Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
4-2-2024
Abstract
In a post-pandemic world, describing New York City Housing Court as “time-consuming” would be a drastic understatement. New York City faces a staggering backlog of at least 70,000 eviction cases, causing some to linger for more than four years. The backlog is due to a shortage of judges, pandemic-instituted moratoria, an influx of new cases, and a myriad of other reasons. New York City’s Tenant Safe Harbor Act was introduced at the start of the pandemic on March 7th, 2020, but has since been terminated on January 15th, 2022. The act protected tenants who could not pay rent due to Covid-19 financial hardships. Though the act removed a financial burden to many, the termination of this act has since increased the number of eviction cases brought to Housing Court, intensifying an already strained relationship between many landlords and tenants. With the Safe Harbor Act in place the city barely saw any evictions, but since its expiration, residential evictions have increased dramatically.
This post was originally published on the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution website on April 2, 2024. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above.
Recommended Citation
Siri, Jacob, "Using ADR to Help Resolve NYC’s Eviction Crisis Since the Termination of the Tenant Safe Harbor Act" (2024). CJCR Blog. 89.
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cjcr-blog/89
