By Gregg McQueen
Yoselyn Gómez remembers the fear of entering housing court on her own.
Threatened with eviction by her landlord in 2015, she appeared in court to plead her case without legal representation, as she could not afford an attorney.
“I was there alone and I was scared,” Gómez remarked in Spanish during a phone interview. “Although I speak English a little, it was sometimes hard for me to understand what was said in court.”
“It was a very difficult situation to be in front of a judge alone,” she said. “I really thought I was going to lose my home.”
Though Gómez avoided eviction at the time, it would not be her last visit to Housing Court.
A resident of 750 Grand Concourse, Gomez said she and other tenants in her building have been brought to court several times for being late with rent.
The building’s landlord, Ved Parkash, has appeared on the NYC Public Advocate’s annual Worst Landlords List. According to Gómez, Parkash would frequently bring tenants to court for missing a rent payment, in an attempt to intimidate them.
Read more: Legal aid for tenants expanded | Manhattan Times
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