
increases by prohibiting the scheme of “preferential rent,” thus ensuring
affordability for low-income tenants.144 If a tenant received a “preferential rent”
prior to the law, HSTPA now forbids substantially raising a tenant’s “preferential
rent” as the tenant remains in possession.145 The new law also upends the scheme
utilized by many landlords to deregulate rent-stabilized units, causing the city toshed at least 152,000 rent-stabilized units since 1993. 146 The often-fraudulent
scheme usually involved “Individual Apartment Improvement” increases or“IAIs.”147 IAIs allowed owners to renovate apartments once they became vacant—with zero oversight and incentives to exaggerate costs —and increase the rent ofstabilized units by often hundreds of dollars, with the goal of deregulating theunit.”148 The new law overhauls the mechanisms for passing on the costs of IAIs
to rent-stabilized tenants, limiting the percentage that can be charged to tenants,

140. See Lebovits Part II, supra note 139, at 30 (discussing the impact of the permanent preferential
rent provisions in HSTPA).
141 . Harvey Epstein, Summary of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019,https://nyassembly.gov/write/upload/member_files/074/pdfs/20191021_0089365.pdf; See also Housing
Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) S. 6458, N.Y. State S., 2019-2020 Leg. Sess., Part B (N.Y.
2019) [hereinafter HSTPA].
142. See Lebovits Part II, supra note 139, at 28.
143. Id. See also HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part D.
144. Preferential Rent is a rent charged below the legal, registered rent, and was allegedly set basedon “market” forces, but often lulled tenants into inaction and away from challenging their legal rents.
Preferential rents were often removed by landlords at the end of a lease term causing large rent increases.
See id. (HSTPA “[p]rohibits owners who offer tenants a ‘preferential rent,’ or rent below the legal regulatedrent, from discontinuing the use of preferential rent or raising the rent to the full legal amount upon leaserenewal.”).
145. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part E. A “preferential rent” is a rent lower than the legal rent. It is
often offered to tenants in circumstances where the landlord cannot secure a tenant willing to pay the higher
rent. Under the old rules, upon lease renewal, landlords could raise the rent up to the legal rent, often
resulting in huge increases that essentially operated like a de facto eviction. See Amy Plitt, How N.Y.’s
preferential rent loophole is unfairly used against tenants, CURBED N.Y. (Apr. 25, 2017),
https://ny.curbed.com/2017/4/25/15425058/nyc-rent-stabilization-loophole-landlords.
146. Barker, supra note 40.
147. ASS’N. FOR NEIGHBORHOOD & HOUS. DEV., THE $20,000 STOVE: HOW FRAUDULENT RENTINCREASES UNDERMINE NEW YORK’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING 2 (Jan. 2009),
https://anhd.org/sites/default/files/the_20000_stove_how_fradulent_rent_increases_undermine_new_york
s_affordable_housing.pdf.
148. AARON CARR, ASS’N. FOR NEIGHBORHOOD AND HOUS. DEV., HOW WIDESPREAD IS ABUSE OF
THE INDIVIDUAL APARTMENT IMPROVEMENT INCREASE LOOPHOLE? 6 (2019),
https://anhd.org/report/how-widespread-abuse-individual-apartment-improvement-increase-loophole.

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capping them under $100.149 Moreover, HSTPA requires that costs be “reasonable
and verifiable” and the work be completed by licensed contractors.150
For rent controlled tenancies, HSTPA eliminated the steep 7.5% yearly rent
increase and fuel charge pass-alongs. 151 Rent increases are now based on the
average of the last five years of Rent Guideline Board increases and are notautomatic. 152 HSTPA also changed the ability of owners to raise tenants’ rents
through “Major Capital Improvements” or “MCIs.” 153 The legislature set clear
limits on MCIs—permitting only a 2% rent increase instead of 6%, removed
retroactive lump sum charges, and made MCIs temporary to expire after 30
years.154 MCIs are not available in buildings with less than thirty-five percent rent
regulated tenants or in buildings with outstanding class B and C repair
violations. 155 HSPTA tasked the NYS Division of Housing and Community
Renewal with establishing a reasonable cost schedule so expenditures can nolonger be wildly inflated, and the agency must audit and inspect twenty-five
percent of citywide MCI approvals. 156 Finally, tenants now have sixty days tochallenge to MCI applications in their building.157
HSTPA was intended to empower tenants to fight rent overcharges byextending the statute of limitations for overcharge claims and availability of treble
damages.158 It expanded the court’s ability to analyze the entire rent history andany proof of alleged IAIs to determine whether a rent overcharge occurred. 159
However, in April 2020, the Court of Appeals narrowed the reach of the sectionthat governed these changes, specifically Part F, stating that the retroactive
application of the law was unconstitutional.160 In essence, the decision puts tenants
seeking to challenge illegal deregulation and rent overcharges in the same place
they were prior to the passage of HSPTA, with a four year statute of limitation,
unless the tenant can show indicia of fraud. 161 Importantly, where the rent

149. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part K. Under HSTPA, building owners are limited to three
individual apartment increases (IAIs) over fifteen years and a spending cap of $15,000. Id. Rent can only
increase by 1/168 of the cost of work on up to 35 units and by 1/180 of the cost of work on more than
thirty-five units. Id. Therefore, rent increases based on IAIs will not exceed $90 for work on 35 units orless or $84 for work on more than thirty-five units. Frank Fortino, New York State Passes Sweeping Rent
Regulation Reform, Mᴇᴛʀᴏᴘᴏʟɪꜱ Gʀᴘ. Iɴᴄ. (July 1, 2019), https://metropolisny.com/2019/07/new-yorkstate-passes-sweeping-rent-regulation-reform.
150. Epstein, supra note 143.
151. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part H; Epstein, supra note 143.
152. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part H; Epstein, supra note 143.
153. Id. MCIs are a system where an owner provides a building-wide installation or improvement andpasses the cost on to tenants.
154. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part K.
155. Id.
156. Id.
157. Id.
158. See Lebovits Part II, supra note 139, at 32 (“The new law extends the statute of limitations on
overcharge claims from four to six years and increase [sic] the treble-damages period from two to six
years”).
159. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part F § 1.
160. Regina Metro. Co. v. N.Y. State Div. of Hous. and Cmty. Renewal, 154 N.E.3d 972, 1005 (N.Y.
2020).
161. See id. at 985.

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stabilized status of the apartment is at issue, the courts still permit a tenant tochallenge a deregulation as far back as necessary, beyond the four years.162
Many of the groundbreaking changes of HSTPA have real effects in Housing
Court. One powerful way is in litigation over warranty of habitability violations,which can result in rent abatements for tenants suffering from unsafe apartment
conditions.163 The warranty of habitability is a statutory creation to ensure that alandlord provides a tenant with a habitable apartment.164 The legislature believed
this law would place a “tenant in parity legally with the landlord.”165 The warrantyof habitability requires a landlord to provide an apartment that is “fit for humanhabitation” and “for the uses reasonably intended by the parties” and must ensure
the tenants are not subjected to any conditions endangering or detrimental to theirlife, health or safety. 166 If a landlord fails in this obligation and breaches thewarranty of habitability, the tenant is entitled to damages, more commonly known
as an abatement.167 The abatement is available as a percentage reduction of therent, either as a rent credit or as a money judgment awarded in a plenary action.168
HSTPA provides new opportunities to bring abatement claims without fear ofthe dreaded “5-day rule.”169 Historically, judges could only statutorily provide fivedays to pay a judgment after trial.170 The result was that tenants who fell behind on
their rent were foreclosed from raising abatement claims out of fear of eviction due
to the unreasonably short time to pay after trial. This also had implications for the
NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) because tenants who werepressured to forgo meritorious abatement claims would have to seek the entire

162. Id. at 1014 (Wilson, J., dissenting) (“Tenants may still bring an action to declare that a unit was
unlawfully deregulated at any time . . . .”).
163. See Gerald Lebovits, John. S. Lansden & Damon P. Howard, New York’s Housing Stability and
Tenant Protection Act of 2019: What Lawyers Must Know—Part III, 91 N.Y. STATE BAR ASS’N J. 33, 35(Dec. 2019) [hereinafter Lebovits Part III] (“Previously, the law covered only complaints of housing-code
violations to enforcement agencies. HSTPA now covers habitability complaints, too.”).
164. N.Y. REAL PROP. LAW § 235-b (McKinney 2021).
165. Park W. Mgmt. Corp. v. Mitchell, 391 N.E.2d 1288, 1293 (N.Y. 1979) (quoting remarks of
Senator Barclay, 1975).
166. N.Y. REAL PROP. LAW § 235-b (McKinney 2021). Breach of warranty of habitability should beraised as a defense and counterclaim in the housing court case and can also be raised affirmatively in aplenary action. Tenants are entitled to a rent abatement for the entire time the condition existed, up to six
years and is not limited to the amount of rent sought in a nonpayment petition. The contract rent comprises
the basis of the rent abatement. Thus, even if a tenant’s rent share is lower because of Section 8, the Senior
Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (“SCRIE”) or Disability Rent Increase Exemption (“DRIE”), theabatement is determined by the amount on the lease, not the lower rent actually paid by the tenant.
167. NEW YORK CITY CIVIL COURT RESOURCE CTR., NEW YORK COURTS: LANDLORD/TENANTANSWER IN PERSON FACT SHEET #10: WARRANTY OF HABITABILITY 4 (2006),
https://nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/housing/pdfs/warrantyofhabitability.pdf.
168. Park W. Mgmt. Corp, 391 N.E.2d at 1295.
169. RPAPL § 747(a) required that where more than 5 days had passed since judgment, a respondent
who has previously appeared in a non-payment proceeding could not receive a stay of the warrant of thewarrant or of reletting unless tenant proved that the full money judgment was paid or deposited in full. See
Lang v. Pataki, 176 Misc.2d 676, 691 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1998); Jones v. Allen, 185 Misc.2d 443, 445 (N.Y.
App. Term 2000).
170. See e.g., Lang, 176 Misc.2d at 691; Jones, 185 Misc.2d at 445.

