Over the past year, Mobilization for Justice has tripled the number of Bronx tenants whose affordable housing it helps preserve.
In 2016, Mobilization for Justice’s housing attorneys handled some 1,500 cases in Bronx Housing Court, and the numbers show no sign of abating. A March 2017 report by the Regional Plan Association found that 71% of the borough’s census tracks, with 355,420 households, are at risk of displacement. The vast majority of these households are low-income renters or families that pay an outsize share of their income on rent.
“The Bronx is rapidly gentrifying and landlords are using every strong-arm tactic in the book to force out tenants,” said housing supervisor Leah Goodridge. “But we have more than a dozen highly skilled and determined attorneys saving apartments every day in housing court,” she said.