On a normal weekday, Brooklyn’s housing court is like a subway car at rush hour. Tenants, lawyers and landlords line up to enter in the morning on Livingston Street, and are then crushed into crowded elevators after passing through metal detectors. Many take the stairs instead, and then face long lines to see a clerk. Lawyers and clients meet in busy hallways where conversations are frequently interrupted by crying children and the clanging of stairwell doors.
That level of activity stopped during the pandemic. Judges and parties used Skype only for emergency hearings, such as tenants locked out of apartments, or for settling ongoing disputes.
But as more than 30 courts in New York City now enter phase one, well behind their counterparts in the rest of the state, there are special concerns about the city’s five housing courts. Tenant advocates worry about how things will ramp up given the backlog of old cases, new ones that have been been put on hold, and an end to the moratorium on evictions this summer for tenants financially affected by the coronavirus.
The Office of Court Administration (OCA) said it’s proceeding with caution at all of its courts to avert a resurgence of the coronavirus. The state’s court system was hit hard by the pandemic. Three judges died and 170 court employees were sickened.
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Starting today, all city judges are back at their courthouses, along with up to 25 percent of staffers. The OCA said all business will be conducted virtually to minimize foot traffic. That’s how arraignments were conducted in criminal courts during the pandemic and will continue for now. But some housing court staffers are still worried about going back to the buildings, even at this very limited stage.
“We think that this is too soon to do this,” said David Wayne, a Spanish language court interpreter who chairs the interpreter’s chapter of Local 1070 of District Council 37. He works in the Bronx Housing Court and said the office of court administration fully hasn’t addressed his members' concerns.
“The reopening is being done in a kind of a haphazard way,” he said, referring to walk-throughs of the courts attended by his colleagues. “There hasn’t been a lot of construction, plexiglass put in like we saw in videos of courts upstate.”
The Office of Court Administration said acrylic barriers, hand sanitizer dispensers, and other safety features “will be installed in courthouse areas as needed.” It also described how all those who enter must wear masks and physical distancing will be enforced to restrict courthouse traffic.
Inside a hallway of Brooklyn Housing Court last week
Unlike the criminal courts, the housing courts can’t accept electronic filings. It seems as though in-person filings - which could attract long lines - will not be allowed for now, and no in-person hearings are being scheduled. But it’s not clear what business activities are allowed. A press release referred to allocating courthouse space for unrepresented litigants who lack the technology to access services remotely. But a spokesman declined to answer questions about what specific operations will be allowed in the housing courts.
Tenant advocates also have many outstanding questions. A group of them are calling on OCA to postone all phases of the reopening of the city’s civil and housing courts amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and Black Lives Matter demonstrations, until there’s a thorough safety plan informed by health experts and stakeholders.
“Reopening the courts prematurely would compound and exacerbate the worst impacts of the coronavirus outbreak,” they wrote in a letter sent to the state’s chief administrative judge. Their coalition of 19 groups includes the Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, Bronx Defenders,Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Services, and others.
Attorney Kinshasa Hillery directs LEAP, a legal program for tenants at RiseBoro Community Partnership in Brooklyn. She worries the borough’s housing court will get busy by early July. By then, it may enter the next phase of opening. And Governor Cuomo’s eviction moratorium will expire on June 20 for tenants who are not affected by Covid 19. Hillery said many tenants will have a hard time proving they were affected by the virus and could be evicted.
“A large percentage of people lost their jobs immediately,” she said, “before we started shutting down the city.”
Housing advocates predict up to 50,000 new cases could be filed after the moratorium lifts, mostly for non payment of rent. They described their clients as low-income black and brown people disproportionately affected by the virus.
“Ironically, in the current climate, with unemployment at record levels and with many unable to pay rent for COVID-related reasons, neither housing court judges nor our lawyers will be able to resolve many of these disputes,” their letter states, “resulting in evictions, displacement, homelessness, senseless exposure to infection, and more difficulty in containing COVID-19.”
They also cited a video that was taken by an anonymous source during a walk-through of Brooklyn housing court last week, and which shows the narrow hallways that make social distancing very difficult.
Lawyers and judges who work in the family courts also raised concerns with the state’s administrative judge about opening those buildings too quickly. Gothamist/WNYC received a copy of a letter from the New York Family Court Judges Association and another by practitioners. Each group asked to be more involved in reopening decisions. They also noted that parents will be forced to risk their health by taking mass transit and bringing along children. The family courts are still conducting emergency hearings, but judges and practitioners are concerned about how they’ll handle routine business like child support modifications and custody cases.
The state’s Chief Judge, Janet DiFiore, is standing by the current plan for reopenings. In a press release she stated:
“We will rigorously monitor safety protocols and day-to-day operations, carefully balancing the justice needs of those served by our New York City courts with the safety of all those who work in and visit courthouses in the five boroughs.”
OCA spokesperson Lucian Chalfan also said the agency is developing ways to provide services online, by mail and phone.
Attorney Mitchell Posilkin said these steps sound sufficient for now. As general counsel for the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 property owners, he said landlords are also worried about health and safety in the courts. But he said they’re suffering from months of non payment.
“Landlords face the impending property tax bills,” he said, referring to the July 1st deadline. “They have their monthly mortgage payments, they have their monthly utility, insurance, labor and all the other costs.”
But Nakeeb Siddique, a housing attorney for Legal Aid in Brooklyn, said the court should explore alternatives like holding more virtual hearings, or using other locations in downtown Brooklyn that are more modern than the building on Livingston Street. He’s wary too many cases could get filed too quickly once the courts reach that phase.
“It’s like taking sand to the beach,” he said, referring to all the old cases that were filed before the pandemic and have yet to be finished. “To open to new cases will bog down things even more.”
