SPECIAL PANDEMIC EDITION
J U S T
HEARSAY T h e Ne w s l e t t e r o f L e g a l S e r v i c e s o f C e n t r a l N e w Y or k — W i n t e r 2 0 2 0
Helpline Staff Fills Critical Need During Pandemic By Jeff VanBuren, Advocacy Specialist Even in normal times, the never-ending need for civil legal advice in our communities is met in large part by our Legal Services Helpline. By providing advice and counsel on virtually any civil issue, Helpline Attorneys are able to Helpline Busy During 1 assist people in navigating a myriad of legal problems Pandemic that affect their lives, but which they would be unable to Tech Adapts in Time of Need 4 address without the help of an attorney. In some ways, From The Executive Director 6 the Helpline is the perfect foil against the pandemic. The social distancing inReEntry Adapts to Pandemic 8 herent in a phoneWelcome MaryElizabeth! 10 based legal service Opinion: More Eviction Relief 11 provides safety Needed without sacrificing Gender Rights at Oneida Jail 13 service. This, comInterview with Susan Horn 16 bined with the availFunraiser: Coming Soon! 20 ability of expert information on pandemic-related issues such as eviction, domestic violence, and unemployment benefits, has helped hundreds of clients navigate this most treacherous time. In fact, our Helpline Attorneys have provided advice, counsel and brief services to nearly fourteen hundred people during this pandemic year.
In This Issue
For a better understanding of how the Helpline adapted to and assisted during the pandemic, we’ve solicited some input from three of those on the front line: members of our Helpline staff. For ease of reading, the following responses from staff attorneys Lyndsey McKinstry and Esther Weingarten and paralegal Tamika Pitts are presented in question/answer format.
Helpline Attorney Lindsay McKinstrey at her home workstation
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How has your Helpline work changed since COVID started?
Tamika: I’ve been pretty fortunate so far--just some internet problems from time to time. Nothing that is keeping me from working the Helpline. I’ve been able to work Lyndsey: At the start of the pandemic, we experienced a around most issues; I was one of the last people to leave decrease in calls. However, things have been pretty steady the office on our last pre-pandemic Friday, and was up and and, in my opinion, back to a normal amount for a few running the following Monday. months now. The beauty of the Helpline is that it is telephone based so it can be done from anywhere. We made Have you seen a difference in the types of calls we are the move pretty seamlessly from office to home so not getting on Helpline during COVID? much has changed. One thing that has changed is that we Lyndsey: Right now we’re getting a lot of housing get our documents electronically from most clients calls. Landlords are getting desperate and doing as much now. Once we walk them through how to take pictures on as possible to make their tenants’ lives miserable. Lots of their phones and send it to us, we get the information we harassment and threats of eviction. We have also gotten need to assist them more quickly than if we had to wait for calls about custody matters – do I have to send my child to them to drop it off at the office. her dad when dad is not following COVID precautions, or when dad lives in an area with a higher amount of cases?
The social distancing inherent in a phone-based legal service provides safety without sacrificing service.
Esther: I have had more clients calling with domestic violence issues, and I’ve definitely seen an increase in people with mental health problems. I think most of us are stressed in this odd and isolating time, and I imagine that is harder on those who have mental health problems.
Esther: My work hasn’t changed much at all really because I was handling 98% of my cases by telephone to begin Esther sometimes has help with. at her workstation from her Tamika: I wouldn’t say my work has changed that much, but the areas in which clients are seeking assistance have changed. I mean, this time last year COVID-19 didn’t exist and our country was not dealing with a pandemic. What professional challenges have you faced in response to COVID? Lyndsey: Not many. I’d say the biggest challenge is not having my (office) phone. I’ve forwarded my calls to my cell since I couldn’t get my softphone to work, and while it’s not ideal, it does the job. It would be nice to have that separation though. I do miss my headset and my phone. Esther: It has been quite difficult for some of my clients to get their legal paperwork to me. Many clients don’t have a fax or scanner in their home and some don’t have the ability or technology to take pictures and email them to me. In the past, I could arrange for a local not for profit to help them get paperwork to me and in the last couple of months more of them have become accessible again.
pupper. While canine legal advice is not helpful, the moral support is immeasurable.
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Tamika: There seem to be more calls where the person just wants to tell someone their story. Over and over again I hear how the person is so frustrated, and they just want to share their experience with someone who cares and who possibly can get them help. I know I’m in for a long call when I hear ”Do you have time for a story?,” and while it can be emotionally challenging, it is a reminder of how important our services are. At the end of the story, clients seem to feel much better. Then I hear “Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.” I’ve made a lot of important connections with people during the pandemic on the Helpline.
Did you work from home? How did that work for you? Good/bad/any problems?
... we get our documents electronically from most clients now. Once we walk them through how to take pictures and send them to us we get the information we need to assist them more quickly than if we had to wait for them to drop it off at the office.
Esther: Overall working from home has been a good experience. There were wrinkles in the first couple of months because of technology issues but those have smoothed out for the most part. My dogs think I should have done this a long time ago…
How has COVID affected the Helpline folks’ ability to work as a team, if it has affected it at all?
Lindsey: Yes, I work exclusively from home. I have my desktop so I stay in one place. I love working from home. It has allowed me to do my job even better. I used to have to run out by a certain time to get my kids from daycare or off the bus. Now, I can help them with their school work or get them off the bus and then return to work. I find myself working more, which I don’t mind, because working from home allows a better work/life balance.
Tamika: I worked from home since we were told to stay in place. I love it! I do not miss the commute, and it allows me to work while being home with my mom. I do miss staff interaction. I’ve had to make do with talking with my cat around the coffee maker in the morning. We have good conversations. Do you have any other comments about your experiences since COVID that would be helpful in understanding how Helpline staff and clients have coped?
Lyndsey: I feel lucky to have made such a smooth transiLyndsey: From my perspective it has not changed anytion as to be able to serve my clients just as well now as thing. We mainly communicate by email, as opposed to we did in the office. I think our clients would agree that stopping by someone’s office. That may be the biggest nothing has changed – we return their calls pretty quickly change. We meet weekly, which is more than what we did and they receive the same level of service that they always in the office, so I think we’re communicating even better. have. Esther: Our unit has had weekly meetings and that has been necessary to maintain a sense of connection to my unit. I don’t feel that COVID has created any difficulties in our ability to work as a team.
