Evictions are surging across New York City, with the monthly rate of legal lockouts beginning to mirror pre-pandemic numbers in the second half of 2023, according to Gothamist’s analysis of publicly available data.
City marshals completed roughly 12,000 residential evictions last year as unpaid rent mounted and the court system worked through a backlog of cases, records filed with the city Department of Investigation as of Jan. 4 show. Reporting delays mean this number is certain to increase.
Evictions nearly tripled in 2023 as compared to 2022, when the end of statewide tenant protections enacted early in the pandemic triggered a steady rise in the number of legal lockouts across the five boroughs. There were over 100 more evictions in October and November 2023 (2,484 total) than in the same period in 2019 (2,365).
The spike in evictions comes as the city struggles to solve record-high homelessness and tenants face surging rents and a dwindling stock of affordable apartments.
“So many renters in New York really struggled during the pandemic, and this caseload has been building in the courts, so now we’re finally seeing this come out through data,” said Rachel Fee, head of the nonprofit policy group New York Housing Conference.
The Bronx had the most evictions of the five boroughs last year, 4,000 recorded as of Jan. 4. Marshals completed 3,516 evictions in Brooklyn and 2,224 in Manhattan, as well as 1,722 in Queens and 511 on Staten Island, according to the data.
Evicted tenants are predominantly low-income New Yorkers of color, but Fee said the growing crisis affects everyone in the city by disrupting schools, prompting people to leave the five boroughs, hurting employers and straining an already-frayed social safety net.
“These are kids that are going to be in school across New York City,” she said. “These are people who have jobs. It’s in everyone’s interest to prevent evictions.”
A December 2023 report by Fee’s organization found about a third…
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