ALAA and LSSA Call on the NY Legislature and Governor Hochul to extend NY’s Eviction Moratorium

January 11, 2022

We, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (UAW 2325) and the Legal Services Staff Association (UAW 2320) call on the New York Legislature and Governor Hochul to extend New York’s eviction moratorium past January 15th due to the ongoing COVID-19 omicron surge. 

As unionized legal workers who represent tenants in housing courts throughout NYC, we have seen first hand the life-saving effect of the eviction moratorium on the communities we serve. It is estimated that New York’s eviction moratorium has saved 10,230 lives to date. The end of the moratorium will also bring the end of certain protections against default judgements and other rights set to expire even as the virus itself runs rampant. To end these protections in winter and in the midst of the ongoing Omicron variant surge is nothing short of a death sentence for working class tenants, who will be forced to crowd into poorly ventilated housing courts in a desperate attempt to save their homes. Many of these tenants will lose their homes and be forced to find alternative housing either by living with families and friends or the City’s overcrowded shelter system, thus placing themselves or the people they live with at further risk of contracting COVID-19. In the worst case scenario, they may be forced into street homelessness. 

We agree that it is beyond time for permanent solutions to New York’s housing crisis. A good cause eviction law would provide essential protections to tenants in unregulated housing throughout the state. Just last week, a judge recognized the importance of reopening the ERAP program to provide eviction protections to tenants whose rental assistance needs have not yet been met. Access to Housing vouchers would significantly alleviate rent burdened households and end their housing court cases. Statewide right to counsel would ensure that tenants all across New York (not just in NYC) have access to qualified tenant attorneys who can help tenants with their cases. While we as advocates will do everything in our power to fight for tenants, there are simply not enough eviction defense attorneys to competently handle the coming deluge of cases, particularly without these other safeguards in place. It is premature to end the eviction moratorium in the midst of the omicron surge and before New York has put more permanent solutions to the housing crisis in place. 

We call on our colleagues across the city and our employers to join us in demanding the extension of the life-saving eviction moratorium through this pandemic surge. Should the State and City fail to extend the eviction moratorium it will place hundreds of families at immediate risk of eviction and thus at increased risk of contracting COVID-19 during the largest surge in cases the City has seen since being the epicenter of pandemic.