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amount of alleged arrears from HRA, instead of the correct amount, reduced by
the violation of the warranty of habitability.171
The tenant-friendly HSTPA provides more discretion to judges to allow timeafter trial for a tenant to pay their rent arrears. This significant change in the law
gives the court discretion to stay the issuance of a warrant for up to one year.172
The legislature specifically included non-payment proceedings in this section of
the law.173 The new statute instructs judges to take into account tenants’ ill health,exacerbation of an ongoing condition, child's enrollment in a local school, extreme
hardship, or any other extenuating life circumstance affecting the ability of thetenant or their family to relocate and maintain quality of life.174
It is important to note that Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law(RPAPL) Section 753(2) states that for a stay period, the judge can order the tenant
to deposit rent for the occupation of the premises,175 but also extend the time thatthe amount could be paid.176 Thus, at the judge’s discretion, if the court determines
after trial that arrears are still owed once the rent abatement is justly provided, thecourt can order judgment in that amount and provide the tenant sufficient time to
pay—for example, thirty or sixty days to apply for HRA assistance—while asking
the tenant to deposit one month of rent for the duration of the stay. This is likely
not a hurdle for a tenant since HRA generally requires proof of future ability topay, including payment of the upcoming month of rent. HSPTA’s repeal of thedraconian “5-day rule” is a huge shift and should allow tenant attorneys more
freedom and confidence to litigate horrific conditions that their clients had toendure. Finally, the court also has the power to render a final judgment, stating theearliest date for execution of the marshal’s notice.177 This is another opportunity

171. Ben Max, City Increasingly Paying Back Rent to Keep Tenants from Homelessness, GOTHAMGAZETTE (Nov. 16, 2017), https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/7326-city-increasingly-paying-back-rentto-keep-tenants-from-homelessness.
172. N.Y. REAL PROP. ACTS. LAW § 753(1) (McKinney 2021); Lebovits Part III, supra note 165(“[HSTPA] doubled the length of the discretionary stay to one year and made it available for nonpayment
proceedings across New York State”).
173. The HSTPA amendment to N.Y. Real Prop. Acts. Law § 753(1) eliminated the phrase limiting
relief “upon the ground that the occupant is holding over and continuing in possession of the premises
after the expiration of his term and without the permission of the landlord,” allowing for stay in a
nonpayment proceeding. John Zhuo Wang & Massimo F. D’Angelo, NYC Nonpayment Proceedings
Post-HSTPA: From ‘Good Cause’ to ‘Extreme Hardship, N.Y.L.J. (Mar. 4, 2020, 11:45 AM),https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2020/03/04/nyc-nonpayment-proceedings-post-hstpa-fromgood-cause-to-extreme-hardship/.
174. N.Y. REAL PROP. ACTS. LAW § 753(1) (McKinney 2021) (“...the court shall consider serious illhealth, significant exacerbation of an ongoing condition, a child’s enrollment in a local school, and anyother extenuating life circumstances affecting the ability of the application or the applicant’s family to
relocate and maintain quality of life.”).
175. Id. at§ 753(2) (McKinney 2021) (“Such stay shall be granted and continue effective only upon
the condition that the person against whom the judgment is entered shall make a deposit in court of theentire amount . . . for the occupation of the premises for the period of the stay . . . .).
176. Id. (“The amount of such deposit shall be determined by the court upon the application for thestay… and the amount thereof shall be paid into court, in such manner and in such installments, if any, as
the court may direct.”)
177. Id. at § 749(1) (“Upon rendering a final judgment for petitioner, the court shall issue a warrant
directed to the sheriff of the county . . . stating the earliest date upon which execution may occur pursuant
to the order of the court . . . .”).

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for judges to exercise discretion and order that a notice of eviction be delayed thirty
to sixty days to allow a tenant sufficient time to pay outstanding arrears.178
In another big change, HSTPA heralds the death of rent deposits as aprerequisite for sustaining tenants’ rights and claims.179 The legislature did notmince words in drafting RPAPL Section 745, stating, “under no circumstances
shall the respondent's failure or inability to pay use and occupancy as ordered by
the court constitute a basis to dismiss any of the respondent's defenses orcounterclaims, with or without prejudice to their assertion in another forum.”180
Practically speaking, this means that a tenant can no longer have their defenses orcounterclaims stripped for failure to pay use and occupancy during a case. All too
often under the old law, tenant attorneys would be on the defensive,notwithstanding their client’s strong defenses and meritorious claims, spending
valuable time and resources defending against motions seeking to strike thetenants’ entire Answer, solely because the tenant was unable to pay rent orderedby the court during the proceeding. This strong legislative directive makes it clearthat money does not outweigh justice in a tenant’s case.
The statute includes additional provisions to advance tenants’ rights. These
include requiring landlords to make written applications for use and occupancy
prospective from the date of the motion instead of orally and retroactively to thepetition date.181 Defenses to such motions now include affirmative defenses, suchas warranty of habitability, rent overcharge, and violations of the certificate ofoccupancy.182 The statute clarifies that any order for use and occupancy cannot
exceed the legally regulated rent or the tenant's share under a subsidy program.183
It also cannot exceed thirty percent of any fixed income, expanded from beyond
just Supplemental Security Income (SSI).184 Further, the court can extend the time
to comply with the order for good cause shown.185 The unceremonious death of thedaunting rent deposit law is a welcome change and will allow attorneys toaggressively fight for tenants’ rights without fear that their clients’ inability to pay
will result in them losing their claims and defenses.
HSTPA also improves a tenant’s ability to fight retaliation by their landlord.
Tenants now have an affirmative defense against retaliation when they makecomplaints about health or safety violations in their apartments or challenge theregulation of their apartments.186 The law shifts the burden to the landlord andcreates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation if the landlord brings a case after thetenant engages in a protected action and then requires the landlord to “establish” a178. Id.
179. Id. § 745.
180. Id. at § 745(2)(f).
181. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part M (amending RPAPL §745(2)(a)).
182. Id.
183. Id.
184. Id.
185. Id.
186. Before HSPTA only complaints made to governmental agencies, such as the NYC Departmentof Housing Preservation & Development (HPD), about conditions served as a defense for the retaliation
statute. The new law adds complaints to the landlord or agent about warranty of habitability claims as
sufficient to raise the claim. Lebovits Part III, supra note 165, at 35; N.Y. REAL PROP. LAW § 223-b(1)(a)(McKinney 2021); HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part M; see, e.g. Barr v. Huggins, 971 N.Y.S.2d 397, 401(Civ. Ct. 2013); 601 W. 160 Realty Corp. v. Henry, 731 N.Y.S.2d 581, 581 (N.Y. App. Term 2001).

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non-retaliatory motive.187 It expands the time period from six months to one year
from the protected action that led to the retaliatory case filing.188 Finally, if thetenant can show retaliation, the landlord is subject to damages, attorney’s fees andcosts, and the court can order injunctive relief and “other equitable remedies,”189
including a one-year lease renewal to the tenant.190
Finally, HSTPA extends notice periods for rent demands and eviction
warrants, creates new civil and criminal penalties for unlawful eviction, andexpands protections for tenants throughout NYS with increased noticerequirements. 191 It also outlaws a landlord’s ability to sue for fees other thanrent,192 prohibits oral rent demands,193 expands the law to ensure tenants receive
their security deposits once they vacate,194 and prohibits the use of the infamous“Tenant Blacklist.”195 It reduces the scope of owner occupancy cases, requiring
landlords to show “immediate or compelling necessity,” and orders landlords tofind comparable apartments for seniors, disabled tenants, and those living in the187. The landlord must now establish as opposed to the previous requirement to “give a credible
explanation of.” Lebovits Part III, supra note 165, at 35 (Section 223-b prohibits landlords fromcommencing a summary proceeding against a tenant for (a) a good faith complaint by the tenant, or on thetenant’s behalf, to the landlord, the landlord’s agent or governmental authority, such as HPD about any
violation of a health or safety law, regulation or code, or the warranty of habitability; (b) “actions taken ingood faith to secure … rights under the lease”, the warranty of habitability or the landlord’s duty to repair
or that “has as its objective the regulation of the premises; or (c) for “a tenant’s participation in a tenantorganization.”).
188. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part M; Lebovits Part III, supra note 165, at 35.
189. N.Y. REAL PROP. LAW § 223-b(3) (McKinney 2021); 601 W. 160 Realty Corp., 731 N.Y.S.2d
at 581 (owner liable for $3,000 in damages to tenant for retaliatory non-payment proceedings against
tenant).
190. Lebovits Part III, supra note 165, at 35–36 (“A landlord that fails to rebut the presumption ofretaliation can be required to offer a new lease or lease renewal of up to a year with only a ‘reasonable’
rent increase.”).
191. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part M.
192. Id. (“No fees, charges or penalties other than rent may be sought in a summary proceeding
pursuant to this article…”); Lebovits Part I, supra note 139, at 41 (explaining that HSTPA definedresidential rent narrowly to include only the amount charged in consideration for the “use and occupation”
of the space).
193. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part M (amended RPAPL §711 to require a written demand for rentby the landlord); Lebovits Part III, supra note 165, at 38 (“HSTPA amended RPAPL 711 to abolish oral
rent demands and to increase the notice period for written rent demands to 14 days”).
194. HSTPA, supra note 143, at Part M (amended section 7-108 of the general obligations law toinclude subdivision 1-a which provides, inter alia, “(b) [t]he entire amount of the deposit or advance shallbe refundable to the tenant upon the tenant’s vacating of the premises,” “(d) [i]f the tenant requests suchan inspection [before vacating the premises], the inspection shall be made...no later than one week before
the end of the tenancy,” “(e) [w]ithin fourteen days aftter the tenant has vacated the premises, the landlord
shall provide the tenant with an itemized statement indicating the basis for the amount of the deposit
retained, if any, and shall return any remaining portion of the deposit to the tenant.”).
195. The “Tenant Blacklist” is “a series of reporting services that purchase the names of all tenants
who have had eviction cases brought against them in housing court, and then sell checks against thosenames to prospective landlords for a service fee.” Christopher Schwartz, 6 Things to Know About the New
NYC Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, CITY BAR JUST. CTR. (Feb. 11, 2020),
https://www.citybarjusticecenter.org/news/6-things-to-know-about-the-new-nyc-housing-stability-andtenant-protection-act/. HSTPA Part M amended subdivision 1 of section 212 of the judiciary law by adding
a new paragraph prohibiting the unified court system to sell any data regarding judicial proceedings related
to residential tenancy, rent, or eviction to any third party. Lebovits Part I, supra note 139 (“[a] rental
application may not be refused on the basis of a past or present landlord-tenant action or summary
proceeding under RPAPL Art. 7,” “Attorney General has enforcement power; no private cause of action”).

