Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York

Oral Testimony of Nic Rangel, Executive Director

Good morning, Chief Judge Wilson, members of the Court, and distinguished guests.

My name is Nic Rangel, and I serve as the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, or LASNNY. On behalf of our clients, staff, and Board of Directors, thank you for the opportunity to testify today and thank you for your continued commitment to ensuring that access to justice is not determined by a person's income.

LASNNY provides civil legal services across sixteen counties in northeastern New York, stretching across the North Country, the Capital Region, and the Adirondacks. Geographically, LASNNY covers nearly 1/3 of the state.

Today, I would like to focus on an area of civil legal aid that often receives less public attention than housing or family law, but which affects housing stability, financial security, and generational wealth for thousands of New Yorkers every year: consumer debt.

When most people hear the phrase "consumer debt," they think about unpaid credit card bills. But the reality is much broader.

Consumer law issues often arise when families are at their most vulnerable. We see homeowners facing foreclosure because of mortgage servicing errors; elderly residents struggling with tax foreclosure proceedings; families burdened by default judgments entered in debt collection cases they never understood how to defend; and predatory practices that put a family's most important asset, their home, at risk.

For low-income New Yorkers, these legal problems are rarely isolated. A foreclosure case can become a housing crisis; can affect employment opportunities and personal credit. The loss of a family home can erase decades of accumulated wealth in a single court proceeding.

That is why civil legal aid matters. And that is why Judiciary Civil Legal Services funding matters.

The impact of JCLS funding is visible both in the lives of individual clients and in the capacity of organizations like LASNNY to meet growing need.

We continued representing Lola Bissette before the Appellate Division, Third Department, and ultimately secured a favorable decision.

Over the most recent reporting period, LASNNY increased staffing by more than ten full-time equivalent positions. We increased annual intakes by nearly three thousand clients, assisted more than nine thousand households through closed cases, and dramatically expanded referrals to community and legal partners. Those numbers reflect a growing need for legal services across our region, but they also reflect the ability of JCLS funding to help us respond to that need.

Yet numbers alone cannot capture what access to counsel truly means. Earlier this year, LASNNY conducted a comprehensive community needs assessment involving 450 participants across our sixteen-county service area. What we found closely mirrors what we see every day in our offices.

Housing instability and financial distress emerged as the two most significant civil legal issues facing our communities. More than eighty percent of respondents reported housing-related problems, and an equally large share reported problems involving money, debt, or access to benefits. Being overwhelmed by bills and debt was one of the most frequently identified problems in the entire survey.

Significantly, respondents identified debt and credit problems, foreclosure, public benefits, and unsafe housing conditions as among the most important issues LASNNY should address. Those findings validate what we see in our foreclosure, consumer debt, and benefits practices every day.

JCLS funding has allowed us to respond. We have expanded staffing, increased intakes, and served thousands more clients. But the needs assessment also tells us something else: the need continues to outpace the available resources. Community members and partners repeatedly told us that capacity remains a challenge, that more outreach is needed, and that too many people still struggle to find legal help when they need it. JCLS funding has helped us close that gap, but the gap remains significant. Continued investment will be essential if we are going to meet the needs our communities themselves have identified.

While consumer debt issues affect people across demographic groups, many of the cases we see disproportionately affect women, particularly older women and survivors of domestic violence. Financial abuse frequently accompanies domestic violence and can leave survivors responsible for debts they did not create or unable to protect assets that should rightfully be theirs. We also regularly assist widows and older women facing foreclosure, tax foreclosure, probate complications, and title issues after the death of a spouse. In many cases, these women are at risk of losing the homes and financial security they spent decades helping to build.

These risks are particularly significant when legal title and family wealth are passed from one generation to the next. Our emerging heirs' property and deed theft work demonstrates how legal aid can protect vulnerable homeowners, including elderly women and Native American landowners, from losing property through fraud, predatory practices, or complex title issues.

These are the types of cases that illustrate why consumer law should be viewed as an access-to-justice priority.

Across New York, legal services providers are seeing increasing complexity in mortgage servicing disputes, foreclosure litigation, debt collection actions, and consumer financial matters. These cases often involve sophisticated legal and regulatory issues, including federal servicing regulations, state foreclosure requirements, statutes of limitation, and evolving consumer protection laws.

What makes these efforts possible is sustained investment. JCLS funding does more than support individual cases. It allows organizations to recruit and retain experienced attorneys. It enables us to build expertise in increasingly complex areas of law. It allows us to respond to rising demand while maintaining quality representation. And perhaps most importantly, it allows us to provide meaningful representation in cases where the consequences of losing are life changing.

At a time when many legal aid providers face uncertainty in other funding streams, continued investment in JCLS remains essential.

On behalf of LASNNY and the communities we serve, I respectfully urge continued and sustained support for Judiciary Civil Legal Services funding.

Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your commitment to equal justice for all New Yorkers.