The Legal Aid Society is calling attention to a disturbing rise in landlords forcing illegal evictions by changing locks and cutting off utilities to tenants, as reported by City & State.

While these practices are inhumane and illegal, court data shows that few face legal consequences for their actions. Only twenty-five landlords faced charges for illegally evicting a tenant in 2020, despite 2019 reforms that make it a crime to evict an individual without an order from a court. Legal Aid receives approximately a dozen complaints of illegal evictions a week in the Queens’ office alone.

Making matters worse, law enforcement has not been on side of the tenants who look to them for help. While the policy is clear, officers often fail to protect those who find themselves locked out.

“The police are not helpful when our clients call and they say, ‘I’ve been locked out,’” said Sateesh Nori, Attorney-in-Charge at the Queens Neighborhood Office of The Legal Aid Society. “Technically, the police are supposed to say to the landlord, open the door and go to court if you want your tenant out … But too often, it’s our clients who actually end up in jail.”