Ellen Davidson, a staff attorney with The Legal Aid’s Society’s Civil Law Reform Unit appeared on the WNYC’s The Capitol Pressroom to give an update on New York State’s eviction moratorium and to discuss a challenge to the law by a group of landlords from Erie County.

Davidson explained that currently, she does not expect the moratorium to be extended beyond January 15 and that organizations like Legal Aid are working to avoid a flood of eviction proceedings by having clients apply for emergency rent relief. However, she noted that the State has currently stopped accepting applications in most cases due to a lack of funds.

Although Davidson was optimistic that some federal money for rent relief will be relocated to states like New York who have a great need, she cautioned that many low-income tenants are still unaware of the program and remain at risk for eviction. “It would not surprise me if there are hundreds of thousands of tenants who still don’t know about the program and are not able to pay their rent,” she said.

She also addressed a recent lawsuit brought by Western New York landlords challenging the moratorium. They contend that the mechanism for challenging a tenant’s declaration of hardship, which allows them to avoid eviction, places an undue burden on landlords. Davidson pushed back against this claim, noting that a declaration is easily challenged and the burden then shifts to the tenant to prove their hardship, as the law intended.

“It doesn’t seem like any of the landlords who brought this case have even tried to challenge the hardship declaration,” she said.

Listen to the full segment below.