NYCHA dismisses over 30,000 eviction cases
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The New York City Housing Authority announced this week that it’s dismissing 31,000 non-payment cases.
Photo via Metro Centric/Wikimedia Commons
By Rachel Vick
The New York City Housing Authority announced this week that it had dismissed over 30,000 non-payment eviction cases. The cases amount to 90 percent of NYCHA’s rental non-payment cases in the city’s Housing Court as of March 2021.
Of the non-payment cases resolved by the housing authority, 2,500 were dismissed in Queens, according to NYCHA.
NYCHA will instead focus on 2,300 accounts comprising an estimated $44 million in past-due rent and will streamline their process for bringing landlord-tenant cases to court, according to the agency. Active cases include those where the tenant owes more than two years worth of rent.
“The pandemic created an opportunity for NYCHA to re-imagine how we prioritize lease enforcement,” said NYCHA Chair & CEO Greg Russ. “The data-driven and customer service-oriented approach reflects the vision we have for bringing sustainable change that positions the Authority for a stronger future and improves the resident experience.”
The courts supported the effort by setting up dismissal calendars.
NYCHA collected $898 million in rent in 2021 and $964 million in rent in 2020, down from $1.05 billion in 2019 — a 15 percent decline in rent collection.
The now-expired pandemic eviction moratorium offered a chance for the agency to review the 34,000 filings.
“For too long, public housing residents' lives have been disrupted - by forcing them to miss work or their children missing school - when NYCHA took them to court and threatened them with eviction from their homes for money they didn’t owe,” said Legal Aid Society Staff Attorney Lucy Newman, who described NYCHA’s housing court practices as “chaotic.”
She told the Eagle that the two groups worked together to find a way to streamline the system, and that NYCHA worked to review their system.
In the past, clients have had multiple filings for the same rent, others have been caught up on payments and have still been sent to defend their case, according to Newman.
“It’s caused great stress on public housing households and to defend themselves against threat of eviction — and any proceeding — is extremely traumatizing,” she said. “It’s damaging to their wellbeing whether mental, physical or emotional.”
“[NYCHA] taking a hard look and starting to make some changes to them is really meaningful and hopefully benefits those that have had to deal,” Newman added. “This is hopefully just a first step in a number of different changes outlined in the plan that will lead to better quality of life for tenants.”
Now, NYCHA has discontinued non-payment rental cases where the household had no arrears or only those that accrued during the pandemic. They also discontinued cases where a household had duplicate or multiple cases filed against it, keeping only the most recent case.
The city’s biggest landlord also announced the decision as part of their Transformation Plan to deprioritize cases where the head of household was more than 62 years old.
The next hurdle for residents will be whether or not they receive Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds – Newman said that without the promise of public funding, it leaves residents reliant on NYCHA’s good will.
As of Jan. 24, NYCHA submitted landlord documents for nearly 28,000 ERAP applications on behalf of NYCHA residents, totaling more than $105 million, according to the agency.
Cea Weaver, a campaign coordinator for Housing Justice for All, echoed Newman’s urging for additional funding for NYCHA to ensure adequate support and treatment of residents.
“NYCHA is unique and this shows how the public sector can and will step up where the private sector fails,” Weaver said. “NYCHA must be fully funded to meet its mission of providing housing to all who need it.”
