City orders marshals to halt evictions 'indefinitely' amid COVID-19 emergency

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By David Brand

The New York City Department of Investigation has ordered city marshals to stop evicting tenants from their homes “indefinitely” in accordance with the COVID-19 eviction moratorium imposed by the state court system Sunday. 

The DOI directive effectively suspends all evictions citywide and comes three days after the Eagle learned that members of the committee overseeing the marshals had begun urging the city to order the marshals to stand down. DOI regulates the city marshals, who execute eviction warrants.

Not all marshals were initially aware of the order, however. Though the city website says DOI shared the order with marshals on Monday, attorneys from the Legal Aid Society said Tuesday that at least two specific marshals did not know they had to stop executing evictions. DOI did not update its website to reflect the new directive until Tuesday afternoon and told the attorneys in an email that the two marshals had been informed of the order.

The unprecedented directive earned praise from tenants’ rights advocates, including Legal Aid.

“In a time of an unprecedented pandemic, which has already claimed the lives of over 100 people across this country, no one should be forced from their home and onto the street,” said Legal Aid spokesperson Redmond Haskins. 

DOI also updated its website with a phone number for New Yorkers to report marshals illegally executing evictions. 

“Anyone with knowledge of City marshals attempting to execute on warrants of eviction can report this activity by calling DOI’s Bureau of City Marshals at (212) 825-5953,” the notice from DOI states.

Members of the Mayor’s Committee on City Marshals first recommended that Mayor Bill de Blasio order the marshals not to execute evictions in an internal email exchange last week, first reported by the Eagle. 

Though only the state legislature can pass a measure halting evictions in New York City, committee members said de Blasio could effectively impose an eviction moratorium in the city by directing marshals not to eject people from their homes. 

“It’s such an easy fix,” said Sateesh Nori, one of 14 committee members and the supervising attorney in Legal Aid’s Queens Housing Court unit. “The Department of Investigation is under the mayor, the Department of Investigation oversees the appointment and maintaining good standing of marshals, so why can’t they say, ‘Everyone stop for two weeks, three weeks or a month.’”

Nori told the Eagle Friday that he was aware of two people who had received eviction judgements in Queens Housing Court that morning. 

“What will they do? Do they go to a crowded shelter?” he said.

At least one other member of the Mayor’s Committee on City Marshals, Celina Cabán Gandhi,  said she, too, supported the idea of ordering marshals to halt evictions.

She told the Eagle that stopping evictions would also benefit “the employees of the Marshals' offices who may be putting themselves at risk to virus exposure with their field work.

“It’s a public health issue. The marshals are at risk,” Nori added. “They’re going from house to house evicting people.” 

The directive from DOI reiterates to the marshals a memo sent by Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks to New York State Unified Court System personnel Sunday.

“Effective Monday, March 16, all eviction proceedings and pending eviction orders shall be suspended statewide until further notice,” Marks wrote. 

State lawmakers are also considering legislation that would halt evictions statewide. State Sen. Brad Hoylman, the bill’s sponsor, said Friday that he supports the city taking action to institute a de facto moratorium.

“We need to take every step possible to keep New Yorkers in their homes,” he told the Eagle. “Evictions and foreclosures aren’t just cruel — during this emergency they are a threat to public health.”