The Legal Aid Society, on Monday, announced that hundreds of New Yorkers facing eviction in Manhattan and Brooklyn may have to represent themselves in court, due to a backlog of eviction cases leading to a shortage of public defenders.

Adriene Holder, the Attorney-in-Charge of the Civil Practice of The Legal Aid Society, joined Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” to explain the situation and what can be done to help struggling tenants.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration said, “The ongoing Right to Counsel issue for indigent respondents in Housing Court is neither about the Right to Counsel law nor a non-materialized overwhelming wave of new cases; it is about legal services providers who are incapable of carrying out their contractual obligations regarding representation.”

Statewide, eviction filings have been on the rise, after the covid-era moratorium was lifted in January.