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residence more than fifteen years.196 The law also requires the owner to use theapartment as their primary residence and creates a cause of action for tenants whovacated due to landlord fraud.197
The scope and breadth of the law is a testament to the newly empowered,progressive NYS legislature. The passage of HSTPA is worth commending.
However, additional protections for tenants suffering under the weight of the
COVID-19 pandemic are needed, and this Article calls on the legislature to take
immediate action to expand protections for tenants.
V. THE FIERCE TENANT ATTORNEY: RE-ENVISIONING THE HOUSING ATTORNEY’S
ROLE AND AGGRESSIVELY USING UNDERUTILIZED TOOLSThe COVID-19 crisis and the recent passage of the Right to Counsel and
HSTPA have created a new world for NYC housing advocates. The world has
further been transformed by the ongoing racial reckoning, which has highlighted
the racial disparities in housing. In order to create a Housing Court that is fairer
and more just, NYC housing advocates must reimagine what it means to be a
housing attorney. For decades, tenants’ rights attorneys were on the defensive.
There were few attorneys, scarce resources, and years of legislative setbacks froma Republican-controlled NYS Senate backed by the real estate lobby. Now, thistransformative moment, and the combined effects of the Right to Counsel and
HSTPA present the chance to strengthen the role of the tenant attorney, change theway Housing Court functions, and combat systemic racism. The dual effect of the
COVID-19 eviction crisis and related economic devastation create an urgent needto act aggressively to keep people in their homes and out of crushing debt.
This section highlights how to re-envision the role of tenants’ counsel andexploit underutilized tools that can be aggressively employed by the growing
number of new housing attorneys. It also describes various tools available totenants seeking to defend their rights to safe and secure housing that can be reexamined as the Right to Counsel era provides collective strength in tenant
advocacy.
A. Address Systemic Racism
Structural racism in New York courts is a grave concern and a deeply
embedded problem that must be addressed. It is the role of the tenants’ attorney toboth fight structural racism in Housing Court and hold the Court and landlords’
attorneys accountable to do the same. Current research, bolstered by the lived
experiences of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (“BIPOC”) litigants and
BIPOC attorneys and legal workers, show that Black and Latinx people, especiallywomen, are the most likely to be sued and summoned to Housing Court andtherefore the most likely to fall victim to eviction and its catastrophic

196. HSTPA Part I amended NYC Admin. Code §§ 26-511(b), 26-408 (1) to require landlords toshow an “immediate and compelling necessity” to recover the apartment or provide an equivalent or
superior housing accommodation at the same or lower stabilized rent in a closely proximate area.
197. HSTPA Part I amended NYC Admin Code § 26-408 (1) to include the language “as his or her
primary residence.”

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consequences. 198 According to a sample study of nearly 200,000 non-payment
cases filed in New York City housing court between 2007 and 2016, Black and
Latinx tenants were disproportionately targeted in eviction filings, and seventy
percent of the households were women-led.199 This over-representation in Housing
Court and subsequent evictions is compounded with the history of redlining andsegregation in New York City 200 and the racism and discrimination BIPOC
continue to face when looking for housing.201 The structural and institutionalized
racism at the heart of redlining and segregation led to the dangerously
disproportionate impact in health, job loss, and income reduction. 202 These
disparities are alive and well today.
The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade,
Rayshard Brooks, Daniel Prude, Atatiana Jefferson, and so many others,203 at atime when a global pandemic is killing Black and Latinx people at a rate more thandouble that of their white counterparts, has awoken a call for justice at all levels of
our society. 204 These deaths have amplified calls of “Black Lives Matter” and198. Robert Collinson & Davin Reed, The Effects of Evictions on Low-Income Households 10, 14(Working
Paper,2019),
https://www.law.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/upload_documents/evictions_collinson_reed.pdf.
199. Id.
200 . Segregated by Design, Uɴɪᴛᴇᴅ Nᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ Iɴᴛ’ʟ Sᴄʜ. Hᴜᴍ. Rᴛꜱ. Pʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ (Jan. 9, 2020),
https://www.unishumanrightsproject.org/segregation.
201. Shawn Grant, Black Woman with $90k Salary Blocked from Living in Black, but Gentrifying
NYC Enclave, Gʀɪᴏ (Sept. 4, 2019), https://thegrio.com/2019/09/04/black-woman-high-paid-deniedhousing-brooklyn/; Claudia Irizarry Aponte, Housing Bias Fight Carries on Case by Case While Citywide
Response Waits, THE CITY (Dec. 5, 2019, 4:05 AM), https://thecity.nyc/2019/12/housing-bias-fightcarries-on-while-citywide-response-waits.html.
202. Segregated by Design, supra note 202.
203. Alia Chughtai, Know Their Names: Black People Killed by the Police in the US, AL JAZEERA(2020) https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/know-their-names/index.html (last visited May 6, 2021);
George Floyd: What Happened in the Final Moments of His Life, BBC (July 16, 2020),
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52861726 (discussing the death of George Floyd in
Minneapolis, MN where a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on Mr. Floyd’s neck for 7 minutes
and 46 seconds after receiving a report that Mr. Floyd had used a $20 bill believed to be counterfeit);
Richard A. Oppel Jr. et al., Here’s What You Need to Know About Breonna Taylor’s Death, N.Y. Tɪᴍᴇꜱ(Jan. 6, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html (discussing the death ofBreonna Taylor, an African-American emergency room technician, in Louisville, KY where police officers
entered Ms. Taylor’s apartment to execute a “no-knock” search warrant and fired several shots, strikingher); Ahmaud Arbery: What Do We Know About the Case?, BBC (June 5, 2020),
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52623151 (discussing the death of Ahmaud Arbery inBrunswick, GA, where he was jogging when a neighborhood resident, Gregory McMichael, pursued Mr.
Arbery after and fired three shots at him after reporting to police that Mr. Arbery resembled a suspect of aseries of break-ins); Gwen Aviles, Black Transgender Man Fatally Shot by Florida Police, NBC Nᴇᴡs(May 29, 2020, 4:15 PM), https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/black-transgender-man-fatally-shotflorida-police-n1218156 (discussing the death of Tony McDade, an African-America transgender man, in
Tallahassee, FL who was fatally shot by a police officer after being identified as a suspect in a stabbing).
204. The struggle for racial justice in America is not new and Black and brown people have beenleading the fight for justice for centuries; the current moment has seen a broadening of this fight to othersectors of society. Maneesh Arora et.al., What Helps Non-Black People Support Black Lives Matter? A
Signal from Someone in Their Own Ethnic Group, Wᴀꜱʜ. Pᴏꜱᴛ, (June 18, 2020, 6:00 AM),https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/18/what-helps-non-black-people-support-black-livesmatter-signal-someone-their-own-ethnic-group/ (explaining that NFL quarterbacks and NFL
commissioner, Roger Goodell, celebrities, and cross-racial groups have offered public support for Black
Lives Matter); Larry Buchanan et al., Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History,
N.Y. Tɪᴍᴇꜱ (July 3, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-

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highlighted the long-overdue need to dismantle systemic racism. 205 The rising
violence against Asian communities during the pandemic, 206 which took the
horrific form of deadly violence against eight people, including the targeting andmurder of six Asian women in Atlanta,207 highlights the need for our society andcourt system to root out deeply ingrained white supremacist hatred at all levels.
On June 9, 2020, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore took steps toward addressing
institutional racism in the courts when she announced an independent review of
the NYS court system, led by Secretary Jeh Johnson.208 The evaluation reviewed
policies, practices, and structures and sought to address racial bias in the courts
and training programs for judges and non-judicial staff. 209 It also reviewed theselection process for judicial nominees and court appointments.210 One day after
the announcement, on June 10, 2020, more than 100 judges of color in NYS, led
by Court of Appeals Associate Judges, Hon. Jenny Rivera and Hon. Rowan D.
Wilson, signed onto a letter committing to ensure racial equity in court.211 The
judges stated that “there is much work to be done, and we like all judges must be
mindful of the impact of systemic racism or bias in fulfilling the court’s
responsibility to ensure equal justice to all under the law.”212
Secretary Johnson’s report, published on October 1, 2020, was deeply
troubling, and, sadly, unsurprising.213 The report states that, over and over again,
the special commission heard complaints of the “dehumanizing” and “demeaning
cattle-call culture” in high-volume courts, such as Housing Court.214 It also states
crowd-size.html (“[T]here’s been a big shift in public opinion about the movement as well as broader
support for recent protests. A deluge of public support from organizations like the N.F.L and NASCAR for
Black Lives Matter may have also encouraged supporters who typically would sit on the sidelines to get
involved.”); Mercey Livingston, These Are the Major Brands Donating to the Black Lives Matter
Movement, CNET (June 16, 2020, 4:00 AM), https://www.cnet.com/how-to/companies-donating-blacklives-matter/ (discussing the technology companies, big box stores, gaming companies, and otherbusinesses that have donated and expressed support for Black Lives Matter); Charlotte Alter, How Black
Lives Matter Could Reshape the 2020 Elections, TIME (June 17, 2020, 5:40 PM),https://time.com/5852534/black-lives-matter-2020-elections-voting/.
205. Buchanan et al., supra note 206.
206. ASIAN AM. BAR ASS’N OF N.Y. & PAUL WEISS, A RISING TIDE OF HATE AND VIOLENCEAGAINST ASIAN AMERICANS IN NEW YORK DURING COVID-19: IMPACT, CAUSES, SOLUTIONS 1–7 (2021),
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.aabany.org/resource/resmgr/press_releases/2021/A_Rising_Tide_of_Hate_
and_Vi.pdf.
207. Richard Fausset & Neil Vigdor, 8 People Killed in Atlanta-Area Massage Parlor Shootings,
N.Y. TIMES (March 19, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/us/atlanta-shootings-massageparlor.html.
208. Press Release, N.Y. State Unified Court System, Aiming to Advance Equal Justice in the Courts,
Chief Judge DiFiore Announces Independent Review of Court System Policies, Practices and Initiatives(June 9, 2020), https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/press/pdfs/PR20_24.pdf.
209. Id.
210. Id.
211. Voices: NYS Judges of Color Statement Regarding Duties as Jurist and Commitment to Equal
Treatment, URBAN CNY NEWS (July 9, 2020), https://www.urbancny.com/voices-nys-judges-of-colorstatement-regarding-duties-as-jurist-and-commitment-to-equal-treatment/.
212. Id.
213. N.Y. STATE UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM, REPORT FROM THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON EQUALJUSTICE IN N.Y. STATE COURTS 2-3 (2020),
http://www.nycourts.gov/whatsnew/pdf/SpecialAdviserEqualJusticeReport.pdf [hereinafter REPORTFROM THE SPECIAL ADVISER].
214. Id. at 3.