Esther: ICE CREAM has helped me a lot. Can’t speak for the rest of the staff or clients…
Tamika: I feel like it’s just been an understanding of sorts that we all are going through something at this time, some Tamika: I think the Helpline transitioned very well to work- more than others. I would understand if a large portion of ing from home. I think we all make sure we support each our callers would be angry toward intake staff just so they other and step in to help as needed. No complaints! I don’t could take out their frustrations. People are lonely and feel see COVID as having any effect on our work. I think our isolated, especially seniors. Many people are struggling team has been doing a great job on the Helpline as whole financially. At least on my calls, I don’t get very many irate during the pandemic. We see each other at regular callers. Emotional, yes, but not mean or nasty. Which durmeetings, and keep in touch as much as good sense and ing times like these I appreciate. social distancing allow.
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“Our Offices are Closed Due to the Pandemic”
By Joe Warren, Director of Technology
bility for “soft phones,” so people could use their computer as their desk phone through the VPN. Terry Terenzetti, LASMNY’s IT director, contacted our vendor to see what we could do to expand that. The vendor stepped up and offered us the licensing we would need for 60 days. The catch was, we had to decide how many licenses we needed and then pay them to install them. At the end of the 60 days, we had the option to have them removed, or to purchase all of the licensing we had requested, all in all about a $15,000 expense.
The words came from Dennis at the end of March. My immediate reaction was “Good Golly Gosh! How in the snick- “This won’t last longer than 60 days”, we said. We were erdoodles are we going to make this work?” Or something wrong. like that. Unfortunately, as we began rolling the software out, we began to have problems. Our firewall configuration had to After the initial shock wore off, I started to do an assessment on how to make the move from the office into peo- be changed to allow the softphones to work. I called our technology consultant, Just-Tech, and John Griener had a ple’s houses. technician available to do the updates within a day or two, People would need computers. Fortunately, LSCNY has at a reduced rate. As we added more people working rebeen moving towards a more mobile workforce, so most motely, our office internet connection started to slow of the staff attorneys had laptops. That left the people down. Once again the vendor stepped up. Northland Comwho normally worked inside the office to worry about. Our munications offered to double our internet speed for 90 helpline staff. Our administrative staff. Accounting. Recepdays at no charge. tion. I was lucky enough to have a few “recently retired” “This won’t last for 90 days.” Wrong again. laptops sitting around, waiting to be disposed of. A few upgrades, and they were ready to go. When those ran out, Then I started getting emails and calls about problems. some people were willing to take their desktop computers Normally I would walk down the hall, look over the user’s home. Everyone had some way to move their office into shoulder and help them solve the issue. That wasn’t going their family room. So the exodus began, and I helped peo- to work. So, we purchased remote access software, so I ple pack up their computers, and talked them through could remotely see what the problem was and help. setting them up at home, or visited their house and set Along the way, one of the calls I got was from Karen about them up. the accounting software. It was never very fast, but reNext: They would need to access the data on our internal motely, it was almost unusable. Another call to a vendor. A servers from their homes. As part of our move towards week later, our entire accounting system was residing in being more mobile, VPN access was already in place. We the cloud. could accommodate up to 250 people working remotely. We were finally functional. Not great, but able to do our Up next: Our client management system. Fortunately, also, jobs. As we were looking to improve on what we had, in we had just move to LegalServer, a cloud-based client true Murphy’s Law fashion, curve balls started to come in. management system. No problem there. Microsoft said, “We know you’re busy and all, but we think you need to move from Skype to Teams for your video After that: Phones. All of our desk phones weren’t going meetings. Surprise!” And we learned how to use Teams. be usable remotely. Our phone system had limited capa-
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Servers failed. And we fixed them. The internet, in general, took a beating with students studying remotely, video conferencing increasing dramatically, and people staying at home, streaming their entertainment. And we complained
The pandemic has redefined how business gets done. Oddly enough, we were already on our way to this. We just had to do it a little faster than we anticipated. and dealt with it. So, here we are, 235 days into this. I’m sitting at home on my piecemealed laptop, my dog’s head in my lap with my
Batman slippers on. We’ve had our daily management Teams meeting (always great to see Sam’s shining beard as he drives in) and I’m settling in to do some more work. It’s a whole new ball game. The pandemic has redefined how business gets done. Oddly enough, we were already on our way to this. We just had to do it a little faster than we anticipated. Thank you all for your patience in making this whole mess work. It hasn’t been easy on you. Pat yourselves on the back and give yourselves a hearty round of applause. As we continue, Terry and I are exploring new ways to make working remotely not only less painful, but a normal, everyday option. We’re constantly looking at what we did, how we’re doing and what we can improve. Thanks.
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Court. A Place or a Service? By Dennis Kaufman, Executive Director The pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives, including the practice of law. Lawyers, never accused of being futurists, have had to learn to do things differently from how we’ve been doing our work for years. Technology can no longer be feared or ignored. Resistance to innovation in the delivery of services to people must be conquered. Services are delivered remotely, with video replacing the 100+ year old technology of the telephone. The physical office is changing in use and design. Remote work presents challenges to problem-solving and brainstorming with colleagues, knowledge sharing, socialization, mentoring, confidentiality, and data security. For more years than should be, we have discussed, debat-
More than 30 million people are self-represented in the nation’s civil courts annually.
