Page 33 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

New York State had to litigate without representation, and that in New York City, 99 percent of tenants are unrepresented in eviction proceedings .11 These local figures reflect the state of access to justice nationally as indicated by an American Bar Association finding that, in 2005, only 1 percent of the lawyers in the U .S . worked in “practice settings” in which they provided civil legal services or criminal defense to low-income people (and that fraction is diminishing: in 1980 the figure was 2 percent) .12
Wealth-based disparity in access to justice has profound implications, particularly in legal matters involving issues of fundamental human need, such as legal proceedings at which one’s home is at stake . In eviction cases, denial of counsel can, and often does, result in loss of the respondent’s home . Counsel makes a determinative difference in the outcome of eviction proceedings . One study of New York City’s Housing Court found that tenants who were represented by counsel had fewer defaults, fewer judgments and warrants of eviction against them, and greater success in obtaining services and repairs from their landlords .13 A recent study of the impact of representation in eviction proceedings by the Boston Bar Association found that represented tenants were able to remain in their homes twice as often as unrepresented tenants and that represented tenants received a financial benefit in the litigation that was five times greater than that received by unrepresented tenants .14
Evictions, in turn, have devastating short- and long-term consequences for those who are evicted . Low-income households that are evicted in New York City face a housing market that presents them with practically no options because of the severe lack of affordable housing . Housing New York, a Five-Borough, Ten-Year Plan for affordable housing, released by the Mayor in May of 2014, reported that “[t]here are nearly one million households who earn less than 50 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), or just under $42,000 for a family of four,” yet there are only 425,000 housing units available in the City with rents suitable for that income level .15 No wonder that more than one-third of the families entering the homeless shelter system report “eviction” as the precipitating factor for their homelessness .16 Families who experience homelessness have a very tough time in life .17 But families suffer deeply from the experience of eviction as well . One recent study of the consequences of eviction found that:
. . . eviction has negative effects on mothers in multiple domains . Compared to those not evicted, mothers who were evicted in the previous year experienced more material hardship, were more likely to suffer from depression, reported worse health
11 The Task force To expand access To civil legal services in new york, reporT To The chief Judge of The sTaTe of new york 20 (2014), available at https://www.nycourts.gov/ip/access-civil-legal-services/PDF/CLS%20TaskForce%20 Report%202014.pdf.
12 See american Bar associaTion, lawyer demographics 2010 (2011), http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/ administrative/market_research/lawyer-demographics-tables-2014.authcheckdam.pdf.
13 See Carroll Seron et al., The Impact of Legal Counsel on Outcomes for Poor Tenants in New York City’s Housing Court: Results of a Randomized Experiment, 35 law & soc’y rev. 419, 428 (2001).
14 BosTon Bar associaTion Task force on The civil righT To counsel, The imporTance of represenTaTion in evicTion cases and homelessness represenTaTion: a reporT on The BBa righT To counsel piloTs 2 (2012), available at http://www. bostonbar.org/docs/default-document-library/bba-crtc-final-3-1-12.pdf.
15 The ciTy of new york, housing new york a five-Borough, Ten-year plan 2, available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/ housing/assets/downloads/pdf/housing_plan.pdf.
16 new york ciTy independenT BudgeT office, esTimaTe of The cosT of legal counsel in housing courT and poTenTial shelTer savings due To averTed evicTions 5 (2014), available at http://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/2014housingcourtletter. pdf.
17 nancy smiTh eT al., undersTanding family homelessness in nyc, an in-depTh sTudy of families Before and afTer shelTer (2005), available at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dhs/downloads/pdf/vera_Study.pdf.
Housing and Community
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