TESTIMONY
Adriene Holder, Chief Attorney at Legal Aid Society, on improving NYC's Right to Counsel and anti-harassment tenant protection programs
4:37:32
·
4 min
Adriene Holder emphasizes the critical need for improved Right to Counsel and tenant protection programs in NYC to prevent evictions and preserve affordable housing.
- Stresses the importance of legal representation for low-income tenants in housing proceedings to prevent evictions
- Highlights that housing eviction prevention work involves more than just stopping evictions, including identifying income supports and addressing hazardous housing conditions
- Estimates that an additional $351 million in funding per year is needed to fully implement the Right to Counsel program
- Calls for more time for legal service providers to build capacity to handle the increased volume of cases
- Emphasizes that keeping low-income people in their homes is essential for their well-being and for maintaining affordable housing stock
Adriene Holder
4:37:32
So I know we're all timed.
4:37:36
So good good after a good evening.
4:37:39
Good evening.
4:37:41
And thank you to the city council's housing and building committee for the opportunity to testify about the crucial need to improve the city's right to counsel and anti harassment tenant protection programs to better serve our communities by preventing evictions and preserve being safe affordable.
4:37:56
I'm sorry.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:37:56
Is your microphone on?
4:37:58
Oh, I thought it is.
Adriene Holder
4:38:00
I need them closer.
4:38:01
Okay.
4:38:03
So sitting through this hearing, this afternoon, and into the evening, I remain extremely impressed with how committed.
4:38:10
There's a lot of heroes here of mine.
4:38:13
New and former or older or seasoned.
4:38:17
But I I am so so impressed with your commitment and engagement that you all have on these very important issues.
4:38:26
So I'm Adrian Holder, from the Legal Aid Society, and I'm joined by Rona Rogelwal from the Bronx defenders and Amish Shah from legal services in YC.
4:38:36
And together, we represent a coalition of 17 legal service providers in New York City.
4:38:42
We'll be submitting more detailed written test money later.
4:38:45
As a legal services provider community, we are committed to ensuring that the right to counsel realizes its full potential for preventing homelessness and displacement of low income and vulnerable New Yorkers, building tenant power and balancing the scales of justice by making housing court a place where tenants can achieve real comes in their housing cases.
4:39:04
And in that spirit and drawing on lessons learned from 6 years of right to counsel implementation, we offer this testimony to provide feedback and recommendations about this historic program.
4:39:15
It is critical for low income people to have legal representation and how housing proceedings, tenants who have an attorney and eviction proceeding are less likely to get evicted.
4:39:24
However, how housing eviction prevention work encompasses more than the essential halting of evictions.
4:39:31
It also involves identifying income supports for the entire household, securing eligible housing subsidies, and addressing hazardous housing conditions to safeguard both tenants and the housing stock.
4:39:42
May I finish?
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:39:43
Would you like to finish your testimony?
Adriene Holder
4:39:45
Yes.
4:39:45
Thank you.
4:39:46
I appreciate it.
4:39:48
Any other understanding of housing law practice disregards to holistic staffing needed to provide quality representation to resolve these complex eviction cases to obtain favorable results that meet client goals.
4:39:59
Address poverty and stabilize households and also stabilize entire communities.
4:40:05
Fully funding the right to council program is part of the solution to the housing affordability crisis that is plaguing the city.
4:40:12
Keeping low income people in their homes is essential not only for their well-being, but as also as a bulwark against the loss of affordable rents in the housing market.
4:40:21
The new housing vacancy survey published by HPD.
4:40:25
Among many things reveals that when a low income tenant is evicted, their apartment will not be rented again to another low income tenant.
4:40:31
Instead, the rent will likely be raised and that unit will become unaffordable.
4:40:36
The funding needed to fully implement right to counsel is significantly less than the nearly 2 $1,000,000 spent on sheltering the in house.
4:40:44
Money spent on right to counsel significantly offsets the need to spend money on shelters.
4:40:50
In response to questions we received about the cost to fully implement right to counsel.
4:40:55
Last year, providers estimated that an additional $351,000,000 and funding per year was needed.
4:41:02
That amount assumed a much lower number of filed in calendar cases that were eligible for right to counsel with an average cast rate case rate that the legal services providers have calculated last year at $7500.
4:41:18
Updated data reveals at approximately 79,000 cases and not the 44,444 that the city proposes to fund going into new fiscal years are estimated to be eligible for the program.
4:41:34
Therefore, the providers believe the need for funding is significantly higher than even 1 year ago.
4:41:40
We are extremely grateful for the council's advocacy to have the city allocate an additional 20,000,000 to the program last year.
4:41:48
We thank you all for pushing the city to make that initial investment.
4:41:52
However, the estimated cost associated with the additional eligibility all seniors regardless of income who are now eligible under laws that you all passed, and the general increase in cost of living exceed that additional fund this year.
4:42:06
Even if the right to council program were to receive the influx in funding that it needs to cover the full universe of eligible cases, leave services providers need more time to build pipelines to aid in the recruitment of staff, as well as to develop staff and supervisors to be able to achieve the staffing levels needed to handle the volume of cases.
4:42:24
I'm now gonna hand it over to Runa who's going to talk to you about other aspects of the world.
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Barika Williams, Executive Director of Association for Neighborhood And Housing Development (ANHD), on Community Housing Preservation Strategies and Housing Production Challenges
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Runa Rajagopal, Managing Director of Bronx Defenders, on Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection Program and Funding Fairness for Legal Services