we see what we’ve known for years. The system is antiquated, detached, unaffordable, slow, and unintelligible. Will it be satisfactory to dump the current court system into a new technology bottle and declare victory? Or is this an opportunity rebuild, from the ground up, with the goal of achieving at least the fair and open components of A2J? We will likely never return to 100% in-person courts. The remote court is out of the bottle and likely not going back in. Do we all see and agree on that? No. I recently watched – remotely -- a hearing before the NY Assembly Judiciary Committee on the court system’s budget for the coming year. Every speaker representing organizations of judges, court clerks, court officers, law clerks, stenographers, and even our legal services colleagues spoke from the same starting point – the pandemic will end, we will go back to the same old ways, and we need more money to do the same old things. The speakers literally demanded dollars to continue a system that is antiquated, detached, unaffordable, slow, and unintelligible. Rebuilding a court system is obviously a complex endeavor. Court reform is not a new topic in New York. An example is a 2007 report from the former Chief Judge Kaye’s Special Commission on the Future of the New York Courts. The Commission took on the longstanding issue of restruc-
ed, and examined the ethereal phrase “access to justice,” or A2J in the current jargon. We’ve created committees, working groups, blue ribbon panels, and commissions to grapple with it. We sometimes agree that A2J has several components: fair and open processes, just decisions, and the equitable distribution of rights and duties. Any reconfigured court system must address these components to realize A2J. After months of re-creating a functioning court system, sometimes quickly with duct tape and chewing gum, one thing is becoming clear. Courts are not a physical place, but rather a service. Looking at the court system through the eyes of the pandemic
Courtroom set up for remote hearings.
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turing New York’s archaic court structure, a topic debated since the first state constitution went live in 1777. After years of attempts, we have been unable to even streamline the ten different trial courts. Court reform can’t be done in the middle of a pandemic, but the pandemic can and should kick start the process in directions including, but going beyond, court restructuring. After the pandemic began, the Chief Judge DiFiore’s new Commission to Reimagine the Future of New York’s Courts (sound familiar?) began its work. The Commission’s first effort was a report on re-starting in-person grand juries and jury trials. On November 9th, the Online Courts Working Group of the Commission issued its Initial Report on the Goals and Recommendations for New York’s Online Court System (the Report), tackling remote court proceedings, online dispute resolution, a centralized Uniform Court System portal, and mandatory e-filing in all courts. The Report incorporates court reform thinking far beyond
...is this an opportunity to rebuild, from the ground up, with the goal of achieving at least the fair and open components of Access To Justice?
their homes or during a lunch break at work. They don’t need a car or rely on poor public transportation. They don’t have to face the intimidating environment of a courthouse or stand before a high bench next to a menacing landlord or well-heeled lawyer appearing for a creditor. More than 30 million people are self-represented in the nation’s civil courts annually. Can we bring them into court while in their kitchen so they can tell their story? How can poor people afford a smartphone with minutes or a laptop with broadband service to participate in remote court? How can people unfamiliar with using these technologies attend remote court? Other barriers to using remote technology include language, knowledge of court procedures, disability, etc. New York and other states now have experience with remote court. The Permanent Commission on Access to Justice, created by former Chief Judge Lipmann, is spearheading an effort to identify and grapple with the barriers encountered by court users -- lawyers and litigants who may be represented or unrepresented. The court user survey has been tested and will soon go public. Legal services organizations have been asked to make the survey widely available to clients and advocates. We will soon engage in this effort.
It also time for “big thinking,” even beyond that in the online court Report. Rather than investing in the antiquated, detached, unaffordable, slow, and unintelligible court system we know and sometimes love, we should invest in the usual structural changes debated for so long, even adopting concepts about virtual justice systems advocated building technology structures and removing barriers to use. For example, instead of wringing our hands about by British futurist Richard Susskind in Online Courts and people having limited data minutes and no access to the Future of Justice (2019). broadband for remote court, we must look at the problem The Report highlights decreasing A2J gaps as a long-term globally. Shouldn’t we acknowledge that broadband is beguiding principle, acknowledging both opportunities for coming almost a public utility, like electricity or water, and improving access and challenges in a remote court system the obligation of the government to make it available for both the civil and criminal matters. We see the opporwithout or at affordable cost? Yes, this is way beyond A2J. tunities for improvement every day. For example, well But this is the kind of thinking we need to build a court more than half of the tenants in evictions and defendants system with A2J at its core. in debt collection actions do not show up for court dates. Why? Childcare problems, work-related barriers, transportation problems, fear, the perception that going to court will be futile, etc. Can some of these issues be overcome by remote participation? Yes. People can be in court from
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Re-Entry Team Adapts to Pandemic By Katie Krusey and Jeff VanBuren, Re-Entry Project
and an overwhelmed phone staff, the early days of COVID were a challenging time to file a claim. Fortunately, the State increased staffing and hours to process phone To say the last six months has claims, and was very responsive to clients who had made been difficult for many of our climistakes when attempting online claims. Through April ents would be an understateand May we were able to effectively assist clients who ment. Thrust into a pandemic needed advice related to UIB, but the process became seemingly overnight, everyone more streamlined when State Senator Rachel May’s office has been forced to adjust. For the staff became involved. They were able to develop a line of Re-Entry Program, this brought communication with NYS DOL, and provided invaluable two major changes: we needed to assistance to our clients. Combined with the extra $600 adjust to the new types of assisper week allotted by the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance our clients needed, and to tance program, Re-Entry Program staff were able to faciliadapt our program to meet the tate unemployment relief payments for our clineeds of our clients. ents totaling over $40,000. This was an excepIndividuals with crimitionally rewarding outcome. nal histories In March, when the CARES Act included a are $1200 Stimulus Payments available to often Americans, we saw an immediate need. faced with discrimination when Because low income folks, who are at seeking employment. Most emthe mercy of inscrutable landlords ployers review our clients’ criminal and lack of funding, have to change history information at some point in addresses frequently, it was obvithe application process. This very often ous that many people’s Stimulus leads to an adverse, and often unlawful, Payment checks would be mailed to the hiring decision. This has a multi-pronged wrong address. Updating someone’s address was impact even prior to the pandemic: our clino easy task. The IRS web site crashed multiple times, and ents incur additional obstacles to obtaining it was nearly impossible to reach a live person on the employment, and they are often relegated to lower-paid, phone. Current and new clients shared their frustration less desirable jobs. The pandemic, which brought record and desperation as they ran low on money and had bills to high unemployment and fierce competition for jobs, has pay. It became apparent that, as employment opportunionly exacerbated these effects. When the United States ties declined or evaporated and as many of our clients lost unemployment rate soared past 20% on April 23, it was a their jobs, it was paramount to educate the community peak the US had not seen since 1934. Over 30 million unabout the processes through which they could ensure that employment claims have been filed nationally, maxing out they received their stimulus, any UIB they were entitled to, the unemployment rate at around 18.8%, while the New and about the newly announced state eviction moratoriYork State unemployment rate peaked at 16% in July. Beum. tween March and August 2020, nearly 3.5 million New Yorkers applied for Unemployment Benefits. We spent the month of April riding a steep learning curve These high unemployment numbers have put an unprece- while concurrently sharing all reliable information we dented stress on the unemployment system. With the De- learned with our clients. Regarding stimulus payments partment of Labor (DOL) web site intermittently crashing, from the IRS, our first advice was to encourage clients who
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had moved within the last two years and who were required to file a tax return but who had not done so to fileelectronically. This would serve a dual purpose; first, it would assure that clients receive any tax return to which they were entitled, second, it would act as a “change of address” notification to the IRS. Within weeks of the announced payments, the IRS created a portal through which “non-filers” could provide identifying information and bank account information; several clients were able to obtain payment this way. For two particularly difficult cases, we reached out to Senator Schumer’s office and the office of Representative John Katko. The latter advised that we submit paper “change of address” forms to the IRS with a Lost Payment declaration. One client was able to obtain payment this way, one client continues to wait for a response.
