16 | March/April 2022 | BAEC Bulletin In the Public Service
LEGAL AID BUREAU OF BUFFALO
Local Nonprofits Team Up for Tenants BY ALAN WILLIAMS Five Buffalo-based providers of legal services for the needy have embarked on a cooperative project to expand the availability of assistance to tenants at risk of eviction. The Western New York Eviction Prevention Program is administered by Neighborhood Legal Services, pursuant to a grant from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. The program serves tenants in need who reside in Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, or Wyoming County. Four local nonprofits have received subgrants from NLS to share in the work of serving the tenants: the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, the Center for Elder Law and Justice, the Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, and the Western New York Law Center. Civil legal services for tenants have long received government funding. Yet, historically, the funding has not been adequate to bring the supply of services up to the level of need. The Eviction Prevention Program has made it possible to serve more tenants, by funding positions for more attorneys and support staff to assist them. The timing is propitious. New York’s most recent eviction moratorium expired on January 15 of this year, and eviction filings have surged. What is more, landlords may overestimate how free they now are to evict tenants who have fallen behind on their rent. Mary Hanson of NLS says, “Now that the hardship moratorium has expired, we see a lot of misunderstandings about which eviction proceedings can proceed and which ones can’t.” Legislation passed during the coronavirus pandemic provided that when an eviction proceeding is pending, the proceeding must be stayed (subject to some limited exceptions) if the tenant provides a hardship declaration, and that unless the court finds the hardship declaration invalid, the stay must continue up to at least January 15, 2022 (L. 2021, ch. 417, Part C, Subpart A, §§ 4, 6[a][ii], 7, 10[a], [c]). It further provided, among other things, that an eviction proceeding may be commenced only if the tenant has received a hardship-declaration form (id. §§ 1[4], 3). These provisions expired on January 15 (see id. § 11). However, the legal landscape has not changed completely
back to what it was before the pandemic. When a household has applied for funds pursuant to New York’s COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program “or any local program administering federal emergency rental assistance program funds,” it is (with limited exceptions) unlawful to commence eviction proceedings against that household for nonpayment of rent “unless or until a determination of ineligibility is made” (L. 2021, ch. 417, Part A, § 4). Further, a residential tenant’s failure to pay rent that was due during the period from March 7, 2020, to January 15, 2022, cannot be the basis of a warrant of eviction if the tenant incurred a financial hardship during that period (L. 2020, ch. 127, §§ 1–2; L. 2021, ch. 417, Part D, § 1). Be it noted that this is not an exhaustive discussion of the recently enacted restrictions on landlords’ ability to evict tenants. Some local homeless shelters—though not all—have observed a rise in homelessness since the moratorium expired. (“For sure,” said Thomas Green, Executive Director of Faith Based Fellowship; “Of course,” said Latanya Sims, owner of Latanjas Homeless Shelter; “Definitely,” said Evan Jackson, Homelessness Prevention Program Case Manager at Gerard Place.) There is considerable concern that as time goes on, more eviction proceedings will lead more people to become homeless. The Eviction Prevention Program is dedicated to helping people keep their shelter. Naturally, an important part of the program is defending tenants in eviction proceedings, but by no means is this all. The participating institutions inform the tenants about possible opportunities for financial assistance (private or governmental). They counsel the clients, not just about the law, but about basic matters of life as tenants. Tenants are also informed
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