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Q&A
Shanequa Charles discusses Bronx eviction rates and the impact of Right to Counsel
2:15:16
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155 sec
Commissioner Dr. Lisette Nieves commends Shanequa Charles for addressing the risks faced by current tenants, including eviction and poor housing conditions, and requests data on eviction rates. Charles explains that prior to the implementation of Right to Counsel (RTC), the Bronx saw approximately 33,000 evictions annually; RTC dramatically reduced this number to around 4,000 by 2023, although the Bronx still accounts for a disproportionate share of citywide evictions.
- Right to Counsel (RTC) legislation significantly reduced annual evictions in the Bronx (from ~33,000 to ~4,000).
- Despite RTC, the Bronx continues to have the highest number of evictions among the boroughs (~3,500 of ~11,000 citywide in 2023).
- Focusing only on new supply ignores the instability faced by existing tenants.
Dr. Lisette Nieves
2:15:16
Hi.
2:15:16
I just wanted to say first thank you for the discussion and inclusion, particularly the focus on expanding the housing supply doesn't deal as much with the existing and the risk, particularly of those that are being kicked out or living in inadequate housing.
2:15:36
So I just appreciate that.
2:15:38
And so I know in your testimony, any data that you can provide on that, I know, we'd love to see as well too.
Shanequa Charles
2:15:44
So Yeah.
2:15:45
Absolutely.
2:15:46
So, what are we in?
2:15:47
Twenty twenty five now?
2:15:48
Did we we we switched a year?
2:15:50
Okay.
2:15:51
So if we wanna go back about a decade when we studied what Bronx evictions looked like, when we were reworking Bronx Housing Court and how non tenant centered Bronx Housing Court actually was, although the original purpose was to be protecting tenants.
2:16:09
We saw 33,000 Bronx sites evicted annually.
Dr. Lisette Nieves
2:16:13
And I should let you know too that one of the programs at the Fund for the City of New York is actually right to counsel.
2:16:19
I am familiar.
2:16:20
I just wanna make sure that that data is included
Shanequa Charles
2:16:23
Absolutely.
2:16:23
In
Dr. Lisette Nieves
2:16:24
in the testimony because I think that's important too.
2:16:27
It's not just about I just appreciate the depth of where you went.
2:16:31
I just really wanna recognize that.
Shanequa Charles
2:16:32
Absolutely.
2:16:33
Thank and thank you for that.
2:16:34
I appreciate that.
2:16:35
Present day, through a lot of the work that we did through right to counsel, so shout out to you for that, and making sure that Bronxites had a legal representation as exists in criminal court as of right, we were able to reduce the number from 33,000 to 4,000 currently.
2:16:55
And and that is a tremendous drop over the last decade, and I'm really, really proud of that work that that has transpired.
2:17:02
Present day.
2:17:03
So so 4,000 was the twenty twenty three numbers.
2:17:07
We're hanging around 3,500 at this point, which that's 3,500 out of about 11,000 of all five boroughs that were actively evicted.
2:17:21
That's not including the number that was taken to court, which if we dive deeper into that study, we'll find some more really resounding factuals there.
2:17:32
But the fact that people had access to lawyers as of right absolutely decreased that number from the thirty three thousand ten years ago all the way down to the 4,000 and across all five boroughs.
2:17:45
But we're still leading in the 11,000, you know, active evictions.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
2:17:50
Commissioner DeBaron?
2:17:51
So