Page 23 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

Conclusion
No doubt, expansion of funding for eviction-prevention legal assistance is a good thing, and New York City’s huge and growing investment in legal services for tenants will bring positive results . But expansion of funding is a short term measure with doubtful sustainability and it will not cause a fundamental shift in power, attitudes or culture . As one tenant leader put it:
It is good that the city is now providing some funding to protect tenants in areas where landlords may be using methods to push them out and displace them . But that funding can be taken away at the will of the legislature . A right cannot be taken away . It can, but it is a whole lot more difficult to lose that right . So a right to counsel means that the same way people accused of criminal activity automatically have the right to an attorney at their arraignment and they will have one during their trial, the right to counsel in housing court has to do the same thing and this is what we have been asking for . Something that can’t be taken away . Something that can’t be changed with a change of administration that says listen we are not going to fund this program . Because it is a right that will always be financed, will always be funded, will be there always so that the right is protected at all times .42
Moreover, increased funding for a benefit cannot bring about the shift in power dynamics, the change in the ecology of the court, the security and sense of well-being that would be generated by establishing the right to counsel . Increased funding does not treat people as equals, and does not convey the message of dignity and respect that is so sorely-needed in the city’s low-income communities . For government officials, as for all of us, giving up a power and flexibility is not an easy thing to do; it takes strength and courage . The bold step of establishing a right to counsel would shift power to low-income people from government and would generate a long-overdue recalibration of the balance of power between landlords and tenants in Housing Court and elsewhere . It would have a lasting and transformative effect on the ecology of housing justice .
You know what? They talking about bringing a panda from what country? To come over here . . .
From China .
From China, for $1 million a year? What? You know, they get money [for that] and an
animal is more important than a human life, and that’s sad .43 •
42 Fitzroy Christian, CASA focus group, Nov. 17, 2015.
43 Althea Matthews, CASA focus group, Nov. 17, 2015.
Specific Areas for Reform: Housing
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