Good housing policy balances all of our needs
Manhattan: Re “Pols: Protect tenants” (Oct. 14): The suggestion by borough presidents Mark Levine (Manhattan) and Vanessa Gibson (Bronx) to freeze all eviction cases in which tenants are unable to secure legal representation is just another example of punitive politics over practical policy. While neither have the authority or legislative power, they’d rather demonize affordable housing providers and make disingenuous proposals than offer constructive housing policy.
Legal representation is available to all low-income tenants through the city’s Right to Counsel program, which passed when they were members of the City Council. City evictions continue to remain significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels, with more evictions in January 2020 than in the entire first half of 2022. They also fail to acknowledge that Housing Court is where landlords and tenants resolve disputes, and where tenants receive rent assistance from various city programs — problems solved, evictions avoided.
If only half of the tenants are getting legal representation via Right to Counsel, that’s not a Housing Court issue, it’s a policy and budgeting failure. RTC providers have contracts with the city, so the problem isn’t with the Office of Court Administration. Politicians like Levine and Gibson should advocate for more emergency rental assistance so that tenants remain in their homes and so landlords recoup the rent revenue they need to maintain their buildings and pay city property taxes. Let’s stop the political theater and, instead, work collaboratively on sound policy.