Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst.

Dear friends,

Tomorrow, thousands of New Yorkers will sit around the kitchen table wondering what comes next. After the eviction moratorium is lifted tomorrow, New Yorkers are going to be left with a lot of questions.

For this reason, we join fellow legal services providers, housing and tenant advocates, small businesses and communities around New York City and New York State to encourage Governor Kathy Hochul to extend the state moratorium on residential and commercial evictions. Since it was enacted in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the moratorium on evictions for commercial and residential tenants experiencing pandemic hardship has been a crucial protection for small businesses that sustain this city and for tens of thousands of New Yorkers facing pending evictions and many thousands more who are behind on rent because of pandemic job losses and hardships.

Governor Hochul’s omission of an extended eviction moratorium in the initiatives described in the State of the State address poses potentially devastating consequences during winter weather and record-setting rates of COVID-19 transmission through the various regularly emerging variants like Delta and Omicron. We urge Governor Hochul to work affirmatively with the legislature to extend the moratorium to keep New York’s small businesses open and keep tens of thousands of New Yorkers safe and housed during this ongoing unprecedented crisis.

Our message to all tenants is this: evictions will not happen automatically, and thankfully, the Courts have provided a number of safeguards to ensure that there is not a wave of evictions around the city, including the right to a free lawyer for residential tenants. The Courts have initiated a number of administrative orders and directives to ensure that both commercial and residential tenants are aware of their protections under the law. We have created the flyers below, which you can also read here, to help residential tenants understand the safeguards put in place by the Court.Email us at [email protected] or call (718) 487-2300 to discuss your rights, get updates on the eviction moratorium, or access any of our services for tenants and small business owners. For a list of our legal services, visit bit.ly/bkakit.

Help us spread the word to your family, friends, and neighbors by forwarding or sharing this information. With your help, our legal services can help more New Yorkers avoid displacement.

In solidarity,

Brooklyn A