Apartment City

Courtesy of Mayor’s office/Edwin J. Torres Onlookers applaud after Mayor Bill de Blasio signs legislation that makes New York the first city in the nation to provide lawyers for low- income tenants facing wrongful evictions . By Bill Parry TimesLedger Newspapers Share on Twitter Tweet Share on Facebook Subscribe Get our stories in your inbox, free. Like TimesLedger on Facebook. Low-income New Yorkers facing wrongful eviction will be guaranteed legal representation in Housing Court after Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation into law last Friday. The program, which is overseen by the Civil Justice Coordinator at the Human Services Administration , will serve 400,000 tenants when it is fully implemented in five years. “New York City will be the first city in the country to ensure anyone facing an eviction case can access legal assistance thanks to this new law,” de Blasio said. “New Yorkers should not lose their homes because they cannot afford a lawyer, and stopping wrongful evi...

On the morning that Alfonso Maldonado Silva was set to argue his first case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Ca., he was too nervous to even drink a glass of juice for breakfast. So he decided to head to court early to review the case one last time. He said a short prayer asking for wisdom, then he showered, dressed in a neatly pressed gray suit , and on an overcast morning last April, headed out the door with his evidence binder in hand. He had been up since 5 a.m. Maldonado, a third- year law student at Western State College of Law in Orange County, had left nothing to chance. This would be his first time arguing a case in court before any judge. So he had arrived the night before to stay in a Pasadena hotel to avoid the clogged commute from his Corona apartment during rush-hour. The only thing on the 28-year-old’s mind was the law. Much was riding on this case. Maldonado and his fellow law student , Cristel Martinez Medina , were representing an undocumente...