Q&A
Overview of Commercial Lease Assistance program and SBS legal services
0:44:44
ยท
5 min
Commissioner Dynishal Gross provides an overview of the Commercial Lease Assistance (CLA) program and other legal services offered by SBS to small businesses. The discussion covers the types of issues addressed by the CLA program, the extent of legal representation provided, and various other legal support services available to small businesses.
- The CLA program provides pre-litigation services and warm hand-offs for cases requiring court representation
- SBS offers multiple legal service programs, including pro bono consultations and legal clinics
- Services are available in multiple languages and cover various aspects of business law, including MWBE contract legal services
Dynishal Gross
0:44:44
So there is a statutory definition in the, section of the code, concerning, you know, what constitutes commercial tenant harassment.
0:44:54
And, again, we would have to look more closely at those cases to understand what aspects of, behavior were cited by the tenants.
0:45:03
I can say that in our commercial lease assistance program, you know, we don't require, clients to, we don't narrowly focus on a statutory definition of harassment.
0:45:14
So some of the types of tenant complaints that lead to, lead them to reach out to request CLA support, may have to do with landlords, you know, blocking access, to the space.
0:45:28
Issues of repairs not done, making the space, unused unusable, ex you know, demands for increased payments or payments that are outside of what is, determined by the lease.
0:45:44
And our commercial lease assistance vendor is addressing that by try by leveling the playing field between that tenant and the landlord, who are always represented, so that the the landlord has the the excuse me.
0:45:59
The small business has a skilled advocate in negotiating with the landlord.
0:46:05
But, that, vendor is providing only pre litigation services.
0:46:10
So if a small business comes to SBS, our business solution center, or an NA partner and gets referred to us when they're already in eviction proceedings, our vendor is required to provide a warm hand off or referral to low cost or pro bono legal services for that litigation purpose.
0:46:31
But the CLA intervention does not extend to representation in court.
Amanda Farias
0:46:36
Okay.
0:46:37
And just off of the commercial lease assistance program and the legal services that are provided, is in this program, is it required to, or do they voluntarily report instances of potential or suspected commercial tenant harassment?
Dynishal Gross
0:46:50
So we we manage the the vendor who delivers the program, and we get aggregated data on the types of matters in which they represent small business clinic clinic, clients.
0:47:01
And they share details on some of the cases in, they share some details on the cases with SBS through our CRM, but they are in a privileged attorney client relationship with the client.
0:47:15
So, we get aggregated data.
0:47:17
We're not getting all of the details, so that there's some privacy for the business in that representation.
Amanda Farias
0:47:25
Okay.
0:47:25
Thank you.
0:47:26
And in local law 90 of 2020, it empowers SBS to provide legal representation in court for small businesses and their and small business tenants who may lack the resources to secure their own attorney.
0:47:40
Outside of is is the vendor the only the this program the only space where we're providing legal services?
0:47:48
And what other cases have you folks provided in court legal representation?
Dynishal Gross
0:47:53
So this is not the only program through which we provide legal services, but I would say it's the deepest engagement because it is actually providing representation in an attorney client privileged, relationship.
0:48:07
But we also provide legal consultations through our business solution centers.
0:48:12
I believe in f y 24, we provided more than 800, pro bono legal consultations through our business solution centers.
0:48:21
We also work with legal services providers such as legal aid, volunteers of legal services that provide legal clinics, for small businesses, sometimes focused on target populations or specific needs.
0:48:36
For example, at toward in the last quarter of the calendar year, 2024, as the Corporate Transparency Act requirements were rolling out and rolling out in a really confusing way, right, because of, pending change in administration, litigation, and we wanted to get out the word to immigrant business owners in New York City and all business owners that might have had a filing obligation under the Corporate Transparency Act.
0:49:02
We actually worked with legal aid to deliver webinars in multiple languages to small business owners.
0:49:08
Also did outreach through community and ethnic media.
0:49:11
So we are doing clinics, for we NYC, BNYC, and and many audiences.
0:49:18
In addition, we have a MWBE contract legal services program.
0:49:24
So if you're of small business that wants to grow by contracting with New York City, you can understand the terms of the contracts.
0:49:32
You can understand if you're subcontracting what the terms of the agreements may be with primes and all of those riders.
0:49:39
That is not, like, as deep a service as CLA.
0:49:42
It's consultations and business education on legal topics.
0:49:46
Those are some of the other legal services we're able to provide as an agency.
Amanda Farias
0:49:50
And all of those are accessible in a multitude of languages and different forms of media?
Dynishal Gross
0:49:55
Yes, council member.
0:49:57
Great.
0:49:57
Thank you.