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that, “[t]he sad picture that emerges is, in effect, a second-class system of justicefor people of color in New York State.”215 Little has changed since 1991, when acourt-appointed “Minorities Commission” declared “there are two justice systems
at work in the courts of New York State, one for [w]hites, and a very different one
for minorities and the poor.”216 The 2020 report contains multiple commonsense
recommendations to the Chief Judge that should be implemented immediately.217
First and foremost, in response to the multitude of complaints about the“under-resourced, over-burdened court system,” the “dehumanizing effect it has
on litigants and the disparate impact all this has on people of color,”218 Secretary
Johnson made clear that these issues can only be addressed by “expanded
investment in resources, technology, people and infrastructure” and focused his
recommendations on ‘“operational issues that lie within the power of the court
system to implement administratively and unilaterally, rather than on proposals forlegislative practices.”219 The report called for the Office of Court Administration(“OCA”) leadership to “embrace a “zero tolerance” policy for racial bias and statedthat “the duty to uphold this policy extends to all those working within the New
York State court system – from judges to interpreters to court officers.”220
That type of zero tolerance policy would go a long way in protecting BIPOC
litigants, attorneys, court staff, and legal workers. Such efforts would support theongoing work of courageous attorneys who have come forward to make formal
complaints against racist and sexist behavior by opposing attorneys. In the Matterof Denenberg, Brooklyn Legal Services Senior Staff Attorney, Chavette Jackson,
made a formal complaint against attorney Seth Denenberg after he leveled
disparaging racist and sexist comments against her in the halls of housing court.221
Ms. Jackson stated in the complaint, “I felt like the comments were racist like thecomments were sexist, and I feel like if I was a white man, no matter what myyears of experience in this practice, he would not have said that. And so, I thinkthat my position as a young black woman enabled him to — made him feel
comfortable talking down to me and in treating me like I am not too — a licensed
attorney practicing in this state.”222 Mr. Denenberg did not deny his actions against
Ms. Jackson, nor a 2015 complaint for similar misconduct against a litigant, butinstead tried to blame the cause of his disgusting, racist behavior on the‘“atmosphere’ at Brooklyn Housing Court.”223 As a result of Ms. Jackson stepping
forward to hold Mr. Denenberg accountable, the Court barred him from practicing

215. Id.
216 . N.Y. State Judicial Commission on Minorities, Report of the New York State Judicial
Commission on Minorities, 19 FORD. URB. L. J. 181, 187 (1992).
217. REPORT FROM THE SPECIAL ADVISER, supra note 215, at 4–8.
218. Id. at 54.
219. Id. at 79.
220. Id. at 80. Secretary Johnson’s report cites a point of comparison, stating that “interviewees
frequently cited the ‘zero tolerance’ approach mandated by the legislature for all state personnel when it
comes to sexual harassment over the last several years, leading to a ‘culture shift’ and increased reportingof complaints of sexual harassment.” Id.
221. Matter of Denenberg, 192 N.Y.S.3d 363, 364–65 (N.Y. App. Div. 2020).
222. Id.
223. Id. at 365.

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law for three months and required him to attend a year of anger management anddiversity counseling.224
Secretary Johnson’s report called for the strengthening of current institutions
fighting against white supremacy in the court system. The report noted that few
interviewees knew about or understood the scope of active institutions such as theWilliams Commission 225 or OCA’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. 226 The
report called on OCA to give these institutions a larger platform, incorporate theirwork into broader OCA initiatives, provide additional funding for their efforts, andpromulgate a resource guide for OCA personnel, litigants and partnerorganizations to make this work more transparent.227
Next Secretary Johnson’s report called for the expansion of mandatory bias
training for all judicial and non-judicial personnel across the court system, statingthat current training efforts were both inconsistent and insufficient.228 The reportfurther stated that “[j]udges are not above the reach of the implicit racial andcultural biases that pervade our society, yet equality before the law requires them
to be,” and cited a study showing that “training judges ‘can reduce and/or mitigate
the prospect that implicit bias will affect judicial decision-making andoutcomes.’”229 Secretary Johnson’s report also called for more “robust racial bias
and cultural sensitivity training for non-judicial personnel, particularly the court
officer community,” based on the “innumerable stories of dehumanizing language
by court officers towards litigants of color.”230 Expanding on Secretary Johnson’s
calls for bias training for court staff, OCA should increase and mandate thesetrainings for attorneys who practice in its courts. As Secretary Johnson’s reportstates, these “training[s] must acknowledge that issues of racial and cultural bias
are intersectional – addressing that discrimination on the basis of race often
overlaps with those relating to class, gender, sexual orientation, immigration
status, and beyond.”231
The report shares other suggestions that OCA should implement immediately.
These include initiatives to adopt a comprehensive social media policy for court
staff and to strengthen the process for bias complaints. 232 Secretary Johnson’sreport notes that many interviewees were unaware of the process for making bias
complaints and calls on OCA to “engage in a robust campaign to educate court
224. Id. at 367.
225. The Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission is a permanent commission in the New YorkState court system promoting racial and ethnic fairness in the courts. It has been in practice for thirty years.
226. REPORT FROM SPECIAL ADVISER, supra note 215 at 59.
227. Id. at 80.
228. Id. at 81.
229. REPORT FROM THE SPECIAL ADVISER, supra note 215, at 81 (citing Sharon Price-Cates, Implicit
Bias New Science in Search of New Legal Strategies Toward Fair and Impartial Criminal Trials, 313 N.J.
L. REV. 65, 66 (2018) (citing Jeffrey J. Rachlinski et al., Does Unconscious Bias Affect Trial Judges? 84
NOTRE DAME L. REV. 1195, 1196–97 (2009))).
230. Id. at 54.
231. REPORT FROM THE SPECIAL ADVISER, supra note 215, at 82 (“The term ‘intersectional’ wascoined by celebrated legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw over thirty years ago to refer to the compounding
discrimination that black women face on account of both their race and their gender, however, in popular
discourse today, it encompasses a variety of crosshatched identities, such as those listed above.”); see also
Merrill Perlman, The Origin of the Term ‘Intersectionality,’ COLUM. JOURNALISM REV. (Oct. 23, 2018),
https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/intersectionality.php.
232. REPORT FROM THE SPECIAL ADVISER, supra note 215, at 84.

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system participants about the existence and purpose of . . . [the] offices and theprocedures to lodge a bias complaint,” and protect complainants from
retaliation.233
OCA must take seriously these comprehensive recommendations andimplement them immediately. Tenants’ attorneys have an important role on the
ground in Housing Court to disrupt the systemic racism inherent in the court
system, hold the court accountable at all levels, and, following the lead of seniorstaff attorney, Ms. Chavette Jackson, to call out racist and sexist behavior wherever
and whenever possible.
Attorneys have the opportunity to aggressively use many underutilized tools
to protect and defend tenants’ rights. The following paragraphs highlight available
yet underused legal tools that attorneys can creatively use to expand tenants’ rights.
B. Fight Landlord Neglect and Ensure Safe and Habitable Housing
All tenants have the right to live in a safe, secure, and habitable apartment.
Yet, receiving proper repairs, especially for long-term rent-stabilized tenants canbe unnecessarily difficult. While the Department of Housing Preservation andDevelopment (“HPD”) is tasked with ensuring that the city’s 2.2 million rental
apartments are safe and habitable, and with levying fines against landlords who
refuse to repair apartment conditions, its punishments are often toothless.234 Datashows that of 126 cases filed for serious building-wide issues in Manhattan in
2017, in more than two-thirds of the cases, the city settled for an average of 10
percent of the fines owed.235 This has become the cost of doing business for NYC
landlords who refuse to provide repairs to older, rent-stabilized tenants as a formof harassment.236 In addition to demanding abatements, the following subsections
offer strategies to consider when a landlord refuses to provide a safe, habitableapartment.

233. REPORT FROM THE SPECIAL ADVISER, supra note 215, at 87.
234. Grace Ashford, Leaks, Mold and Rats: Why N.Y.C. Goes Easy on Its Worst Landlords, N.Y.
TIMES (Dec. 26, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/nyregion/nyc-housing-violations-landlordstenants.html.
235. Id.
236. Tenants Sue Brooklyn Slumlord for Harassment, Dangerous Living Conditions, and Illegally
Renting Units on Airbnb, LEGAL SERVS. NYC (Apr. 16, 2019), https://www.legalservicesnyc.org/newsand-events/press-room/1460-tenants-sue-brooklyn-slumlord-for-harassment-dangerous-living-conditionsand-illegally-renting-units-on-airbnb.