who had a valid copy of their own history, and clients who needed general advice on what they are required to disclose by law and how to disclose it. By summer, though, we knew we needed to find a way to obtain RAP sheets- and that meant fingerprinting clients. With no access to the office, and the proximity required to properly fingerprint someone, we had to get creative. By
These adaptations have allowed flexibility and, in many ways, fostered better rapport with our clients. disassembling and modifying an old open-top school desk, we were able to create a portable fingerprint station. The hinged top allows us to store supplies such as blank fingerprint cards, affidavits, spare masks, wipes, pens and more. With the use of adhesive velcro on the top, we have secured the platen that holds the fingerprint card, ink pad, clipboard, light and wipes to make for a quick and easy fingerprint session. Using the back of an SUV as a portable office space, it’s possible to back into a driveway or parking space and fingerprint a client, outdoors and masked, in about three minutes.
Although these changes were borne of necessity, some have been eye-opening and very valuable. We have relied The Pandemic was no match for the Re-Entry Team. Using our much more on teleconferencing, or, when an in-person portable fingerprint station, it is possible to interact outdoors meeting is necessary, meeting the client outside for fingerand masked to help clients in a safe manner. printing or signing documents. This has proven to be much better for the clients – they no longer need to find childThe other main obstacle we faced during the early months care, rely on public transportation, or risk exposing themof COVID-19 was access. Access to courts, to clients, to the selves to COVID-19. These adaptations have allowed flexiNYS Division of Human Rights, and to the NYS Division of bility and, in many ways, fostered better rapport with our Criminal Justice Services, which is the repository of all clients. criminal conviction information from New York State Courts. In pre-pandemic times, the Re-Entry Program fin- The biggest lesson learned from this pandemic may be that gerprinted nearly every one of our clients. This was neces- the world, and what we know about it, is constantly changing. With no clear end on the horizon, the value of adaptasary to get an accurate record of their conviction history, bility is at the forefront. As we continue to see what this and correct any errors in the records. Without this inforpandemic has in store for us, we will continue to be remation, it is difficult to determine what recourse may be available to the client, and difficult to give them accurate sourceful and creative as we work to help our clients with advice. When the pandemic made fingerprinting impossi- the reintegration process even as the pandemic continues. ble, we focused on the information we had available; clients’ RAP sheets that we had in hand before April, clients
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MaryElizabeth Curulla By Sam Young, Director of Advocacy
Sam Young interviewed MaryElizabeth Curulla, LSCNY’s newest staff attorney. LSCNY recently began a new project with Vera House to provide representation in civil legal services to survivors of domestic violence. MaryElizabeth started working with LSCNY in October as the staff attorney on this project. Because so many of our staff have been socially distanced during this time of COVID-19, I am sure that everyone will want to learn a little bit about our newest colleague, and that we all join in welcoming her to the LSCNY family. SY: MaryElizabeth, I want to welcome you to Legal Services of Central New York. Can you please tell us something about yourself? MEC: I am a life-long resident of Syracuse. I’m an ‘Eastside girl’-- I grew up in Fayetteville and have lived in DeWitt for thirty years. I went to St. Lawrence University and majored in Government and Spanish. I spent my sophomore year in Spain and loved it! I went to SU for law school, with the plan of becoming an international lawyer. I met my husband, Frank Scibilia, a life-long resident of DeWitt, on the first day of law school and we got married a month after the bar exam. We have 3 children: Alexandra, a senior at Binghamton University; Matthew, a sophomore at the University of Rochester; and David, a junior at J-D. SY: Where did you practice law before coming to LSCNY? MEC: I was in private practice for most of my legal career. My practice concentrated in criminal, family/ matrimonial, real estate, and wills/estates. I was a mem-
ber of the Assigned Counsel Program and Law Guardian Panel. I took a few years off to stay home with my children and returned to practicing full time, with Hiscock Legal Aid (HLA), in November 2015. For over 4 years, I was the HLA attorney assigned to both the Integrated Domestic Violence Part and CLASP. I was very fortunate to have Elaine Amory as my CLASP co-worker! SY: Tell us about the project you are working on at LSCNY?
MEC: As of October 1st, Vera House is now subcontracting with LSCNY to provide legal services to survivors of domestic violence. My caseload involves primarily matrimonial, family offense, and custody/visitation proceedings. SY:
How has it been going so far?
MEC: It has been absolutely wonderful working with Susan Griffith!! She was my supervising attorney at HLA and she’s so knowledgeable about so many areas of the law. I am so happy to be working with her again. Matrimonial and family law can be demanding and stressful. It’s nice to not only discuss cases with Susan, but also have her as a friend to just chat and share a laugh with.
