Cyrus Dugger
Brennan Center Co-Authors Study Finding Tenants in Housing Court in New York City to be Disproportionately Low-Income, Of Color, and Without Lawyers; Estimates 5,000 Per Year are Unrepresented Low-Income Seniors
From the Brennan Center for Justice:
Brennan Center Co-Authors Study Finding Tenants in Housing Court in New York City to be Disproportionately Low-Income, Of Color, and Without Lawyers; Estimates 5,000 Per Year are Unrepresented Low-Income Seniors On February 14, 2007, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and ActKnowledge at the Center for Human Environments at the City University of New York Graduate Center released a study finding that tenants facing eviction in New York City Housing Court are disproportionately low-income, of color, and without legal representation. The study, which reports results from three surveys conducted in New York City Housing Court, found that approximately 5,000 low-income seniors in New York City pass through housing court without legal representation each year. The study also revealed that 61 percent of these tenants live with children under the age of 18, and more than 75 percent are unrepresented. Laura K. Abel, Deputy Director at the Brennan Center for Justice, says, “We hoped to gain a better understanding of the people who are evicted so that public officials can craft solutions to this problem. What we found were many senior citizens, who are particularly vulnerable and often wind up in crisis because they live on fixed incomes and have incredible difficulty finding new places to live. And when they do, they often end up far from the supportive services on which they rely.” To read the report, see: http://www.brennancenter.org/dynamic/subpages/download_file_47909.pdf. Press Release, New Study Finds Tenants Facing Eviction in New York City Are Disproportionately Low-Income, Of Color, and Lack Lawyers, Brennan Center for Justice, Feb. 14, 2007; also based on original reporting by Brennan Center staff.
Posted at 10:53 AM, Feb 19, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