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1. Prohibit Landlords from Collecting Rent if Documented Repair Conditions
Exist for More than Six Months.
Multiple Dwelling Law 302-a can remove a tenant’s obligation to pay rent
where there exists a “rent impairing” violation that remains uncorrected for six
months or more. 237 A rent impairing violation is one which “if not promptly
corrected, will constitute a fire hazard or a serious threat to the life, health orsafety” of apartment occupants.238
To seek a full rent abatement under this statute, the tenant must show that HPD
issued a violation for a rent impairing condition and provided notice to the building
owner, and the violation must remain for six months after the notice date.239 An
owner’s failure to file a certification that it corrected the violation establishes a
prima facie case that the violation has not been timely corrected. 240 Onceestablished, the owner is prohibited from collecting any rent until the condition isremedied.241
Importantly, the tenant must deposit the arrears sought in the petition with theclerk of the court.242 While the statute states that rent must be deposited at the timea litigant files an Answer, the court has found that “failure to timely comply withthe formal rent deposit requirement of the statute should not serve to preclude [thetenant] from pursuing an otherwise facially meritorious, ‘fundamental’
defense.”243 Upon written agreement between the parties, the tenant can deposit
the rent in an attorney escrow account in lieu of filing it with the clerk of thecourt.244 A tenant may also seek punitive damages, but he or she must show that alandlord acted with “actual malice or such wantonness or recklessness as to imply
or permit the inference of malice.”245

237. N.Y. MULT. DWELL. LAW § 302-a (McKinney 2021); 50 Manhattan Ave. LLC v. Powell, 2018
N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 777 at *1–*3 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 2018) (tenant granted full rent abatement and prohibition on
the collection of rent payments because of serious rent-impairing conditions, including a leaking roof thatthe landlord failed to fix for years).
238. N.Y. MULT. DWELL. LAW § 302-a(2) (McKinney 2021). HPD determines what conditions
constitute a “rent impairing” violation and maintains a list in the Rules of the City of New York. Definitionsof Rent Impairing Violations found at 28 RCNY § 25-191.
239. Id. at § 302-a(3) (McKinney 2021) (the defense must be plead affirmatively).
240. N.Y. ADMIN. CODE § 27-2115(f) (2015); see Dep’t of Hous. Pres. and Dev. of N.Y. v. Knoll,
467 N.Y.S.2d 468, 468–69 (N.Y. App. Term 1983).
241. N.Y. MULT. DWELL. LAW § 302-a (McKinney 2021); 50 Manhattan Ave., 2018 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS
777 at *1–*3.
242. N.Y. MULT. DWELL. LAW § 302-a(3)(c) (McKinney 2021).
243. 22l E. 78th Tenants Corp. v. Cohen, 957 N.Y.S.2d 267, 267 (N.Y. App. Term 2012) (internal
citations omitted).
244. 50 Manhattan Ave. LLC v. Powell, 2018 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 777 at *1–*3 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 2018)(tenant granted full rent abatement and prohibition on the collection of rent payments because of serious
rent-impairing conditions, including a leaking roof that the landlord failed to fix for years).
245. Kipsborough Realty Corp. v. Goldbetter, 367 N.Y.S.2d 916, 920 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1975) (landlord
willfully and openly violated the Multiple Dwelling Law by failing to repair the roof thus rendering theapartment uninhabitable); see also 2301 7th Avenue HDFC v. Hudgen-Grace, 2010 NY Slip Op. 51874(U),2010 WL 4368115, at *1 (N.Y. App. Term Nov. 4, 2010) (citing Ross v. Louise Wise Services, Inc., 868
N.E.2d 189 (N.Y. 2007)).

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2. Put Non-Payment Cases on Hold Where a Landlord Refuses to Repair
Apartment.
Section 755 provides an opportunity for a tenant to stay a non-payment
proceeding where the landlord fails to make repairs in their apartment. 246 The
statute can assist tenants who are withholding rent due to uninhabitable conditionsin their apartments and seek to compel their landlords to make repairs. The statuterequires that a tenant deposit their rent with the court clerk.247 Section 755 wasmore heavily utilized by tenants between the 1970s and 1990s. 248 Since 2007,
courts citing to Section 755 are mostly courts from outside of New York City.249
3. Force Landlords to Repair Apartment Through an Affirmative HP Case
Housing Part actions, or “HPs,” offer a tool for tenants to secure safe, habitablehousing. The Housing Court is authorized to enforce local and state laws and“housing standards.”250 These tenant-initiated cases can also set forth harassment
claims. Through HP actions, tenants can seek court orders requiring owners tocomplete necessary repairs or stop harassment.
However, HP actions have real limitations. Significantly, HPs currently do notprovide a remedy for tenant damages or abatements. Penalties may be assessedagainst the landlord, but they are payable to HPD and not to the tenant
individually.251 While the current lack of individual relief granted in HP actions
may be disheartening, there is still some leeway for courts to expand the relief
available in such actions. Section 110(c) of the New York City Civil Court Act(CCA) provides that “[r]egardless of the relief originally sought by a party, thecourt may recommend or employ any remedy, program, procedure or sanction
authorized by law for the enforcement of housing standards, if it believes they will
be more effective to accomplish compliance or to protect and promote the public
interest . . . .”252 HP actions provide courts with relatively broad discretion over thetype of equitable relief they may award or the amount of civil penalties, sanctions
and damages that may be utilized to enforce “housing standards.”
246. N.Y. REAL PROP. ACTS. LAW § 755 (McKinney 2021).
247. Id.
248. See, e.g., Ellabee Realty Corp. v. Beach, 340 N.Y.S.2d 8, 9 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1972); Morbeth Realty
Corp. v. Rosenshine, 323 N.Y.S.2d 363, 366 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1971); Malek v. Perdina, 297 N.Y.S.2d 14, 17(N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1969). It is possible the decline in use corresponds to the 2006 amendments to the Uniform
City Court Act in 2006, which expanded the court’s injunctive power and permitted the court to order alandlord to make building and apartment repairs in compliance with the City’s housing codes, which may
have proved more effective to ensure landlords make necessary repairs than staying the proceedings
pursuant to Section 755.
249. See e.g., Revelation Church of God In Christ v. Mason, 26 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3484, at *1–*6(N.Y. City Ct. 2015); 3 Green St., LLC v. Caceres, 115 N.Y.S.3d 831, *1 (N.Y. Just. Ct. 2019).
250. CCA § 110, housing standards include violations of the Multiple Dwelling Law, Housing
Maintenance Code, Building Code, and any other legislative standard affecting the health and safety ofbuilding occupants. Prometheus Realty Corp., 911 N.Y.S.2d at 303 (citing Missionary Sisters of Sacred
Heart, 517 N.Y.S.2d at 507 and CCA § 110(a)); GERALD LEBOVITS, NEW YORK CITY CIVIL COURT,HOUSING PART, HOUSING PART PROCEEDINGS: A PRIMER 5 (2007),https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1299746.
251. Dominguez v. Zinnar, 2009 WL 3813771 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Oct. 29, 2009).
252. N.Y. CITY CIV. CT. ACT § 110(c) (McKinney 2019).

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4. Organize Tenant Takeover of Buildings Effectively Abandoned by Owners
RPAPL Article 7A provides a remedy for tenants in buildings that have been“abandoned” by their owners.253 It allows a group of one-third or more tenants ina building to petition the Housing Court to put in place an administrator or receiverto collect rents, address emergency code violations, and improve the living
conditions of the building.254 HPD also has statutory power to petition the court toappoint an administrator in a 7A proceeding.255
The proceeding can be maintained where a building lacks heat, running water,light, electricity, or adequate sewage disposal facilities, has an infestation ofrodents, or is otherwise “dangerous to life, health or safety” of tenants for at least
five days.256 In addition, the suit is maintainable where the court finds a “course of
conduct by the owner or his agents of harassment, illegal eviction, continued
deprivation of services or other acts dangerous to life, health and safety.”257
C. Combat Tenant Harassment
Since 2008, the NYC Council has expanded protections for tenants who faceharassment by their landlords with anti-tenant harassment statutes. The law
provides tenants a cause of action to pursue cases against their landlords forharassment.258 Harassment includes behavior by a landlord to force a tenant tovacate or surrender their apartment or tenancy rights, using force or threats against
a tenant, providing false or misleading information relating to the tenancy or therent stabilization status of the apartment, creating repeated or extended
interruptions or disruptions to essential services, commencing repeated baseless or
frivolous court proceedings, or removing the door or changing the locks to anapartment.259
The anti-tenant harassment law sought to provide greater protections totenants, especially long-term rent-stabilized tenants who are particularly
vulnerable to the effects of gentrification and pushout by their landlords.260 Before
the passage of the law, there was no private right of action for harassment in the
NYC Administrative Code.261 Since its enactment, tenants have been provided “ajudicial forum to pursue harassment defenses or claims.” 262 The law waschallenged and upheld as constitutional in 2010, with the Appellate Division citing
253. N.Y. REAL PROP. ACTS. LAW § 770 (McKinney 2021).
254. Id. at § 770 (1).
255. Id. If an action is commenced by HPD, one-third of the tenants may seek at any time to substitutethemselves as petitioners in place of HPD, even after a final judgment has been rendered.
256. Id.
257. Id.
258. N.Y. ADMIN. CODE §§ 27-2005(d); 27-2115(h) (2020).
259. Id. at § 27-2004(a)(48)(a)-(e) (2020).
260 . See Prometheus Realty Corp., 911 N.Y.S.2d at 303 (finding the legislature's interest in
preventing landlords from “forcing tenants out” to be rationally related to the remedies memorialized in
N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 27-2005(d)); Aguaiza v. Vantage Props., LLC, 893 N.Y.S.2d 19, 20 (N.Y. App.
Div. 2010) (noting that the legislature enacted a harassment statute to address, in part, “a perceived effort
by landlords to empty rent-regulated apartments,” using such tactics as the commencement of baseless or
frivolous eviction proceedings).
261. Prometheus, 911 N.Y.S.2d at 301.
262. Aguaiza v. Vantage Properties, LLC, 2009 WL 1511791, at *9 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 21, 2009).

