Evictions decreased by 25% in NYC last month under state tenant protections
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Khamis Mohamed (left), Bill Lindauer (center) and Edwin Amadeo faced an uncertain future at their Long Island City apartment building last year. Eagle file photo by David Brand.
By David Brand
Evictions decreased by more than 25 percent in New York City last month compared to January 2019, continuing a downward trend in the number of tenants forced from their homes since new tenant protection laws took effect in June 2019, according to city housing data.
Marshals executed a total of 1,598 evictions citywide in January, down from 2,060 in January 2019, the city records show.
In Queens, evictions dropped by nearly a third, from 455 in January 2019 to 331 last month.
Tenants’ rights advocates have attributed the steady decrease to renter protections enacted by the state in June 2019. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act included measures to stop landlords from evicting tenants who complain about apartment conditions and that force landlords to give notice before terminating a lease or raising rent.
“Evictions continue to plunge and New Yorkers are remaining in their homes since these common sense measures were put in place,” said attorney Judith Goldiner, who leads the Civil Law Reform Unit at The Legal Aid Society.
Legal Aid and other members of the Housing Justice For All Coalition are pushing state lawmakers to enact new measures to protect tenants who still face eviction, including the Home Stability Support program championed by Queens Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi. The initiative would create a rent supplement for New Yorkers eligible for public assistance benefits and who face eviction or loss of housing due to domestic violence or dangerous living conditions.
The 31.6 percent drop in Queens evictions in January 2020 is an even larger decrease than the rate that occurred during the first six months under the new state tenant protections.
A total of 1,686 individuals or families were evicted in Queens from June 14, 2019 to Dec. 31, 2019 — 30.4 percent fewer than the same time period in 2018, when marshals carried out 2,291 evictions, according to the city data.
Across New York City, evictions decreased by 18 percent between June 14, 2019 and Dec. 31, 2019, compared to the same time period in 2018. There were 8,951 evictions citywide from June 14 to Dec. 31, 2019 compared to 10,958 in that time frame in 2018.
The new measures also compel courts to give tenants 30 days to correct problems if they violated their lease and enable tenants in non-payment proceedings to pay all the rent they owe to halt an eviction.
The state laws coincide with a city initiative that provides housing attorneys to certain low-income tenants in eviction proceedings.
“It’s a long overdue reversal, overturning rapid loss of affordable housing over time,” tenants’ attorney Kenny Schaefer told the Eagle inside Queens Housing Court last month. “There weren’t sufficient laws and enough attorneys for low-income [residents]; so many low/middle income families were forced out.”
See the eviction data:
