A guide for NYC tenants that explains a law called Good Cause Eviction.

Community Partners

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<h2>What’s the issue?</h2>
Before 2024, tenants living in unregulated, market-rate apartments were not protected from excessive rent increases or eviction at the end of a lease. Tenants and housing organizers fought for Good Cause Eviction, a New York State law that since 2024 protects some tenants living in otherwise unregulated apartments. Covered tenants are protected from big rent hikes and eviction without “good cause.”
Good Cause Eviction (GCE) is a complicated law. Only some market-rate apartments are covered, so the first hurdle tenants face is figuring out if they’re protected. Thanks to <a href="http://GoodCauseNYC.org">GoodCauseNYC.org</a>, sometimes that’s easy! But in many cases, it can be really challenging, and landlords can exploit this uncertainty to illegally raise the rent and evict their tenants. Even if tenants are protected, there are some cases in which their landlords may legally increase the rent excessively, or evict tenants at the end of a lease. When landlords illegally exploit these exceptions, it can be complicated and confusing for tenants to know how to fight back. GCE is an issue best handled with legal support. NYC’s Right to Counsel program is supposed to provide free legal representation to eligible low-income tenants facing eviction in Housing Court, but many tenants don’t qualify. Even if they do qualify, they often won’t be represented because there aren’t enough lawyers to go around. This leaves many tenants to fend for themselves with their home on the line. Three housing justice organizations — Housing Court Answers (HCA), TakeRoot Justice (TRJ), and the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI) — needed a guide that would explain GCE in simple terms, and that would support tenants unable to access a lawyer as they defend themselves in Housing Court. 
<h2>What did we make? </h2>
HCA, TRJ, and CJI collaborated with CUP and art collective SWRD — made up of designer Sarah Wang and illustrator Ryan Davis — to create Good Cause NYC, a guide for NYC tenants living in unregulated housing and who may be unable to access a lawyer. Good Cause NYC explains how NYC tenants can find out if they’re covered, and if they are, how they’re protected and how they can defend their rights. The guide follows two fictional characters — a tenant whose landlord tried to raise the rent too much, and a tenant whose landlord tried to not renew their lease — to show how each tenant is protected by GCE and how they can prepare to tell their story and defend their rights in Housing Court. 
<h2>How did we make it?</h2>

We spoke with tenant union members and housing justice organizers to learn about their experience navigating Housing Court. We learned how disheartening and overwhelming Housing Court can feel. Without a lawyer to help them navigate their cases, tenants reported feeling like the system was designed to make them mess up and miss out on a good outcome. Community members urged us to center the human impact of GCE. They asked us to help tenants feel empowered to defend their rights, while also leveling with tenants to help them gain a realistic sense for what Housing Court can feel like.
To address this challenge, we framed the content around two fictional characters — Shae and Ray — who fought back against their landlords and defended their GCE rights in Housing Court. Over the course of the guide, Shae and Rae learn about GCE; prepare to tell their stories in Housing Court; and follow best practices during the chaotic first days at the courthouse by asking for legal support, setting boundaries, asking for “Discovery,” and telling court staff their side of the story. In addition to Shae and Rae, every page shows illustrations of tenants in their homes, as a visual reminder of people GCE is supposed to protect.

We explained how tenants can think strategically about their case. A lawyer can help a tenant by boiling down the dispute into simple terms, and by helping find evidence that defends the tenant. Without a lawyer, and under the debilitating stress and fear of potentially losing one’s home, it can be extremely challenging for tenants to approach their cases strategically.
Every case is unique and tenants should always try to get support from a tenant lawyer. That said, we identified three common disputes that can arise from a GCE case, and showed how Shae and Rae navigated each one:
<ul><li dir="ltr">Dispute 1: Both Shae and Rae disagree with their landlord about their GCE coverage. Shae and Rae believe they’re covered; their landlords believe they’re not.</li><li dir="ltr">Dispute 2: Shae and her landlord agree she’s covered by GCE, but her landlord believes they can raise the rent by more than the legal limit.</li><li dir="ltr">Dispute 3: Rae and his landlord agree he’s covered by GCE, but his landlord believes they have “good cause” to not renew Rae’s lease.</li></ul>
For each dispute, we provide examples of the kinds of evidence that would support Shae and Rae’s defense, including evidence each of them have access to (and online databases where they can find it), and evidence only their landlords have access to (which Shae and Rae can ask for in court by asking court staff for "Discovery”).

Good Cause NYC will be distributed at the HCA tables in Housing Courts across the five boroughs. The resource will also be distributed digitally: people who call the HCA hotline will receive the resource via text message if their case may benefit from understanding more about GCE. TRJ will share the resource at tenant association meetings, legal clinics, and with tenants through partner tenant organizers. CJI will share the resource across at their Community Justice Connect sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, and their Housing Resource Centers in Harlem, Red Hook and Queens.

The pamphlet unfolds like an accordion. The front side introduces the issue by explaining GCE and how a tenant can defend themselves before their case escalates to Housing Court. The back side explains how tenants can defend their rights once they’re in Housing Court. For the digital version, rather than an accordion, pages appear one at a time to make it easier to view on a phone.

Check Out the Project

GCE NYC Digital

CUP
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/agustín-cepeda" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Agustín Cepeda</a>
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/utsa-ramaswami" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Utsa Ramaswami</a>

Community Partner
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/housing-court-answers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Housing Court Answers</a>
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/center-for-justice-innovation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Center for Justice Innovation</a>
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/takeroot-justice" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TakeRoot Justice</a>

Designers
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/ryan-davis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ryan Davis</a>
<a href="https://welcometocup.org/people/sarah-wang" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sarah Wang</a>

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Hyperakt is a purpose-driven design and innovation studio that elevates human dignity and ignites curiosity. Since 2001, co-founders Julia Zeltser and Deroy Peraza, along with the Hyperakt team, have been partnering with change-makers moving society forward. We believe in design’s power to build a future filled with courage, optimism, and honesty.

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The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of design and art to increase meaningful civic engagement in partnership with historically marginalized communities.

Center for Urban Pedagogy

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