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the Housing Court’s expansive powers under CCA 110. 263 In 2015, theAdministrative Code was amended to include a cause of action for an additional
form of harassment relating to buy-out offers.264
A finding of harassment gives rise to injunctive relief against an owner,
including a court order restricting the owner from engaging in harassing conduct,
placing an immediately hazardous violation of the NYC Housing Maintenance
Code, civil penalties against the owner payable to the NYC Commissioner ofFinance of between $2,000 and $10,000, and compensatory damages for the tenantor at the election of the tenant, $1,000 and reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.265
Generally, the Court interprets compensatory damages to be akin to a rent
abatement. 266 Since the passage of the statute, the law has been effective inprotecting tenants from harassment. Attorneys can and should use it to secure suchprotections.267

263. Prometheus, 911 N.Y.S.2d at 301.
264. The statute made it unlawful to contact a tenant and offer money to vacate or surrender rights toa unit for 180 days after the owner is notified, in writing, that a person does not wish to receive such offers.
N.Y. ADMIN. CODE § 27-2004(a)(48)(f-1) (The statute reads, “contacting any person lawfully entitled tooccupancy of such dwelling unit, or any relative of such person, to offer money or other valuable
consideration to induce such person to vacate such dwelling unit or to surrender or waive any rights inrelation to such occupancy, for 180 days after the owner has been notified, in writing, that such person does
not wish to receive any such offers, except that the owner may contact such person regarding such an offer
if given express permission by a court of competent jurisdiction or if notified in writing by such person of
an interest in receiving such an offer.”).
265. N.Y. ADMIN. CODE § 27-2115(m)(2); 226-228 E. 26th St. LLC v. Rhodes, No. 56577/08, 2008
N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 7516, at *9 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Dec. 26, 2008); 13 E. 9th St. LLC v. Seelig, No. 84987/2016,63 Misc.3d 1218(A), at *6 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Apr. 8, 2019); T & G Realty Co. v Hawthorn, No. 78990/2017,2019 WL 3070982, at *6 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. July 15, 2019) (citing N.Y.C. Admin. Code §27- 2115(o)).
266 . Hawthorn, No. 78990/2017, 2019 WL 3070982, at *6 (citing N.Y.C. Admin. Code §272115(o)).
267. The courts have held landlords liable for illegally locking tenants out, threatening tenants, failingto provide repairs, destroying a tenant’s property, making misstatements of law about a tenant’s status asa rent stabilized tenant, and aggressively and repeatedly pursuing an out-of-court buy-out offer. The law
prohibits an owner “commencing repeated baseless or frivolous court proceedings,” which is generally
defined as at least more than one court proceeding, but the law also protects a tenant if repeated baselessor frivolous court proceedings were commenced against other tenants in the building. E.g., N.Y.C., N.Y.
ADMIN. CODE § 27-2004(a)(48)(d)(d-1) (2020); Dani Lake LLC v. Torres, No. 34838/2018, 2019 WL
4049138, at *8–*10 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Aug. 13, 2019) (finding that the actions of the petitioner were intended
to illegally force the respondent out of possession of the premises and constituted prohibited harassment,
and directing the petitioner to restrain from any further conduct in violation of N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 272004(a)(48)); Santo v. Rose Associates, Inc., No. 113297/2005, 2010 WL 3293716, at *2 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.
June 9, 2010) (citing N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 27-2004(a)(48)(g)); 226-228 E. 26th St. LLC v. Rhodes, No.
56577/08, 2008, N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 7516, at *6 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Dec. 26, 2008) (discussing the Tenant
Protection Act); Hawthorn, No. 78990/2017, 2019 WL 3070982, at *6–*7 (directing the petitioner torestrain from engaging in conduct constituting harassment in violation of the statute and imposing a civil
penalty); Truglio v. VNO 11 E. 68th St. LLC, No. 57103/12, 2012 WL 1849659, at *15 (N.Y. Civ. Ct.
May 21, 2012) (ordering that the landlord was to rebuild the subject apartment after the landlord was foundto illegally lock out the tenant and demolish the subject premises); Tivoli Bi LLC v. Lee, No. 51168/2017,2017 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 2094, at *14–15 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. July 27, 2017) (finding that the landlord unlawfully
harassed the tenant by bringing repeated, baseless proceedings against the tenants, and ordering thelandlord to pay fines); Hua Hong Indus. U.S. LLC v. Diaz, No. 66795/17, 2018 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 1739, at*4–5 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. May 4, 2018) (finding that the landlord violated the harassment statute by commencing
baseless proceedings against the tenant, and fining and enjoining the landlord from bringing additional
baseless claims); Hilltop 161 LLC v. Philbert, No. L&T 68521/18, 2019 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 327, at *14–

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D. Challenge Unethical Behavior in Court with Sanctions
New York State has long provided a mechanism for curbing and punishing
frivolous or baseless conduct in litigation.268 “Rule 130” of the NYCRR authorizes
the Housing Court to award costs, including sanctions and reasonable attorney’s
fees, when either party has engaged in frivolous conduct.269 “Frivolous” is definedas conduct “completely without merit in law,” “undertaken primarily to delay . . .
the litigation, or to harass or maliciously injure another” or that “asserts material
factual statements that are false.”270 Housing Court judges are specifically granted
the power, under the statute, to impose Rule 130 sanctions.271
E. Hold Landlords Accountable for Failing to Act
Contempt is a powerful tool that is woefully underutilized by the courts
and tenant advocates. 272 Where a landlord fails to comply with a so-ordered
15 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Jan. 28, 2019) (finding that petitioner engaged in an ongoing course of conduct meant to“interfere with or disturb the comfort, repose, peace or quiet” of respondent in the subject premises, andintended to deprive respondent of her rights as a rent stabilized tenant by sending threatening letters andengaging in other unlawful conduct); Pinchback v. Foreman, No. 3178/16, 2017 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 3401, at*1 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Dec. 6, 2017) (ordering civil penalties against the landlord for failing to provide repairs
and unlawfully harassing the tenant); Emmitt v. Ferrarie, No. L&T 52575/16, 2017 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 2297,
at *14 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Aug. 16, 2017) (ordering the landlord to be fined $5,000 for harassment after thelandlord refused to adequately maintain essential services, changed the locks on the building’s front door,
and removed kitchen appliances); 363-367 Neptune Ave., LLC v. Neary, 917 N.Y.S.2d 544, 556 (N.Y.
Sup. Ct. 2010) (ordering the landlord to cease harassment of rent stabilized tenants); S&S Agric. U.S. v.
Maldonado, No. 060040/15, 2016 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 4536, at *9 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Jan. 11, 2017) (finding thatthe landlord was unlawfully harassing the tenant for bringing a frivolous non-payment case after failing toprovide overcharge judgment and correct rent records); 659 Vt. St. Tenants’ Ass’n v. Vt. Realty, No.
3213/16, 2018 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 4413, at *13 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. June 6, 2018) (holding that new building owner
failed to correct violations and harassed tenants, and ordering owner to pay $717,700.00 in fines);
Leprovost v. Pitts, No. 1515/14, 2015 WL 518420, at *6–*7 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Feb. 6, 2015) (finding that thelandlord was liable for harassment against the tenant for breaking down her door, breaking into her room,
destroying her property, having others intimidate her, tampering with her mail, and denying her essential
services); Seelig, No. 84987/2016, 63 Misc.3d 1218(A), at *5 (finding that the owner unlawfully harassed
the tenant with unwanted buyout offers); ABJ Milano LLC v. Howell, 86 N.Y.S.3d 389, 391 (N.Y. Civ.
Ct. 2018) (explaining that the owner engaged in unlawful harassment when he initiated an out-of-court
buy-out agreement after an agent had called and visited the elderly and disabled tenant numerous times inthree-week period and untruthfully claimed that the tenant’s rent-stabilized lease would not be renewed).
268. N.Y. COMP. CODES R. & REGS. tit. 22, § 130-1 (2020).
269. Id. § 130-1.1(c).
270. Id.
271. Id. § 130-1.4; see Bldg Mgmt. Co. Inc. v. Schwartz, 773 N.Y.S.2d 242, 246 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 2004)(ordering sanctions after landlord’s attorney issued three subpoenas and directed delivery of evidentiarymaterials only to the petitioner’s attorney’s office, and not to the court or respondent’s counsel, stating that
this “back door discovery” was frivolous and lacked basis in law); see also N.Y.C. Hous. Auth. v. Various
Tenants, No. 802957/17, 2018 N.Y. Misc.3d 1210(A), at *3 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. Feb. 22, 2018) (granting
sanctions against NYCHA and ordered the payment of reasonable costs and expenses for the tenants forsuing three different tenants in multiple proceedings seeking the same, overlapping rent in different
proceedings).
272. Armen H. Merjian, Righting the Scales of Justice: The Critical Need for Contempt Proceedings
againstLawless
Landlords,
52
COLUM.
HUM.
RTS.
L.
REV.
592,
592–93
http://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/files/2021/02/592_Merjian.pdf (arguing that while nationwide, between 2011
and 2016, courts have yielded 117,952 evictions, they have issued fewer than fifty contempt rulings for

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Stipulation or Order of the court, the court can hold landlords in contempt for
failing to comply.273 The contempt remedy is governed by Judiciary Law Section
753 (civil contempt) and Section 750 (criminal contempt), and can be sought
whenever a party in a case fails to comply with an order of the court.274 Tenants
may move for contempt in the common scenario in which a landlord fails toprovide repairs or comply with other obligations pursuant to a ‘so-ordered’
Stipulation of Settlement, Court Order or HP consent order.275
Civil contempt aims to vindicate the rights of a litigant and compensate theparty for any loss or interference with that right.276 On the other hand, criminal
contempt is designed to vindicate an offence against “public justice” and an effort
to protect and compel respect for the judicial system. 277 The same act may bepunishable by both civil and criminal contempt, and it may be elevated from civil
to criminal based upon the willfulness of the act.278
A court finding contempt can order fines, damages, costs, attorneys fees, and,in some egregious cases, imprisonment.279 The elements necessary for a cause ofaction for contempt under the Judiciary Law are: (1) a lawful order of the Court
expressing a clear mandate, (2) notice to the contemnor of the mandate, (3)disobedience of the mandate, and (4) prejudice to the other party.280 A motion for
criminal contempt must be served on the party and their attorney.281 Contempt is a
powerful tool to hold landlords accountable to comply with their legal obligations.
VI. THINKING BIGGER: HOUSING AS A HUMAN RIGHTThe COVID-19 crisis has caused many to rethink societal rules and norms—
including Housing Court practice and procedure. The crisis has painfully
demonstrated that housing is a human right and a public health necessity. Now is
the time for big ideas and bold action, not incremental change or band-aid
solutions. The global health crisis exacerbated the flaws of a system that was
already unsustainable for many tenants living on limited incomes. The crisis offers
an opportunity to think broadly about how to establish real, sustainable
failure to obey court orders to repair hazardous conditions, despite landlords’ chronic and widespread
flouting of such orders. Merjian argues that contempt proceedings “can remedy this injustice, including (1)establishing deadlines for the completion of ordered repairs, with either imprisonment or fines for each daythat the landlord continues to flout the court’s authority; (2) awarding damages to the aggrieved tenant,including damages for emotional distress and diminished habitability; and (3) awarding attorneys’ fees andcosts to tenants’ counsel.”).
273. N.Y. JUD. LAW §§ 750, 753 (McKinney 2019).
274. Id. The remedy is not limited to orders issued by the court; contempt may also be charged whena party violated the terms of a so-ordered stipulation of settlement.
275. N.Y. v. Quadrozzi, No. 8442/10, 99 N.Y.S.3d 84, at *86 (N.Y. App. Div. 2019) (explaining thatplaintiffs moved to enforce a so-ordered stipulation of settlement and to hold defendant in civil contemptof court after defendant failed to make certain repairs agreed upon in the stipulation).
276. McCormick v. Axelrod, 453 N.E.2d 508, 512 (N.Y. 1983).
277. Id.
278. Id.
279. N.Y. JUD. LAW §§ 750, 751, 753 (McKinney 2019).
280. Id. at §§ 750, 753; McCormick, 453 N.E.2d at 512–13.
281. Lu v. Betancourt, 496 N.Y.S.2d 754, 756 (N.Y. App. Div. 1986) (“Where the penalty of criminal
contempt is sought, failure to personally serve the alleged contemnor constitutes a jurisdictional defectrequiring dismissal” (citing People v. Balt, 312 N.Y.S.2d 587 (N.Y. App. Div. 1970)).

