Right to Counsel for low-income seniors at risk of losing their homes is
SMART SOCIAL POLICY

The Scope of the Problem
Many seniors face losing their homes without legal assistance:  Every year, more than 300,000 petitions are filed in the New York City Housing Court, resulting in the eviction of 25,000 households.  Over three-quarters of seniors facing eviction have an annual income less then $25,000 per year, making it virtually impossible for them to afford to hire a private attorney.  Senior Citizens are also losing their homes and equity in increasing numbers as the result of foreclosure.  The existing legal services and legal aid programs lack the resources to meet the overwhelming need.  The result?  The vast majority of senior citizens are forced to navigate court alone, without an attorney. 

Seniors cannot have a meaningful day in court without a lawyer:  The New York City Housing Court is widely acknowledged to be almost impossible to navigate effectively without a lawyer. Most eviction proceedings end with the unrepresented tenant and the represented landlord signing a settlement document.  One housing court judge has written that most tenants enter into settlements without “even basic understanding about their legal rights.”  Not surprisingly, several studies have shown that tenants are far more likely to retain their homes after an eviction petition is filed against them when they are represented by a lawyer. Foreclosures are extremely complex legal cases and protecting your rights and saving your home without an attorney is a daunting task. Seniors are at a particular disadvantage in court, because they suffer disproportionately from vision and hearing loss, and from other disabilities impairing their ability to represent themselves.

Results of evictions:
Senior citizens evicted from their homes end up homeless.  Even when they are able to find a new home, being forced to move away from their neighborhood, and from the family, friends and social service agencies providing care and companionship, threatens the health and even the lives of senior citizens.  As a result, seniors who are evicted end up in emergency rooms, nursing homes or adult homes, at great cost to them, to the City, and to society.

Results of foreclosures:
Senior citizens are preyed upon by unscrupulous lenders and agents promising to assist them in refinancing or preventing foreclosure.  As a result, whole communities are facing instability and loss of equity as homeowners default of their mortgages and are forced to defend against foreclosures.

The Solution
The Senior Citizen Right to Counsel Bill would establish a right to counsel for all low-income New York City seniors, 62 years old and older, facing eviction in Housing Court.  Providing counsel to each eligible senior will not be cheap.  But given the costs that the City incurs when seniors are forced from long-time homes, providing counsel to seniors is worth it.

Supporters of this legislation include...
ACORN
Aids Center of Queens County
Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development
Association of Legal Aid Attorneys
UAW 2325
Brennan Center Strategic Fund
Bronx Jewish Community Council
Brooklyn Housing and Family Services
Bushwick Housing Independence Project
CAMBA Legal Services
Chelsea Housing Group of Hudson Guild
City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, Inc.
Coalition to Save Affordable Housing of Co-op City
Community Service Society
Council of Senior Centers and Services
Diana H. Jones Senior Center
District Council 37
Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
Erasmus Neighborhood Federation
Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies
Flatbush Development Corporation
Goddard Riverside Center
Good Ole Lower East Side
Grand Coalition of Seniors
Greater Woodhaven Development Corp.
Harlem Tenants Council
Help USA- Home Base
Henry Street Settlement
Housing Conservation Coordinators
Independence Plaza North Tenants Association
Jewish Board of Family and Children Services
Jewish Community Council of the
Rockaway Peninsula
Knickerbocker Plaza Tenant’s Association
Legal Services Staff Association UAW 2320
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
Los Sures- Southside HDFC
Lower Manhattan Health Care Coalition
Make the Road New York
Manhattan Geriatric Committee
Met Council on Housing
MFY Legal Services
Midwood Neighborhood Self-Help
By Older Persons Project Neighborhood
Mitchell-Lama Residents Coalition
NEDAP
Neighborhood Association for
Inter-Cultural Affairs, Inc.
New York County Lawyers' Association
New York Legal Assistance Group
Northern Manhattan Improvement Corp.
NYC Emergency Food & Shelter Program
One Stop Senior Services
Partnership for the Homeless
Project Samaritan, Inc.
Queens Community Civic Corp.
RAIN
Schomberg Plaza Tenants Association
Sephardic Bikur Holim
South Bronx Action Group
St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corp.
Staten Island Inter-Agency Council for Aging
Tenant & Neighbors of New York State
The Legal Aid Society
United Jewish Council of East Side
United Neighborhood Houses of New York
United Way of NYC
University Settlement
Urban Justice Center
Woman’s Housing & Economic Development Corp