We invite you to join  the Interfaith Assembly,  the Right to Counsel Campaign,  Prime Sponsor City Council member Mark Levine  and the dozens of other City Council supporters for the signing into law of Intro 736 by Mayor Bill de Blasio establishing the Office of Civil Justice in New York City. [The event will take place at] City Hall Blue Room (on the First Floor) at 4PM. The signing is open to the public.

To reduce  Reduce the number of homeless people in our city will a comprehensive approach that must include preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place!!   Studies show that the primary cause of homelessness is evictions!!

The work of protecting the rights of the 30,000 households who lose their homes each year as a result of being evicted in housing court – and preventing as many as 15,000 of these evictions that would not would not have occurred if these families only knew and could defend their legal rights – – begins with the establishment of the New York City Office of Civil Justice — so that families and individuals facing evictions will have one single place to go to to find help!!

Intro #736 will establish the office of Civil Justice in New York City — to assess, coordinate and help  to reform the legal services available to low-income New Yorkers.

As you can see from this article about the bill, many details are still to be established, but the Interfaith Assembly and the Right To Counsel campaign see this as a crucial and necessary next step in our efforts to protect as many as 15,000 households a year from the unwarranted loss of their home.

To learn more about the effort to establish the Right To Counsel:

View a video of a recent town hall meeting in Manhattan

Click to read an  article in City Limits about efforts to move right to counsel in the City Council.

Click here to read a very helpful article on the importance of Right to Counsel from a new national website “How Housing Matters”.

Click here to log on to the Right to Counsel website for more information.

Please sign a petition to the Mayor today and encourage him to help save tens of thousands of New Yorkers a year from losing their homes and adding to the ranks of those in our shelters and streets.

visit our new website read the summary below.

Thanks for being a part of this effort to help our brothers and sisters stay in their homes!!