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opportunities and protections for tenants to live in safe, secure and affordable
homes. This section sets out concrete steps toward achieving these goals.
A. Cancel Rent
The public health crisis led to a state-wide shutdown and put thousands of New
Yorkers out of work. Many people are choosing between feeding their children,
paying for medical care and paying rent.282 To ease this burden, the first step is tocancel all rent for those people financially affected by COVID-19. The New YorkState legislature can pass a bill to cancel rent.283 One option is the “Relief for All”
Act, introduced by Senator Julia Salazar, which aims to help renters andhomeowners by canceling or reducing rent for tenants while providing state andfederal funding for small property owners and non-profit housing providers wholost rental income during the crisis.284 The bill would provide rent and mortgage
relief starting in March 2020 and ending 90 days after the governor declares theend to New York’s ongoing State of Emergency. It is likely that the most vocal
critics of the bill will claim that such relief runs afoul of the Fifth Amendment’s
Takings Clause. While a full legal analysis is necessary, it is highly unlikely a court
would strike down the “Relief for All” bill because of the temporary nature of therelief, its emergency justification, and the fact that the relief provided would not
rise to the level necessary under the Takings Clause. Further, the legislation
provides compensation to any landlord who can sufficiently show injury under the
Takings Clause.285
Alternatively, the governor can take executive action to cancel rent for
struggling tenants who risk losing their homes due to the pandemic.286 All rent that
accrued between March 2020 and the end of the pandemic should be universally
forgiven without the requirement that tenants prove financial hardship. Putting theonus on tenants to prove the documented income loss will prejudice many
vulnerable groups, including undocumented individuals and those working in
informal economies. Relief should be provided to small landlords who rely on
monthly rents to pay mortgage and taxes. Large corporate landlords who have282. See Desiree Rios, Nearly 1 in 4 New Yorkers Needs Food as Pandemic Persists, N.Y. TIMES(May 21, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/nyregion/coronavirus-ny-update.html.
283. S.B. S8125A, N.Y. State S., 2019-2020 Leg. Sess. (N.Y. 2020) (relating to suspending rent
payments for certain residential tenants and small business commercial tenants and certain mortgage
payments for ninety days in response to the outbreak of COVID-19),https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s8125.
284 . Ophelia Xie, Bill Would Protect Renters and Homeowners During COVID-19 Crisis,
Lᴇɢɪꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ Gᴀᴢᴇᴛᴛᴇ (May 5, 2020), https://legislativegazette.com/bill-would-protect-renters-andhomeowners-during-covid-19-crisis/.
285. U.S. CONST. amend. V, cl. 5 (prohibiting the federal government from taking “private property. . . for public use, without just compensation.”).
286. Press Release, New York State Senate Michael Ginaris, Senate Deputy Leadeer Gianaris Calls
on Governor Cuomo To #CancelRent By Executive Order (April 08, 2020),
https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/michael-gianaris/senate-deputy-leader-gianaris-callsgovernor-cuomo.

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continued to see their total incomes increase should be asked to concede to theshort-term financial loss.287
B. Expand Right to Counsel, Eviction Prevention & Access to Affordable Housing
Reforms to this broken system, once unthinkable, are now part of themainstream conversation. In this moment of crisis, there is opportunity toreexamine long-held assumptions about the social contract around housing and thelandlord/tenant relationship. The Right to Counsel in Housing Court, pioneered in
NYC, has now been adopted in many large cities, including San Francisco,Philadelphia, Newark, Boulder, and Cleveland. 288 Similar programs are being
considering in Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma,
South Carolina, Washington State and Wisconsin.289 Advocates in NYS are now
pushing to extend the right to counsel state-wide, and it has now become a reality
in Rochester, NY.290
287. See Sofia Lopez & Sara Myklebust, Make Corporate Landlords Pay the Bills During thePandemic, INEQUALITY.ORG (Aug. 17, 2020), https://inequality.org/research/corporate-landlordspandemic-evictions/ (“These corporations are sitting on billions of dollars and will keep getting richer
through tax breaks and giveaways, including in the federal stimulus packages. They can easily afford tocancel monthly housing-related expenses and debts for millions of Americans whose jobs and incomes
have been destroyed by Covid-19.”).
288. HEIDI SCHULTHEIS & CAITLIN ROONEY, CTR. FOR AM. PROGRESS RIGHT TO COUNSEL IS A
RIGHT TO A FIGHTING CHANCE 8–9 (2019),
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/reports/2019/10/02/475263/right-counsel-rightfighting-chance/; see All About Cleveland’s Eviction Right to Counsel, NAT’L COAL. FOR A CIV. RIGHT TO
COUNS. (Feb. 5, 2021), http://civilrighttocounsel.org/major_developments/1382; see also City ofCleveland Creates Right to Counsel in Cleveland Housing Court, LEGAL AID SOC’Y OF CLEV. (Oct. 1,
2019 2:58 PM), https://lasclev.org/20191001/; Matt Bloom, How a Voter-Approved Program in Boulder
Could Drastically Reduce Evictions, KUNC (Nov. 4, 2020, 4:08 PM), https://www.kunc.org/2020-1104/how-a-voter-approved-program-in-boulder-could-drastically-reduce-evictions; Robert D. Lane Jr. etal., Philadelphia Enacts ‘Right to Counsel in Evictions’ Law, THE NAT’L L. REV. (Nov. 19, 2019),
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/philadelphia-enacts-right-to-counsel-evictionslaw#:~:text=On%20November%2014%2C%202019%2C%20the,income%20residents%20facing%20evi
ction%20proceedings.
289. Doug Donovan, Lawmakers Seek Legal Aid for Tenants Facing Eviction in Baltimore,
BALTIMORE SUN (July 3, 2017 6:41 PM), https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/investigations/bs-mdtenant-lawyers-reaction-20170703-story.html; Doug Donovan, Solution to Help Tenants Avoid Eviction
Lags in Maryland, BALTIMORE SUN (July 3, 2017 12:54 PM),https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/investigations/bs-md-tenant-attorneys-20170701-story.html; MN
HF450, 92nd Leg., 2021-2022 Leg. Sess. (Minn. 2021), https://legiscan.com/MN/bill/HF450/2021; Rightto Counsel Pilot Proposed in Milwaukee, NAT’L COAL. FOR A CIV. RIGHT TO COUNS. (Mar. 5, 2021),
http://civilrighttocounsel.org/major_developments/1514; Resolution No. 20083, City Council, City of
Tulsa, Okla. (Okla. 2020), http://civilrighttocounsel.org/uploaded_files/273/Tulsa_RTC_resolution.pdf;
H 3072, S.C. H.R., Sess. 124 (S.C. 2021), https://legiscan.com/SC/bill/H3072/2021; S.B. 531, Conn.
Gen. Assembly, Sess. Year 2021 (Conn. 2021), https://legiscan.com/CT/bill/SB00531/2021; S.B. 350,
Ind. State S., 2021 Sess. (Ind. 2021), https://legiscan.com/IN/bill/SB0350/2021; LB419 – Require
Appointment of Counsel in Eviction Proceedings and Provide for a Filing Fee, 107th Leg., 2021-2022
Sess. (Neb. 2021), https://legiscan.com/NE/bill/LB419/2021; S.B. 5160, Wash. State Leg., Reg. Sess.
(Wash. 2021), https://legiscan.com/WA/bill/SB5160/2021.
290. See, e.g. Gino Fanelli, Rochester Tenants Facing Eviction Would Get Free Legal Counsel Under
New
Bill,
ROCHESTER
CITY
NEWSPAPER(Aug.
3,2020),
https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/rochester-tenants-facing-eviction-would-get-freelegal-counsel-under-new-bill/Content?oid=12087059 (explaining that the Volunteer Legal Services