SY: Tell us why are you passionate about representing survivors of domestic violence? MEC: My clients need MaryElizabeth Curulla someone who wants to help them. I really like my clients and I want to help and empower them. I like to educate them about the law and assist them through the court process. I consider myself a very good listener and most of my clients need an attorney who takes the time to listen to them. This helps me establish a good rapport with clients and ultimately determine what I can do, as their attorney, to help them.
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SY: Other than coming to work at LSCNY, tell us about a legal accomplishment that you are most proud of?
SY: What is one fact about you that your colleagues would be surprised to learn?
MEC: Even though I am a life-long resident of Syracuse, I MEC: I was a Law Guardian assigned to represent a child easily get disoriented in the Clay/Cicero area. I’m very charged with criminally negligent homicide. I challenged grateful for GPS and Google maps!! the client’s confession and, ultimately, the case was disSY: Tell us one thing you have done to stay sane durmissed. ing COVID? SY: What do you like to do when you are not practicMEC: We’ve really had a great year weather-wise with a ing law? nice hot summer (I love those 90 degree days) and mild fall. I enjoyed spending time outside!! MEC: I enjoy planning trips for my family. In 2019, we Also, my family and I have been playing board games-- we went ‘out west’ and traveled to Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Mesa Verde National Park, Arches Na- had a really fun game of Candyland on Thankgiving !! (yes, we kept it all those years and still have it even with teentional Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National agers in the house!) Park, and Las Vegas – I have over 800 photos from those 13 days!
Opinion New Yorkers Need Further Eviction Relief to Protect Tenants By Sam Young, Director of Advocacy Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, tenants in New York State have benefitted from a series of orders and legislation effectively halting evictions up until this point. After Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency in New York due to COVID-19, Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks stayed all pending and new evictions beginning March 17th. Three days later, Governor Cuomo, by executive order, issued the first of several New York State moratoriums on residential and commercial evictions and foreclosures. The orders of both the Governor and Chief Administrative Judge recognized the severity of the public health crisis, and the potential that both hearing landlord-tenant cases and carrying out evictions have for exacerbating that crisis. At a time when New Yorkers across the State were being urged to remain at home, the idea of removing people from their homes, and forcing them into shelters or doubling up with friends and relatives, seemed to be a very poor idea from a public health perspective.
These orders remained in place until after the New York State Legislature passed the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, a law that protects tenants from orders of eviction when they have suffered financial hardships as a result of COVID-19. This law, as helpful as it is, has significant limits. First, it only protects tenants in “non-payment” evictions—those in which tenants are being evicted because they have not paid their rent. Second, while the law creates a defense to evictions in non-payment cases, the tenants must raise the defense, and prove that they have experienced financial hardship during the COVID-19 period. This will be difficult, if not impossible, for the large numbers of tenants who have to appear in court without an attorney. Finally, the law does not require that the non-payment eviction proceedings be dismissed, but only that no order of eviction may be issued while the state of emergency remains. Landlords may still obtain judgments against their tenants for unpaid rents. As a result, even tenants who escape orders of eviction during the current state of emergency will be faced with large financial judgments, and in many cases will have no ability to pay those judgments.
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In September, the federal Centers for Disease Control issued a nationwide order also preventing eviction orders against tenants in non-payment cases until after December 31, 2020, for tenants who can prove that their inability to pay their rent is due to financial hardships experienced during the COVID-19 emergency. The public health goal of the CDC in issuing this national order was to decrease “the spread of COVID-19 within congregate or shared living settings, or through unsheltered homelessness.” After the CDC acted, Governor Cuomo made several additional executive orders, expanding the coverage of the Tenant Safe Harbor Act until at least January 1, 2021, and providing tenants additional time to appear and answer on non-payment evictions, until after January 1st. LSCNY attorneys have made considerable efforts to educate our own staff, the greater bar, and members of the public about the protections available to tenants facing evictions during this time.
state moratoriums. Allowing these eviction moratoria to lapse has resulted in over 433,000 additional COVID cases, and 10,700 additional deaths, in the weeks and months following the expirations. At a time when our state and nation are experiencing a second wave of infections, allowing evictions to resume at the height of the pandemic and in the midst of winter, along with the accompanying housing instability and homelessness, seems like a very poor public health strategy.
New Yorkers have been fortunate to have had the benefit of good leadership on these issues from our executive, judicial, and legislative branches up until now. As the new year approaches, and with it the threat of a new wave of evictions and homelessness, we need our leaders to continue to enact good public health policy by extending the protections from residential evictions beyond January 1st. Further, as a matter of public health, the state should consider an outright ban on all eviction proceedings for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, state and The problem is that these protections, as helpful and wellfederal governments should explore the creation of a fund intentioned as they are in the short term, will largely exto pay off/forgive rents incurred during the pandemic, prepire in less than one month. The expiration of the state venting tenants from having large monetary judgments and federal protections will inevitably lead to a great wave hanging over them, at a time when so many are out work. of evictions which will come crashing down on renters throughout New York State and across the nation. Landlords are already lining up to file their eviction proceedings. These cases are being heard in somewhat limited numbers now, and mostly adjourned until 2021. Starting in January of the new year, however, the floodgates will open, and we can expect record eviction filings, followed by thousands of tenants facing evictions and potential homelessness. The same filling of homeless shelters or doubling up of households, avoided up until now, will occur, giving Housing advocates demonstrate outside the building which houses New York Gov. Andrew opportunity for the COVID virus to furCuomo's office in September. ther spread, prior to the large-scale rollout of vaccinations. Only by prompt and comprehensive action at the state and federal levels can we hope to ride out both the current Public health experts have created a nationwide model, pandemic and the pending eviction crisis, without allowing looking at states which have lifted their eviction moratorithe wave of evictions and infections to come crashing ums, and have found that there is a noticeable increase in down on renters everywhere. COVID infections and deaths following the expiration of
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LSCNY Fights for Gender Equality in Oneida County Jail By Sam Young, Director of Advocacy
area—less than half the size of the cells on the pods. The While working from home during the COVID-19 pandem- cells contain only a bed, toilet and sink. One of Cotter’s clients described the cells as so small that she could lie on ic, LSCNY Staff Attorney Josh Cotter read a story in the the bed, and touch both walls with her extended arms. Utica Observer-Dispatch which caught his eye. While Instead of a solid door, the cells have metal bars, so that Cotter and all other LSCNY employees were confined to work at home because of the COVID-19 virus, women in- anyone can see into the cells at any time. They have no mates at the Oneida County Jail were confined under very natural light. The linear unit lacks space for the inmates different conditions. Josh learned that women at the Oneida County Jail, who had until recently been housed in open, modern pods, had all been transferred to older, more confining linear housing units. He traveled to the facility in Oriskany, New York, where he spoke with many of the women, and confirmed that they were being housed under much harsher conditions than their male counterparts. “My first reaction was that our office has to do something to help them,” said Cotter. “The women described their living conditions as a 'dungeon' or a 'dog kennel'. Nobody should have to live in the conditions they described to me.” The cells in these linear housing units are smaller, darker, and offer the women they house less privacy, and fewer privileges and opportunities than the pods which house the male inmates. The cells in the pods, where women were housed until January of 2020 (and where general custody men are currently housed), have 80 square feet of space, and contain a bed, a desk and chair, a mirror, a toilet and sink, a window which lets in natural light from the outside, and a solid door with a narrow window, which afforded the women some semblance of privacy. The podular units contain 56 cells surrounding a large, open day room with tables and chairs, where the inmates can congregate to read, talk, or play games. They also offer a recreation room with fresh air and exercise equipment, where inmates may exercise for up to six hours each day, a small library room which contains books, magazines and games, and a room which could be used for private video visits with family members. The pods also offer two cable televisions, air conditioning, showers, telephones, microwave ovens, and water coolers.
