Dozens of Maimonides workers and retirees rallied with elected officials – including Assemblymembers Marcela Mitaynes and Phara Souffrant Forrest – outside of the hospital’s employee housing to urge Maimonides to drop the eviction cases against them.

Maimonides Hospital is evicting nearly 60 hospital workers and retirees without cause, despite decades of services to Maimonides. The hospital owned eleven nearby buildings, where nurses and hospital staff rented apartments. Maimonides chose to cash in on these real estate assets, selling seven of the buildings in 2018 to Iris Holdings Group for $68 million. Now they are clearing out two more buildings which house current hospital employees.

Pressure is now mounting for Maimonides to drop their eviction cases against longtime residents and essential workers. Last month, Attorney General Letitia James urged the hospital to halt the planned evictions, and Maimonides tenants traveled to Albany to meet with 14 Brooklyn legislators including the Speaker of the Assembly Carl Heastie, calling on them to support them in their fight to stay in their longtime homes and to pass Good Cause Eviction.

Good Cause Eviction, which would protect the Maimonides tenants as well as nearly all tenants in the state from evictions without cause, has strong momentum to pass as part of a larger housing package in the state budget this year. Both the Senate and the Assembly have backed the measure.

“Our clients and all the Maimonides tenants have dedicated their lives to caring for the hospital’s patients, even risking their own health through the pandemic,” said Tyler Crawford, a Legal Aid attorney who has been representing the tenants.

“Some of these healthcare heroes may become homeless when Maimonides begins evicting them from their long-time homes,” he continued. “We demand that Maimonides stop the eviction cases against them and allow them to remain in their homes. We look forward to continuing to fight in court on their behalf.”