Reaction to City Announcing Right to Counsel in Housing Court (City Limits)
City Limits, February 13, 2017
Reaction to City Announcing Right to Counsel in Housing Court
“In the three days before the final State of the City address before he faces re-election, Mayor de Blasio unveiled two major shifts to address critics of his housing policies. On Friday, he revealed a major shift toward lower-income families in the allocation of units to be created under his housing plan. And on Sunday he and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced they had agree to create a universal right to legal services for tenants facing eviction…..As City Limits reported in December, a majority of Councilmembers supported universal access but no vote had been scheduled. One hold-up was a concern about cost: The Independent Budget Office estimated in 2014 that the move could cost the city $100 million to $200 million annually, but a more recent estimate commissioned by the Bar Association found instead a $300 million net benefit to the city.”