A linear housing unit at Oneida County Jail
to congregate. There is a narrow catwalk between the two rows of cells, which is no more than six feet wide, and contains a few tables. There is a single telephone and shower stall, which must be shared by all of the women in the facility. The women on the unit may have a maximum of two hours of recreation each day, in an outside yard with no exercise equipment. There is no air conditioning, microwave, or water cooler.
The linear housing units, which are in an older part of the jail, feature a line of cells which are only 35 square feet in According to jail officials, the older linear units are mostly
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used for inmates who are being disciplined, who have mental health issues, or who require isolation. The newer pods are used for general custody inmates, and the privileges they receive from being on the pods encourages good behavior. On the morning of January 22, 2020, all of the women in the jail were being housed in one of the pods. That morning they were ordered to gather their belongings and move to one of the linear housing units. When they arrived, they found the unit dirty and smelly. There was toilet paper and feces stuck to the bars. The women were ordered to clean the cells. Several of the women stated that this made them ill. The women immediately began submitting written complaints to the corrections officers about the inferior conditions. According to the women, most of their complaints were either ignored or never addressed.
Despite repeated complaints, however, the County Jail refused to consider returning the women inmates to the pods, claiming that the lower inmate population for females made housing them in the pods too costly and impractical. One of LSCNY’s clients, Sarah Barrett, had this to say about the unequal conditions to which the women
A typical “pod” style housing unit at the jail.
were being subjected: “I know jail is not supposed to be Some of the women’s complaints yielded modest changes. fun, but being treated differently just because I am a For instance, in response to their complaints of lack of air woman makes it almost unbearable.”
“The women described their living conditions as a 'dungeon' or a 'dog kennel'. Nobody should have to live in the conditions they described to me.” conditioning, movable fans were placed at either end of the unit. Recreation time was increased from one hour a day to two hours. In response to the lack of a microwave and water coolers, the jail began delivering cold and lukewarm water several times a day. There was no television for the women to watch when they arrived in the linear unit, but after complaining, they were brought a single television with no reception, which they could use to watch DVDs.
On May 12, 2020, LSCNY filed a federal class action lawsuit against Sheriff Robert Maciol and Chief Deputy Lisa Zurek, asserting that housing general custody women in the linear units, and general custody men in the pods, constitutes a denial of equal protection to the female inmates. The case is pending before U.S. District Court Judge Mae D’Agostino. One month after filing the complaint, LSCNY asked the District Court Judge to certify all of the female general-custody inmates as a class of plaintiffs. At the same time, LSCNY asked the court for a preliminary injunction, ordering the jail to provide the class of women with equal housing conditions and privileges as those enjoyed by their male counterparts. In a lengthy decision issued on August 3rd, Judge D’Agostino granted class certification to the plaintiffs, but denied their motion for preliminary injunction. While stating that she was troubled by certain aspects of the disparity in the conditions between males and females, including the lack of air conditioning for the women inmates, Judge D’Agosti-
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no stated that at this point, the plaintiffs “have not met the high threshold to demonstrate that general custody women do not receive substantially equivalent treatment
to men in general custody.” Expressing her hesitation to second-guess the corrections officials at the preliminary stage, Judge D’Agostino concluded: “The decision of a federal court to interfere in the daily operations of a local jail should not be made lightly. At this stage, the Court is unwilling to undertake this disfavored activity.” LSCNY immediately appealed Judge D’Agostino’s decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and requested that the appeal be handled on an expedited basis. The Court granted this request. Within just three months, the record on appeal and briefs were filed with the Second Circuit, which held oral argument on this case on November 20th. Appearing over the telephone before a panel of appellate judges in New York City, Josh Cotter explained to the appeals court why the women at the jail were receiving unequal treatment from the male inmates, and why Judge D’Agostino was incorrect in denying them a preliminary injunction. “General custody women held at the Oneida County Jail are housed in small, dank housing units, and given only a fraction of the privileges and benefits afforded to their similarly situated male counterparts, simply because they are women. . . . Perhaps the most telling error in the District Court’s decision was [its] failure to really appreciate or even analyze the stark differences in housing conditions that women are placed under in the Oneida County Jail.” Judge Robert Sullivan appeared to agree with Josh Cotter,
when he pressed the County’s attorney at oral argument about the disparity in conditions: “Size, windows, the ability to congregate, and the ability to go outside. These are things that are markedly different in the linear as opposed to the pod units. . . . They seem to be pretty significant differences.” The County’s representative appeared at a loss to disagree. In addition to Judge Sullivan, who is an appointee of President Trump, the panel consisted of Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston, an appointee of President George W. Bush, and Judge Amalya Kearse, an appointee of President Carter. The Second Circuit took the appeal under advisement, and will be issuing a decision in the weeks or months ahead. According to Josh Cotter, “it was important to bring this lawsuit to ensure women receive the same housing conditions and privileges as their male counterparts,
“...it was important to bring this lawsuit to ensure women receive the same housing conditions and privileges as their male counterparts, and to continue our work holding local jails accountable for their unconstitutional policies and practices.” and to continue our work holding local jails accountable for their unconstitutional policies and practices.” In addition to Josh Cotter, Sara Adams, Sam Young and volunteer attorney Maurie Heins have been working on this case.
