Andrew Scherer on Keeping New Yorkers in their Homes

Professor Andrew Scherer.

On August 11, 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a local law that guaranteed legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction in New York City’s Housing Court. One of the bill’s major champions was Andrew Scherer, Policy Director of the Impact Center for Public Interest Law at New York Law School, who began fighting for housing justice decades earlier.

Scherer’s first job out of law school in 1978 was at Bronx Legal Services representing low-income tenants. The neighborhood was literally on fire then, with arson and insurance fraud rampant. Housing conditions were deplorable, yet Legal Services could only provide assistance to a small percentage of clients who sought help. “I shouldn’t have had to say ‘No’ to someone facing eviction,” Scherer stated, recalling how he became aware of the enormous need for representation.

Scherer worked with tenants associations to advocate for building improvements through affirmative litigation and by defending tenants on rent strike. He worked with community organizers and advocacy groups on changing policy, and was inspired by coalitions, such as the Union of City Tenants, that empowered tenants to become leaders.  Scherer realized that without individual representation tenants would remain disadvantaged.

In 1986, Scherer wrote a law review article called “Gideon’s Shelter” on why there should be a right to counsel in housing court. In 1990, Scherer led the Donaldson v. State of New York class action that sought to establish a right to counsel for low-income tenants. The Appellate Division dismissed the case on procedural grounds. The City never contested the substantive merits of the complaint and in fact started funding eviction prevention legal services in response to the litigation.  In the following years, Scherer litigated cases securing tenants’ rights, but continued to lobby for universal tenant representation. Scherer believes that people should have counsel in legal proceedings whenever life’s necessities are at stake and cites the remarkable results achieved for clients who made it through the Legal Services triage process.

In 2014, a study done of Bronx Housing Court by Community Action for Safe Apartments reinvigorated the legislative effort for a right to counsel. Scherer helped build a coalition of advocates that included faith leaders, community and tenant organizations, bar associations, and legislators. A report issued in 2016 demonstrated the cost benefits of the legislation. The coalition crowded City Hall during the public hearing. Forty-three City Council Members co-sponsored the bill and it passed in July 2017.

Scherer grew up with activism in his family. Both of Scherer’s parents were social workers, and he fondly describes them as “people who always wanted to do good.” As a child visiting his aunt in North Carolina, Scherer (who is white) was exposed to Jim Crow laws, and sat in the so-called “colored section” of the bus station per his mother’s instructions. This was his first political protest. In high school and college he protested the Vietnam War. At the University of Pennsylvania, Scherer was among the students who stormed the University when President Richard Nixon invaded Cambodia, formed an experimental college, and crafted curriculum for the Urban Studies major.

Upon graduating in 1972, Scherer, inspired by his parents, accepted a fellowship studying psychotherapy at the University of Chicago. Afterward, he moved back to New York, and worked in education until starting law school at NYU in 1975. A course titled “Racism and American Law” taught by civil rights advocate Haywood Burns further motivated Scherer.

After his time as a staff attorney at Bronx Legal Services, Scherer became Housing Law Coordinator at Legal Services NYC, where he worked primarily on litigation to promote affordable housing. He later spent nine years as Executive Director of Legal Services NYC, stepping down from this position in 2010. Scherer has taught law since the mid-1980s, and also consults on housing and access to justice issues domestically and internationally. He is the author of the 1,534-page treatise, Residential Landlord-Tenant Law in New York, now in its 22^nd edition.

Scherer’s hope for housing advocates is that they work with and learn from their clients’ communities. He advises lawyers not to accept the rules handed to them. Scherer helped change the rules to guarantee right to counsel in eviction cases, which will level the playing field in housing court. Evictions have already gone down by 24%. He is now training lawyers to handle tenant cases to prepare for the law’s implementation.

By: Shelby Hoffman ‘17