Due to overwhelming demand, The Legal Aid Society announced today that attorneys will be unable to take new Housing Court cases in Manhattan and Brooklyn for the remainder of the month, as reported by The New York Daily News.

The Legal Aid Society reaffirmed its call on the New York State Office of Court Administration to limit the calendaring of housing court cases to ensure that low-income New Yorkers facing eviction have legal representation, as intended by New York City’s Right To Counsel (RTC) initiative. OCA’s refusal to address this post-pandemic reality means tenants will have to appear without a lawyer. Legal Aid estimates that for the remainder of the month Manhattan 130 cases will proceed without counsel as well as another 100 in Brooklyn.

Earlier this month, Legal Aid and other RTC providers announced they had to reduce intake in Queens, yet OCA moved tenants’ eviction cases forward anyway without legal representation.

According to recent reporting, there are currently more than 200,000 eviction cases pending in New York City Housing court, with 6,382 cases filed in February and another 7,740 filed in March, per OCA data.