Monthly evictions in New York City have returned to pre-pandemic levels as low- and middle-income tenants struggle to make rent and housing courts work through a backlog of cases, new data shows.
City marshals evicted at least 11,253 households on behalf of landlords over the first seven-and-a-half months of the year, according to records maintained by the city’s Department of Investigation. The 1,500 evictions-per-month average from Jan. 1 to Aug. 15 was higher than in any year since 2018, when marshals completed about 1,666 evictions a month.
Housing policy experts say the spike in evictions reveals the financial hardship many low- and middle-income tenants face. The trend comes as every mayoral candidate, including incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Jim Walden have all pledged to make housing more affordable.
“There’s a lot of reason to be concerned here,” said Peter Hepburn, an associate director of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab. “For a lot of renters, they don’t have much in the way of personal savings and one missed paycheck, a layoff, an unexpected expense can be the precipitating factor for an eviction case.”
Court officials and state lawmakers instituted an eviction freeze at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 to prevent the illness’s spread and ensure people maintained stable housing amid steep job losses and other economic fallout. The number of evictions across the five boroughs has steadily increased since 2022, when the temporary moratorium on most removals ended.
That spike is illustrated through the earnings of New York City’s 29 marshals, whom landlords hire to deliver court notices, change apartment locks and remove tenants from their units after receiving an order from a judge. City data shows the marshals took in nearly $20.5 million in combined profit last year, up from around $19.5 million in 2023 and $14 million in 2019.
Ann Korchak, a Manhattan landlord who serves as a spokesperson for the group Small Property Owners of New York, said she suspects the number of evictions has risen because understaffed housing courts have continued working through a “bottleneck” of cases stemming from the pandemic.
“We’re in the business of offering housing and we look to housing court to help us solve problems,” Korchak said. “Eviction is a last resort. Everyone wants to live harmoniously but we need the revenue to run the properties.”
New York City landlords have filed just under 497,000 eviction cases since the start of 2021, according to state records. The most cases were filed in the Bronx, where more than 9% of households received a court notice last year. An eviction case can take several months or even years to come to a resolution. Less than 10% of cases result in an order of eviction from a judge.
While the number of people being kicked out of their homes has increased, state court data shows landlords have filed fewer new eviction cases in 2025 compared to recent years. Landlords have begun eviction proceedings against an average of 9,531 households per month this year compared to 10,500 per month in 2024.
The city’s various safety net programs for low-income tenants — like a right to an attorney in housing court — have helped many New Yorkers stave off eviction, according to a March report from the Community Service Society, a policy group focused on addressing poverty.
But many low-income families earn just above the threshold to receive the assistance, while others who qualify cannot access the aid in time to stop an eviction.
“We do have tools. We know what works,” said Chloe Sarnoff, director of policy research at Robin Hood, an influential anti-poverty organization. “But we are seeing these effective programs go underutilized because of staffing issues, funding issues and contracting issues.”
A July report from Robin Hood found that 1 in 4 low-income New Yorkers could not consistently afford their rent. Sarnoff said many are one “financial shock” away from facing the possibility of eviction.
Legal Aid Staff Attorney Ellen Davidson, who consults on legislative policy, said evictions have social and economic consequences for schools, employers and neighborhoods.
“It is worse for communities,” Davidson said. “It is worse for public health. It is worse for New York City writ large.”
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