Outside Brooklyn Housing Court on Monday morning, tenant organizers and legal aid attorneys led a rally on the courthouse sidewalk in support of expanding the city’s Right to Counsel program, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Comptroller Mark Levine toured inside.
Read MoreFour of the city’s five borough presidents, including Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, said in an open letter this week that the city must do more to fund its Right to Counsel program.
Read MoreAdvocates rallied in front of the Queens Civil Court building in support of a South Jamaica resident who is facing eviction from her home of 13 years after allegedly declining her landlord’s sexual advances.
Read MoreQueens resident Allilsa Fernandez returned to housing court this week in a renewed fight against her eviction.
Read MoreJulia McNally has been appointed the attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society’s Queens Neighborhood Office after more than a decade with the organization.
Read MoreWell over a year after an eight-alarm fire ripped through their apartment complex in Jackson Heights, injuring dozens and displacing hundreds, a group of over 60 tenants are in a continued legal battle with the building’s landlord, demanding that they be let back into their homes.
Read MoreWith the end of pandemic eviction moratoriums, the court ramping up caseloads to get back on track and Right to Counsel expanded citywide, legal service providers say they are hard pressed to meet demands — to the point where they are turning away tenants.
Queens Housing Court needs help only the Department of Housing Preservation and Development can provide — lawyers to represent the agency during proceedings.
The Queens County Bar Association hosted a CLE Monday to discuss the resumption of Housing Court operations to give attorneys an idea of the situation at hand.
Queens Housing Court Supervising Judge John Lansden has the law in his blood, but credits a strong work ethic with his rise in the court’s ranks.
Read More“We are sounding the alarm today in the face of what could be an avalanche of evictions to crash over tenants in this city on a scale that we’ve never seen.”
Read More“Discontinuing this important avenue for tenants to advocate for their right to a safe and habitable apartment represents an unnecessary, harmful and reckless setback.”
Read MoreThat hasn’t changed during the pandemic, but COVID-19 did force the organization to make major changes, including a shift to remote legal help.
Read More“At this juncture, we must use this time to address and prevent the eviction and foreclosure catastrophe looming just over the horizon.”
Read More“Evictions are violent, evictions are cruel and unnecessary, and during a pandemic they are deadly.”
Read More
