Pictured: Onondaga County courthouse Credit: Julie McMahon

Housing advocates this summer will start a new program in Syracuse aiming to prevent default evictions and connect tenants with legal services and social safety net programs.

The program, known as the Eviction Diversion Initiative, is an expansion of a partnership between the State Unified Court System and the Center for Justice Innovation that has helped hundreds of tenants remain in their homes in Brooklyn and parts of Long Island. CJI announced Tuesday the program would expand to Syracuse, Rochester, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.

Eviction Diversion is an initiative that helps tenants facing eviction resolve housing instability. In Syracuse, the program will start sometime in the summer, and hone in on connecting tenants with legal resources and government assistance programs to avoid eviction. 

Statewide housing advocates say they hope the program can help tenants remain in their homes at a time when renters lose about 65% of their eviction cases. State court data shows that of the 644 evictions filed by April 6, the most recent update to the court’s data set, city court judges at Syracuse City Court have ruled in favor of landlords in 421 instances. 

Viviana Gordon, CJI’s director of housing justice initiatives, said a focus of the program is to reduce the number of default evictions. Typically, a default judgment is awarded to a landlord if a tenant does not show up to their initial court hearing. 

“It’s a driver of evictions in all courts, for sure, and it kind of makes up a substantial portion of what leads to evictions,” Gordon said.

In Syracuse, the program will operate out of CJI’s office on Tully Street, and will be staffed by  two-full time workers conducting outreach and helping connect tenants to support services in the city. Gordon said the program will help connect resources and advocacy groups with the legal side of evictions.

Eviction Diversion could assist tenants as early as when renters are served a legal notice for their eviction case. Gordon said tenants can be referred to the program, or they could also receive a CJI mailer that refers them to Eviction Diversion services. From there, the team would provide basic information about legal protections and access to legal services.

In Long Island, where the program has operated for the past four years, Gordon said about a quarter of the people aware of the program reach out to CJI before their first court appearance. 

After that initial contact, program staff assess tenants’ cases, learning about the amount of rent that is owed in a nonpayment case and what led to their arrears, as well as tenants’ immediate needs, Gordon said. CJI staff then developed an action plan for tenants and their needed support. 

“Some want an attorney, some want reasonable accommodation or they have questions about how the court process works,” Gordon said.

In other instances, tenants’ needs are more acute, she added. For example, tenants on Long Island have connected tenants with disabilities, older adults or victims of domestic violence with vital resources. 

“We help them in what is, for a lot of people, a crisis — a moment of vulnerability,” Gordon said.

Staff also helps tenants prepare for court dates, assist in between hearings, and even after their cases are done. On Long Island, Gordon said, staff have connected tenants to rental assistance programs whenever they become available. 

That program has reached more than 3,500 tenants with information and provided support to more than 600 households, according to data provided by CJI.

A 2024 analysis of Eviction Diversion Initiatives at 24 courts across the country conducted by the National Center for State Courts concluded that 64% of the cases that went through the program resulted in a settlement agreement, meaning that landlords and tenants reached a payment agreement, or an assistance program helped tenants pay their arrears. Another 25% of them were dismissed, and 6% of them went to trial.

James H. Cecile, the supervising judge of Syracuse City Court, praised the expansion of the program into Syracuse, noting that it could help tenants struggling with housing insecurity. 

“But also the landlords who are looking for equitable solutions,” he said in a press release, calling the program a proactive measure. 

For Gordon and other statewide housing advocates, the program will be most effective if combined with other sizable legislative tools. 

Oksana Mironova, the housing policy analyst at the Community Service Society, said other policies like statewide legislation that affords tenants a right to free legal services and “good cause eviction” measures would complement the Eviction Diversion Program.

“Having this be just one, one tool in the toolkit is helpful,” Mironova said. “It could be paired with ‘good cause’ or stronger legal protections for tenants. Programs like this become more effective when there’s other defenses to draw on.”

‘Good cause’ is a statewide policy that allows municipalities to opt into legislation to challenge in court unjust evictions and unreasonable rent hikes. 

Under the bill, tenants:

  • Could challenge evictions filed in court for reasons not stated in the lease agreement.
  • Could contest at eviction hearings rent increases above 10% of the yearly rent or 5% plus the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.
  • Would be allowed to renew their lease automatically if they are caught up on rent and have abided by the terms of their lease.

Some Syracuse lawmakers attempted to pass a local version of it in February, eventually reaching a 4-4 stalemate, sending proponents of the bill back to the drawing board. So far, 20 municipalities outside New York City have opted into the bill, including Ithaca, Albany, Binghamton, and Rochester.

“There is not one thing that will solve the multiplicity of problems that go into the eviction crisis in any city in the state,” Mironova said. “Having this as another, another solution that’s available, feels like it will go a long way, especially if the legal service provider universe is overwhelmed, which I’m sure it is, because Syracuse has many evictions.”

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Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...