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Special Feature
LSCNY Legacy Magazine Continuing our alumni interview series which started in our last issue’s interview with Langston McKinney.
Interview: Susan Horn former President/CEO of Hiscock Legal Aid Society As part of a continuing series of conversations with distinguished alumni of LSCNY, Sam Young recently sat down with Susan Horn, the long-time President and CEO of the Hiscock Legal Aid Society. Their conversation is below.
By Sam Young, Director of Development
of people would go to Florida for winter vacation, I would come up here and help Rosemary run campaigns that she SY: I’m sitting with Susan Horn, the distinguished, was involved with. So I applied to law school here. I could long-time director of the Hiscock Legal Aid Society. Most have gone to law school here or to Temple in Philadelphia. of our readers know Susan as the long-time President/ And I said to myself, I come from a big city, I’ll try someCEO of that historic legal services agency, but what many thing different for three years, and then I’ll go home to people don’t realize is that Susan got her start in the law New York City. But as my mother said, I forgot to go at LSCNY’s predecessor agency, Onondaga Neighborhood home. I came up here in 1971, and graduated law school Legal Services. Is that right? in 1974. SH: I did indeed! SY: Was Onondaga Neighborhood Legal Services your first job out of law school? SY: Can you tell me what was your inspiration for becoming a lawyer? SH: It was, yes. SH: Thinking back to the 1960’s, when I was in high school and college, first of all, I had a couple of relatives that went to law school, so that made me think about it. Then in college, I got involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement, demonstrations. At that time, in the anti-war movement, and in the civil rights movement, lawyers were heroes. Lawyers were making positive change for social justice. So that’s what made me finally decide to go to law school. SY: Do you remember who some of the lawyers were in the day who inspired you to work for social change through the law? SH: William Kunstler, Ramsey Clark, (they both were involved with the Attica defense, which I got involved with in law school), Bella Abzug, and my cousin [now U.S. Circuit Court Judge] Rosemary Pooler. SY: You grew up in Brooklyn, right? Undergrad in New York City? SH:
I went to Brooklyn College, graduated in 1971.
SY:
What made you come to Syracuse?
SH: I got into law school here. I actually applied to law school here in Syracuse, because Rosemary was here. I had been frequently coming up to Syracuse. When a lot
Susan Horn
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SY: Tell us what the office was like when you came there?
were in law school. Joe eventually moved to Syracuse, and we decided to go into practice together.
SH: We were at 633 S. Warren Street. The best thing about it was there was a little Chinese restaurant next door, Happy Palace, which had the best hot and sour soup. And at the time, you couldn’t get that anywhere else in Syracuse. I was there for two years, and my recollection is, it was a good place to work. It was small. I couldn’t tell you how many lawyers we had at the time.
SY: Would you say that your work on the Attica cases was part of what inspired you to take on a career in public interest law, or were you already on that path?
SH: I was on that path. But the Attica rebellion happened on September 9, 1971, maybe two to three weeks after I started law school. And it totally took us on a different path than I think I would have gone on, in terms I started the same day as Alan Rosenthal. We came in to- of working in prisoners’ rights, criminal defense. When gether. The head of Legal Services at the time was Doug we graduated from law school, Alan and I went to Buffalo, Eldridge. Tony Gigliotti worked there, John Parker, John and worked on the first criminal case that came out of the Castor, Gil Beck. So when we started, my recollection is Attica uprising. Then we got the jobs at Legal Services, so that we were replacing a couple of attorneys that had left. we came back. I went to law school thinking I would do civil rights, constitutional law. That was kind of my dream. It took a different turn, in large part because of the Attica cases. Also through Attica, I made really close friends here, and decided that I wanted to stay in Syracuse.
I think there is a greater understanding of legal services being a part of a larger movement for social and racial justice, which deals with systemic issues, poverty, how poverty is impacted by racism and sexism.
SY: What did the Attica case teach you about the law? What lessons should we take from it?
SH: Well the whole Attica uprising taught us a lot about criminal justice, about racism, about injustice. Looking at it now, at the carceral state (we didn’t call it that then), it was clear who was in prison, why they were in prison. And you know, there were people who were locked up in Attica who were political prisoners from the antiwar movement. So I would say it made some of our theoretical politics more real. I don’t know that it influenced my going to work at a legal services program speMarc Waldauer had just left, and they divided up his case- cifically, but it definitely meant to me that I had to be in load of 80 cases between Alan and me. We were both some sort of public practice, or a practice that was fobrand new lawyers, walked into the office, and we each cused on trying to achieve social justice. had a stack of 40 files on our desks, which ran the gamut So you went into practice with Alan Rosenthal of all the cases that we handled at that time at Legal Ser- SY: vices. Welfare fair hearings, housing cases, matrimonials, and Joe Heath, two other Syracuse lawyers who are well etc. This is a little in contrast to how things go today. We known for their social justice work. And along the way, you were in partnership with a number of other luminarwere given those files, and told “go to it.” That was the ies of the Syracuse progressive lawyer scene, right? orientation and the training. Start reading through the files and figure it out. But the good news was that there SH: Right. I left Alan and Joe—we called it the Syrawere some really good people working there. We would cuse Law Collective—two years later. I went to work at be in their offices and asking their advice. Hiscock Legal Aid, for the first time, in 1979, and stayed SY:
How long did you stay at Legal Services?
there until 1982.
