Westchester County has launched the County Office of Housing Counsel (OHC) that is designed to provide financially eligible tenants with access to resources and legal representation at no cost when they’re facing eviction and other issues with landlords. County Executive Ken Jenkins announced the new program on July 24.
In addition to providing free legal services to people who cannot afford to hire their own lawyers, the OHC will coordinate access to pre-eviction support and counseling programs under one roof. Residents who are facing eviction, having trouble paying their rent, in a rent dispute with a landlord, facing a loss of essential services like heat and hot water, or are facing other problems, can reach out to the OHC to be connected to legal representation, counseling, financial assistance and other programs.
The OHC does not directly provide representation. It functions as a clearinghouse to connect residents with one of the following contracted legal service providers: Legal Services of the Hudson Valley; Human Development Services of Westchester; Hudson Valley Justice Center; and the Law Office of Tracy Forrest, Esq.
To fulfill the advocacy, counseling and financial assistance portion of the office’s mission, OHC has contracted with providers: Community Housing Innovations; Community Resource Center; CLUSTER; Westchester Residential Opportunities; Mount Vernon United Tenants; and Human Development Services of Westchester.
Residents seeking help can call 2-1-1, where specialists at United Way 211 Helpline of the Hudson Valley will be available 24-hours a day, 365-days a year, to assess callers’ needs and connect them with appropriate providers. Alternatively, residents can go online to the web address housingcounsel.westchestergov.com and fill out a form that OHC staff will review.
Under Westchester’s Housing Counsel Law, tenants are entitled to free legal representation in eviction and related proceedings if their gross household income is 300% of the federal poverty level for a household of their size, or 60% of the county’s average median income for a household of their size. That means a family of three with a gross annual household income of $91,800 or $1,765 a week would be eligible for legal representation.
“When the Westchester County Board of Legislators and the administration created the OHC, it was a promise to address housing insecurity head on, and it is a promise kept,” Jenkins said. “The Office is a place where every tenant, regardless of financial means, can seek preventive services before a situation escalates to the point of an eviction proceeding. Our goal is to stabilize families and communities by keeping people in their homes and out of the shelter system.”
OHC Director George Asante explained, “The OHC was created to fill a crucial need. The vast majority of tenants facing eviction go into court with no legal representation despite the outcomes being far better when tenants appear with an attorney. We want to make sure tenants’ rights are protected. But most of all we want to keep families in their homes.”
According to Hudson Valley Justice Center Executive Director Jason Mays, “By expanding access to counsel in eviction proceedings, Westchester County’s Office of Housing Counsel will allow tenants to access their protections and defenses under the law, ensuring that the law operates in the courtroom as the legislature intended.”
