More than 146,000 landlords have filed for eviction since early last year. Here’s what it’s like for a housing lawyer
ast fall I began representing a woman who came to court to try to get her apartment back after she had been evicted just a few days prior. She was elderly, disabled and living alone on a fixed income after the passing of her husband. Our only option to restore her tenancy was to find a way to pay her ever-growing and insurmountable rental debt of over $40,000.
When I started working in New York, the pandemic-issued moratorium on evictions was still in effect. For a time, things were quiet. The workload was relatively manageable. Then the floodgates opened. This is my job, to stop the bleeding. I want to make sure the worst possible outcome doesn’t happen. Hopefully I can keep someone in their home. Sometimes, all I can do in a case is to advise a tenant that they may have no choice but to eventually move – when that happens, I hope I can delay the eviction long enough for the person to find alternative housing.
I want our meetings to be a positive experience, but I often say that my office is a den of sadness because people come in, sit down, and just cry. I do my best to make my office a safe space and to give them the time that they need to express themselves. That’s why client meetings can take hours of my day.
There is this feeling that there are no breaks, like I can’t take a sick day or a vacation, or else I’ll fall behind and something bad will happen. I took some time off during the December holidays – it was approved and scheduled – but I just ended up working through it.
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