SY: Tell me what it was like there in those years. SH: Two years. And then I went into practice with Alan Rosenthal and Joe Heath. Alan was a friend from law SH: Way smaller than it is today. The practice was school. We met Joe through the Attica cases when we very different than it is now. The criminal program had
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started in 1974, so it was fairly new. Again, there were great people who worked there, who I learned a lot from, including Langston McKinney, David Okun, Karen Uplinger. I think there were not more than 6 or 7 attorneys that did the general practice, and a couple of attorneys that did appeals. We had rotations between the civil and criminal practice. The civil practice involved a lot of uncontested divorces. But in those days, in uncontested divorces, you actually had to make an appearance. So you would bring the client in to court and read the script of questions to meet the legal requirements for a divorce. So we did a lot of that, we did landlord-tenant cases, limited to the City of Syracuse (as it still is), and we did criminal defense. At some point we started doing unemployment cases, but we didn’t do it when I first started there. So it really was divorces, landlord tenant, and criminal defense. It was always a great place to work, good people. SY: What inspired you to seek the position of Executive Director? SH: I left Legal Aid in 1982, in part because there was an effort back then to take the criminal program away from Hiscock Legal Aid, and we were all afraid that the agency was going to go under. So a number of people left at the time. Happily it did not go under, it did survive. That’s when I went into practice with Horn, Heins, Finkelstein and Pezzulo--we were an all women’s law firm (and all Legal Services alumni). We did a general practice, family law, criminal defense until 1987, when I returned to Legal Aid. Two of us, Maurie Heins and Christina Pezzulo only did civil; a lot of disability work. We all did general tort cases and a lot of family law. Susan Finkelstein and I did criminal defense also. And to this day, I would say that some of the best things that I did as an actual practicing lawyer, I did during that practice.
were charged with very serious offenses. They were acquitted of the most serious charge—sabotage. They were convicted of destruction of federal property. They all went to prison. But nonetheless, when the verdict was announced, we were dancing on the federal plaza, because we considered it a huge victory, because they were acquitted of the most serious charge. Fred Scullin was the U.S. Attorney, and Howard Munson was the judge. SY: What are some of the changes that you observed in the law, and in public interest law, during your 40-plus year career in the law. SH: Well attitudes about it changed a lot. Probably not as much as we’d like to think. Within the legal profession, the attitudes towards legal services and legal aid changed. We were met with a lot of hostility back then by other lawyers, who thought we were taking cases away from them, who thought we were representing dead-beats. But a lot of it was hostility about taking away cases from them. They thought that if we didn’t exist, they would be doing all of those uncontested divorces or whatever. Actually, I give a lot of credit to Judge Wachtler, the [former] Chief Judge, who started talking about mandatory pro-bono. All of a sudden, people thought it was a really good idea to have Legal Aid and Legal Services handle those cases. I actually do think that helped to change some of the attitudes.
And I think we got smarter about talking to the public about what we do. Thinking back, one of the things I appreciated about being the head of the agency was working at the State level with colleagues, and also at the local level, collaborating with Legal Services, and ultimately Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York and the Volunteer Lawyers Project. Working at the State level, with people advocating both for public defense and civil legal services...it took a lot of years...but eventually I think it made a big impact in terms of our ability to get funding from the SY: Like what? State, from the court system, from IOLA. It allowed us to SH: Well, we represented the anti-nuke protesters at grow, and to be able to handle more and different kinds of the Seneca Women’s Peace Encampment in Romulus, New cases. York, who set up camp and climbed periodically over the That was certainly true for Legal Services, which changed fences at the Seneca Army Depot, which was a nuclear the types of cases handled, and also for us [Hiscock Legal depot. They were all charged with minor offenses, like Aid], taking on specialized projects that we were able to trespass. That was really fun. And they were there for a get funding for, like the domestic violence project, which long time. you may remember was originally a collaboration between And then we represented the Griffiss Plowshares, also anti Hiscock Legal Aid and Legal Services of Central New York. That was a real big boost for us, to be able to do some-nuke protesters, in a 5-6 week federal court trial. They
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thing like that. And then getting involved in immigration work. So the landscape for legal services changed a lot over the years.
want to say the equivalent of intersectionality. The battle is about poverty, and that intersects with race, but I think that there is a greater understanding in the legal services world, and also in public defense, of dealing with larger SY: Were there any challenges for you personally in issues. That helping someone to avoid an eviction does being the head of a large public interest law firm and benot in and of itself get them out of the problems that ing a woman? brought them to that place in the first place. So I think SH: That’s a good question. When I first got the posi- that what informed us for many years was, well we’re tion, in 1990, there were very few women who were exec- helping that person. If we could stop someone from being evicted, that was a good thing. If we could get someone a utive directors. That has changed dramatically, more on divorce, and get them out of an abusive relationship, that the civil side, but it’s changing a lot on the criminal dewas a good thing. But how do you deal with systemic isfense side as well. I don’t know, to be honest with you, that I felt that I was hampered at that level, working with sues? I think there is a greater understanding of legal sercolleagues. Certainly the fact that there were so few of us vices being a part of a larger movement for social and racial justice, which deals with systemic issues, poverty, how was an indication that there was still bias in hiring for us. But I don’t think that I ever felt that I was particularly dis- poverty is impacted by racism and sexism. So we haven’t counted as a woman. I do think there was some impact in solved those problems. I bequeath them to you. local politics, in how I was treated. But there was also just Issues of racism and sexism still impact the work that we hostility to funding legal services, and who we were servdo in agencies. How implicit bias and systemic racism esing—poor people and, especially, people of color. pecially, and also sexism, affect how we do our work. Hiring has always been difficult in a community like SyraSY: So we’ve talked about a few of the battles that cuse... to attract a diverse staff. It was always challenging, you have fought during your career in the law. What and I don’t think it is any less challenging now, maybe would you say are some of the most important battles more challenging in some respects. Certainly those are that we still have to fight today? issues that come to mind. SH: I think there is more of an understanding today about how legal services are a part of larger struggles—I
From all of us at Legal Services of Central New York, best wishes to you and yours for a happy and safe Holiday Season and a Happy, Healthy New Year!
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