Due to the inclement weather in Albany on the original event dates, and out of an abundance of caution, the NYS Council of Churches Ecumenical and Interfaith Advocacy Day has been rescheduled to Monday, March 20 from 6-8 p.m. and Tuesday, March 21 from 9 a.m.-4 pm.
We hope that you will be able to join us on March 20 and 21 and help amplify the faith community’s support for housing and immigration legislation this session. If you have not registered and would like to attend in March, you can still register for Advocacy Day here.
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In the meantime, we encourage you to get involved and voice your concerns about the important issues that impact our communities:
Sign-on
During the pandemic the Excluded Worker Fund provided workers that had been excluded from other types of financial assistance, but had been impacted by the pandemic, with access to unemployment insurance. The Unemployment Bridge Program, is a permanent unemployment program for excluded workers, including freelance & self-employed workers, cash earners, undocumented workers, and individuals in re-entry. Faith leaders from across New York are being asked to sign the following letter to support the Unemployment Bridge Program. Learn more here.
New York State tenants need a Right to Counsel in housing court! How can clergy support?
The eviction crisis is worsening in New York State. Landlords have sued more than 270,000 tenants (and counting) in eviction courts statewide – That’s hundreds of thousands of families that are on the verge of eviction and homelessness. We cannot stand by while more New Yorkers are put out on the street. This is an urgent moral issue with a clear solution: We must pass a statewide, universal Right to Counsel for tenants facing eviction in housing court. ALL tenants should have the right to a free attorney when facing something as devastating as eviction. And Right to Counsel works! In New York and across the country, Right to Counsel has proven to reduce evictions and keep tenants housed.
While we have Right to Counsel in NYC, NYC tenants would greatly benefit from the passage of Statewide Right to Counsel:
There are still thousands of vulnerable tenants in the city who are not eligible under the city’s income-capped law. NYC tenants need the state to commit funding to adequately fund NYC’s Right to Counsel law.
We need a statewide Right to Counsel to pass so that courts are required to uphold Right to Counsel–without a statewide law, courts can continue to push thousands of eviction cases forward without respecting NYC tenants’ Right to Counsel!
The legislature MUST pass and fund Right to Counsel for ALL (A1493 / S2721) in the fiscal year 2024 budget! The RTC Coalition needs clergy support to ensure we pass this important legislation this session. Sign the petition TODAY urging NYS leadership to pass Right to Counsel for ALL>> https://www.righttocounselnyc.org/clergyrtc2023
Important Housing and Immigration News
Thank you for your understanding and patience as we work to reschedule this important event!