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Protections against evictions, similar to those built into New York City’s rent
regulation scheme, should also be expanded statewide. One of the most significant
tenant protections enjoyed by rent-stabilized tenants is the right to a renewal lease
unless the tenancy can be terminated for cause. 291 The statewide shift tosanctioning evictions only “for cause” would provide security and peace of mind
to tenants living in non-regulated apartments. The NYS legislature is currently
considering a bill to ensure evictions for “good cause” only.292 The “Good Cause”
bill would extend the right to a lease renewal and protections from unconscionable
rent increases to all tenants across NYS, except those living in owner-occupied
buildings with four or fewer units.293
Finally, the State should aggressively expand the ability of low-income tenants
to access affordable housing. One huge leap would be the creation of a reliable andcomprehensive housing voucher program.294 The program proposed by the NYS
legislature—the Housing Access Voucher Program—would create a rental
assistance program for New Yorkers who are currently homeless or at risk of losing
their homes, including undocumented individuals who are not currently eligible
for public assistance. 295
C. Invest in Community Land Initiatives & End Apartment Warehousing
One powerful way to flip the narrative of real estate and property as a monetaryinvestment instead of a human right is to invest in community land initiatives
throughout NYC. City leaders should follow the lead of non-profits such as the
NYC Community Land Initiative. 296 This group works to advance Community
Land Trusts (“CLTs”) and pushes for policies to give tenants and community
organizations a first right to purchase multifamily properties, abolish NYC’s tax
lien sale, and to prioritize CLTs for public land disposition.
CLTs are non-profit entities that present a different ownership model that iscommunity-led and community-controlled. The CLT stewards a building and/or
land with the goal of ensuring permanently affordable housing. 297 It is acommunity ownership model that gained momentum before the pandemic298 andProject has been operating a program in Irondequoit, New York to provide legal representation to lowincome residents facing eviction, and it “is working to expand it to Greece and East Rochester.”).
291. See S. 2892B, N.Y. State S., 2019-2020 Leg. Sess. (N.Y. 2020),
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s2892. Other pending legislation, S3693/A6322, seekselimination of Major Capital Improvements (MCIs). MCIs essentially allow landlords to pass the cost ofbuilding repairs and major improvements onto tenants, many of whom may not be in possession for thelife of the improvement.
292. S. 2892B, supra note 293.
293. Id.
294. S. 2804A, N.Y. State S., 2021-2022 Leg. Sess. (N.Y. 2021),
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/S2804.
295. Id.
296. About Us, NYC CMTY. LAND INITIATIVE, https://nyccli.org/ (last visited Mar. 28, 2021).
297. Frequently Asked Questions, NYC CMTY. LAND INITIATIVE, https://nyccli.org/resources/cltsand-mhas-frequently-asked-questions/ (last visited Mar. 28, 2021) [hereinafter NYC CMTY. LANDINITIATIVE FAQ].
298. Press Release, New Economy Project, Victory! NYC Funds Community Land Trusts in City
Budget (June 25, 2019), https://www.neweconomynyc.org/2019/06/nyc-takes-bold-action-to-address-theaffordable-housing-crisis-by-supporting-community-land-trusts/.

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can be a powerful force in post-pandemic New York City that can lead to more
affordable homes, jobs, and free community space.299
The NYS Legislature should take decisive action to ensure the availability ofaffordable housing. It can follow the lead of Barcelona, Spain, which recently
expanded the prohibition on the warehousing of empty apartments.300 The new
Barcelona law permits the city to assume ownership of apartments that have beenvacant for more than two years and compensate the owners at 50% of the market
rate. 301 New York should expand its attempts to crack down on warehousing
apartments and pass the proposed bill that would fine landlords who leave
apartments vacant for more than three months and use the money collected to fundhousing vouchers for homeless New Yorkers.302
D. Abolish Summary Proceedings & Possessory Judgments in Housing Court
The very nature of the “summary proceeding” in Housing Court creates andperpetuates fundamental inequities. 303 Currently, housing disputes between
landlords and tenants are litigated in fast-paced “summary proceedings” instead ofin plenary actions like other civil actions. 304 That proceedings resolving suchhumanly vital questions related to whether one loses a roof over one’s head are
fast-tracked while other contract disputes are not is inherently unfair and likely aresult of racist and classist policies. This “expedited” form of legal proceeding has
its origins in New York in a statute passed in 1820 which sought to offer landlords
an alternative to an ejectment action to recover possession of real property.305 By
its very nature, such a proceeding privileges property over personhood bydepriving tenants of a forum to fully seek comprehensive resolution of their legal
claims, a right afforded to other civil litigants. While in 1820 this procedure was amore generous alternative to landlords physically ejecting tenants, self-help
evictions have long been outlawed as inhumane and unjust. 306 It is time theprocedural aspects of housing law caught up. While challenges to summary
299. Mark Hallum, Housing Advocates in NYC Look to Budget to Help Curb Post-Pandemic
Gentrification, AMNY (June 25, 2020), https://www.amny.com/politics/housing-advocates-in-nyc-lookto-budget-to-help-curb-post-pandemic-gentrification/; NYC CMTY. LAND INITIATIVE FAQ, supra note299.
300. Feargus O’Sullivan, Barcelona’s Latest Affordable Housing Tool: Seize Empty Apartments,
BLOOMBERG: CITYLAB (July 16, 2020, 12:48 PM), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-0716/to-fill-vacant-units-barcelona-seizes-apartments
301. Id. (The law expands 2016 efforts to fine landlords and/or assume temporary control of vacantapartments for us as affordable housing but returns it to the owners after 4-10 years.).
302. A9966, N.Y. State Assembly, 2019-2020 Leg. Sess. (N.Y. 2020),
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/A9966.
303. Mary B. Spector, Tenants' Rights, Procedural Wrongs: The Summary Eviction and the Need for
Reform, 46 Wᴀʏɴᴇ L. Rᴇᴠ. 135, 137 (2000).
304. Id.
305. See Reich v. Cochran, 201 N.Y. 450, 453–56 (N.Y. 1911) (providing an overview of the history
of New York’s summary proceedings statutes).
306. Press Release, N.Y. State Office of the Attorney General, Attorney General James Issues Tenant
Guidance for New Yorkers During Coronavirus Pandemic (Apr. 16, 2020), https://ag.ny.gov/pressrelease/2020/attorney-general-james-issues-tenant-guidance-new-yorkers-during-coronavirus (explainingthat “self-help evictions,” which includes your landlord locking you out or trying to evict you, are unlawful
in New York State).

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proceedings on federal constitutional grounds have not succeeded,307 the newly
emboldened tenants’ rights movement along with the growing number ofimpassioned tenant attorneys working together could craft a legislative responseto retire this outmoded conception of justice for tenants.
In addition to abolishing summary proceedings, the State should prohibit
possessory judgments. The State should decouple the obligation to pay rent withthe violent remedy of eviction. The contractual obligation to pay rent can be
enforced through money judgments for the unsecured debt, so that a landlord cancollect on a monetary judgment, but a person cannot be made homeless because of
the debt. This is exactly what our legislature did in the Tenant Safe Harbor Act,and there is no reason it cannot become the new norm in housing litigation.
E. Reimagine Housing as a Human Right
It is time to rethink the role of government in providing and regulating it
housing. Why not consider housing a human right? If housing were a human right,
then the government would have the moral and legal obligation to provide it forevery citizen. New York State is constitutionally obligated to care for its citizens
in need. Article XVII of the NYS Constitution provides that “the aid, care andsupport of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the state and bysuch of its subdivisions . . . .”308 This constitutional provision grounds the state’s
obligation to provide shelter for the homeless, as first recognized for homelesssingle men in the consent decree entered in Callahan v. Carey, 309 and thenextended to women and homeless families in subsequent litigation. 310
Significantly, this constitutional provision has not yet been interpreted to mandatethat the state provide housing, but instead have a role only as providing shelter.
Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in1948, theright to adequate housing has become a universally accepted part of human rights
law and has been reaffirmed in a wide range of human rights instruments.311 It istime to bring to fruition the promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
for New Yorkers. New York should provide a right to housing, not just a right toshelter, but a right to an adequate home, and to re-order the State’s priorities
accordingly.

307. See, e.g., Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56, 64–74 (1972).
308. N.Y. CONST., art. XVII.
309. Consent Decree, Callahan v. Carey, No. 42582/79 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Aug. 26, 1981), available athttps://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/CallahanConsentDecree.pdf.
310. Eldredge v. Koch, 459 N.Y.S.2D 960, 961 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1983) (extending the right to shelter
to homeless women); McCain v. Koch, 484 N.Y.S.2d 985, 987–88 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1984) (extending theright to shelter to families).
311. UNITED NATIONS, FACT SHEET NO. 21, THE HUMAN RIGHT TO ADEQUATE HOUSING 15–19(2009), https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/FactSheet21en.pdf.

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VII. CONCLUSIONCOVID-19 has caused many to rethink housing as a human right and publichealth need and has underscored the intersectionality of housing justice and racial
justice. The effects of the Right to Counsel, the strong Democratic-led statelegislature that passed HSPTA, along with a committed and vibrant tenants’ rights
movement, places more power in the hands of tenants and advocates than at anyother point in our history. These elements create a powerful and coordinatedmovement that stands ready to demand far-reaching housing justice for New
Yorkers.
The Right to Counsel offers an army of new lawyers a fresh way to see theirrole as housing attorneys. Attorneys can pivot from the longtime defensive posture
to use their collective strength to push for creative litigation strategies and disrupt
an inherently unjust and racist housing system which, for far too long, has
prioritized profit over people. In one of the richest cities in the world there is no
reason that anyone should be un-housed, especially the majority of NYC
apartments are owned by large, corporate landlords,312 and many companies aremaking record profits, even during the pandemic.313 Advocates must continue tofight and imagine greater opportunities and protections for tenants. At the sametime, we can use the tools currently at our disposal to fight as aggressively for
renters.
The COVID-19 crisis has lifted a veil from the severe inequities faced by lowincome tenants in NYC. Before COVID-19, the affordable housing crisis was real
and well-documented, but the pandemic has created an emergency situation thatmust be handled in the short term and confronted creatively and aggressively inthe long term. New York is well-situated to take broad steps to protect tenants. The
tenant movement is robust, HSTPA strengthened tenant protections and removed
many of the financial incentives for landlords to evict tenants, and the Right toCounsel has flooded the system with hundreds of new and passionate tenant
attorneys. This article is a call to action for stakeholders to think expansively andboldly to make New York City a place where working people can live and thrive.
This Article acknowledges how much more work there is to do in the fight for
fairness, to dismantle the systemic racism inherent at all levels of housing anddisrupt the eviction mill. It also recognizes that NYC’s housing attorneys have thepower to start to unravel the system as we know it and create something new built
on the belief that housing is a human right. A place to lay one's head is necessary
for all of us.

312. Sam Rabiyah, Examining the Myth of the “Mom-and-Pop” Landlord, MEDIUM (Mar. 4,2020), https://medium.com/justfixnyc/examining-the-myth-of-the-mom-and-pop-landlord-6f9f252a09c
313. Cashing in On Our Homes: Billionaire Landlords Profits as Millions Face Eviction, INST. FOR
POL’Y STUD., https://ips-dc.org/cashing-in-on-our-homes/; https://www.cbsnews.com/news/evictionmoratorium-landlord-record-profits/ (last visited Apr. 26, 2021).