Knowing how to negotiate a good agreement with your landlord on your day in housing court can mean the difference between staying in your home and getting evicted. But many tenants don’t know that they have the right to ask for realistic terms for themselves, or how to get help understanding the agreements they sign.

CUP collaborated with Housing Court Answers and designers from the Public Society to create a guide to educate tenants about their rights and encourage them to stand up for themselves on their day in court. Comic-book style graphics give tenants useful information on how to ask for what they need, what language to watch out for, and how to get more help.

Housing Court Help: a tenant’s guide to negotiating with your landlord is currently being distributed by 15 organizations in all five boroughs of NYC. The English version of the booklet launched in February 2014 at Challenging the Halls of Injustice, Housing Court Answers’ annual conference. A Spanish version will be released in July 2014.

Get the English version here and the Spanish version here.

Resources & Links

Housing Court Answers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people who cannot afford an attorney in housing court.

The Public Society is a multi-disciplinary design studio dedicated to using design as a verb to improve the world we live in.

Public Access Design is a program of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP). Public Access Design projects use design to make complex urban issues accessible to the New Yorkers most affected by them. 

Funding Support

Support for this project was provided by The Rockefeller Foundation’s NYC Cultural Innovation Fund; and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Special Thanks

Pema Domingo-Barker, Cristian Fleming, Sam Holleran, Ron Morrison, and Mark Torrey

Participants

  • CUP
    Project Leads
    Clara Amenyo
    Christine Gaspar
  • Housing Court Answers
  • Advocacy Partner
  • Jessica Hurd
  • Jenny Laurie
  • Louise Seeley
  • Mahkeddah Thompson
  • Jenny Cruz
  • The Public Society
  • Designers
  • Stephanie Lukito
  • Wendy Qi
  • Pranav Behari