The movement to establish a Right to Counsel for ALL and end evictions across New York State is growing! This past week, the state legislature's Black Puerto Rican Hispanic Asian Caucus released their 2024 People's Budget, which included our Statewide Right to Counsel legislation (S2721/A1493). The Caucus advocates for tangible, long-term solutions that align with the state’s overarching racial and social justice goals, and has now affirmed that these goals include guaranteed, free legal representation for New Yorkers facing eviction.
The grassroots support for our movement is steadily growing as well! This fall, major unions including UAW Region 9A, DC 37 and Workers United endorsed our Statewide Right to Counsel legislation, along with many other tenant organizations and advocacy groups.
To visualize this tremendous power that our movement has built over the past few years, we partnered with BetaNYC to release our HCMC Map of Statewide Support last week! The interactive map allows you to explore support for our state legislative platform from both grassroots and elected leadership: hcmustchange.beta.nyc.
You can toggle through the districts of state legislators, as well as overlapping counties and zip codes. Click on the districts to learn which pieces of legislation on our platform your officials support, and use the contact information listed to contact them and let them know they must pass legislation THIS YEAR to keep New Yorkers in their homes!
The map reflects how close we are, in particular, to achieving a majority of cosponsors in both the state Senate and Assembly for Statewide Right to Counsel! With 30 Senate sponsors and 63 Assembly sponsors, we're just 2 Senators and 12 Assemblymembers shy of enough support to pass this bill through the legislature.
The map also shows support for our legislation from grassroots organizations across New York State. You can see where both our member and endorser organizations are located throughout the state, and get in touch with them.
It's incredible to see that over 200 organizations across New York State now support Statewide Right to Counsel! You can amplify this support by contacting your elected officials this winter in support of our legislation, or signing on your organization as an endorser or campaign member.
Huge thanks to BetaNYC for creating this resource for us! BetaNYC is a civic organization dedicated to improving lives in New York through civic design, technology, and data. This project was designed and developed by BetaNYC’s Civic Innovation Lab in collaboration with the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, through a BetaNYC service called Research and Data Assistance Request (RADAR). Follow this link to learn more about RADARs and how to submit a request!
