Law 360

Tenants should also keep in mind that eviction is a multistep process that has been drawn out in the pandemic, added Marika Dias, attorney and director of the Safety Net Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York City. "There are still steps that landlords need to take under the law," Dias told Law360. "There's still the fact that courts are not physically reopened or functioning at capacity, and a tremendous number of cases have accrued in the system. So this doesn't mean that landlords are going to be able to evict tenants en masse right away, but it is nonetheless an incredibly harmful decision for New York tenants."

Politics NY

Khadija Hussain, a housing benefits advocate at the Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that, “There needs to be more languages added to the application options online, and the helpline.” 

New York Times

The Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center, which has been advocating for some of the people being transferred, said that the city told the nonprofit that Mr. Garrett was sent to a group shelter because the system would not hold a hotel bed for more than 48 hours. But Peter Malvan, an advocate with the organization, said that the city was still obligated to honor the exemption Mr. Garrett had received from being sent to a group shelter, and that it had failed to do so.

New York Times

The city has increased its number of cleanups during the pandemic. In 2020, from March 1 to Dec. 12, the city performed 1,077 cleanups, compared with 543 during the same period in 2019, according to figures the city released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center.

City Limits

“In the exact same scenario with the local rental subsidy, however, DSS is using a standard that someone’s supportive housing application doesn’t impact their ability to live in the community,” added Craig Hushes, a social work supervisor at the Urban Justice Center’s Safety Net Project. “The city’s approach to distributing the EHV vouchers is disability discrimination on its face.”

New York Times

“Cruelty and chaos,” Helen Strom, supervisor of benefits and homeless advocacy at the Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center, said on Monday afternoon. “People are being sent to places where they have active domestic violence cases and orders of protection.