Requires counties and/or cities to establish a plan for providing legal counsel to persons who are defendants or respondents in eviction, ejectment and foreclosure proceedings and who are financially unable to obtain counsel; defines eligible person as one whose gross individual income is not in excess of one hundred twenty-five percent of the federal income official poverty line; requires the state to match dollar for dollar the amount counties appropriate for their plans.
S09718 would create a new article in the County Law requiring each county, and any city that wholly contains a county, to establish a plan to provide legal counsel to eligible people who are defendants or respondents in eviction, ejectment, and foreclosure proceedings and who cannot afford counsel. The bill defines covered proceedings broadly to include eviction actions for nonpayment of rent or holdover, ejectment, and foreclosure, and it defines eligible persons to include certain renters, cooperative shareholders, condominium owners, and owners/occupants of one- or two-family homes whose income is at or below 125% of the federal poverty line.
The bill allows counties to satisfy the mandate through a public defender, a bar association rotation plan, an office of conflict defender, or a combination of those approaches. It also requires representation to include necessary investigative, expert, and other services, sets compensation rates and reimbursement rules for assigned counsel, and permits courts to authorize additional compensation in extraordinary circumstances. In addition, the bill requires annual reporting on program operations and expenditures and directs counties and cities to file detailed cost reports with the state comptroller and judicial conference.
The bill would significantly expand county-level obligations in New York by creating a statutory right to assigned counsel in specified housing and foreclosure-related proceedings for low-income eligible persons. It amends the County Law to add article 18-C and also amends section 717 to require public defenders to represent persons entitled to counsel under the new article. The measure further shifts fiscal responsibility by requiring the state to match dollar-for-dollar the local funds counties or covered cities spend on these legal representation programs, while also establishing compensation caps, reimbursement procedures, and reporting requirements for participating providers and local governments.
The available context does not include committee debate or recorded votes, so there is no direct evidence of support or opposition from legislative discussion. Based on the bill’s structure and caption, the measure appears designed as a tenant- and homeowner-protection initiative aimed at expanding access to counsel in high-stakes housing and foreclosure cases. Its inclusion of state matching funds and detailed administration suggests an effort to make the mandate workable for local governments, while also signaling that the bill would be resource-intensive.
The main likely points of contention are fiscal and administrative. Counties and cities would be required to create or expand legal services systems, and local governments may object to the operational burden even with state matching funds. The compensation rates, caps, and reimbursement rules for attorneys and experts could also be debated, especially in relation to whether they are sufficient to attract counsel and cover complex foreclosure or eviction matters. Another possible area of dispute is eligibility, since the bill extends coverage beyond tenants to certain condominium, cooperative, and small-home owners, which may broaden the program beyond some policymakers’ expectations.