On November 20, nearly 100 tenants gathered in Queens to learn about and prepare to take action for our campaign to expand the Right to Counsel (RTC). Many of the tenants were part of Catholic Migration Services.

Since we launched our campaign to expand the Right to Counsel in April, we have been contacting Council Members to support our legislation. This week, we will be showing our thanks to the dozens who have already sponsored the legislation. But now we need your help to contact those who haven't!

We created a spreadsheet to make it easy for you to see if your Council Member has sponsored our bills. It includes the phone numbers to call as well as a guide on how to call and what to say. 

We are excited to be hosting two upcoming Town Halls where you can come learn about our "Right to Counsel, Power to Organize" campaign to expand RTC! 

We are so excited to launch our campaign video on why tenants want NYC to expand Right to Counsel below here: 

On Tuesday night, we held our first, powerful and packed People's Tribunal on Evictions! More than 250 tenants, organizers, lawyers and advocates attended a packed and powerful People's Tribunal on Evictions! Dozens of tenants from across the city testified about eviction, harassment, and uninhabitable conditions--many of them live in buildings owned by the Worst Evictors. 

The jury--Iris Morales, David Harvey, Ejim Dike, Daniel Joseph Wiley and Juan Carlos Ruiz de Dios--found the testimony devastating and indicted Landlords, the City and the banks on criminal and civil charges, and called on tenants to organize rent strikes and takeover buildings. Jury member David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the CUNY Graduate Center, explained the jury’s decision. “The evidence we had is devastating,” Harvey said. “In this city, there is so much awful delivery of what should be a basic right for everybody to live in a decent house and a decent living environment.” Jury member and former Young Lord, Iris Morales, who was on the jury for the People’s Housing Crimes Trial in 1970, read aloud the penalties. They included prohibiting landlords who have outstanding violations from purchasing additional buildings as well as paying a fine to each tenant they violated.  “We want to also indict the federal state and city as co-conspirators for their rezoning laws… the tax breaks they give landlords … and for allowing harassment,” Morales said. “We also indict the banks that support these abusive practices.” 

The jury's indictments came after hours of powerful testimonies from tenants across the city. 

We are so excited to introduce you to our Jury Members, who in just 5 days, will listen and affirm as tenants testify about the impact of evictions at the People's Tribunal on Evictions.

Today, we are releasing the list of the top 20 landlords who evicted the most tenants in 2018. We put this Worst Evictors List and interactive map together with our friends at JustFix.NYC and the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project to show how these landlords use both eviction and the threat of eviction to displace tenants.

We are excited to announce that there is a new Right to Counsel hotline for tenants.

Those who are facing eviction in Right to Counsel zip codes can call this hotline to see if they are eligible for a lawyer and get more information about how the law works.

The hotline will run from Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM and will be in English and Spanish, with the ability to take calls in all languages using the Language Line.

We are excited to announce that there is a new Right to Counsel hotline for tenants.

Those who are facing eviction in Right to Counsel zip codes can call this hotline to see if they are eligible for a lawyer and get more information about how the law works.

The hotline will run from Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM and will be in English and Spanish, with the ability to take calls in all languages using the Language Line.

We are excited to announce that there is a new Right to Counsel hotline for tenants.

Those who are facing eviction in Right to Counsel zip codes can call this hotline to see if they are eligible for a lawyer and get more information about how the law works.

The hotline will run from Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM and will be in English and Spanish, with the ability to take calls in all languages using the Language Line.