Tenants Advocacy Program

Providing free legal assistance to residential tenants in upstate New York.

Response time varies based on urgency of a case. If you are an Ithaca tenant in a legal emergency, please call LawNY at 607-273-3667.

TO APPLY FOR FREE LEGAL HELP, CLICK HERE OR CALL 607-301-1560

About Us

Founded in 2020, The Tenants Advocacy Program (TAP) is a Cornell Law School pro bono program where seasoned full-time attorneys, law students, and recent law graduates work together year-round to provide free legal assistance to residential tenants in upstate New York. Free legal representation is primarily provided by law students enrolled in the Tenants Advocacy Practicum under attorney supervision.

What We Can Help With

The Tenants Advocacy Program primarily assists with civil residential landlord-tenant disputes or disputes between residential tenants or subtenants in upstate New York.

Issues we help with include, but are not limited to: evictions, security deposits, lease-related issues, rent-to-own agreements, issues getting repairs, accessibility or other disability-related issues, privacy/safety issues, housing voucher issues or other public/subsidized housing disputes, domestic violence-related lease termination or eviction, and housing discrimination.

What We Can’t Help With

Unfortunately, we cannot assist with criminal matters. We also cannot help landlords or commercial tenants (e.g. businesses, food trucks).

Location

We provide free legal advice to all residential tenants in upstate New York, which we consider to be anywhere in New York State outside New York City and Long Island. We cannot help tenants living within New York City or Long Island, nor can we help with any matters outside the state of New York.

Court Representation

We can provide free court representation only in Tompkins, Tioga, Steuben, Schuyler, Chemung, Monroe, or Allegany County. If you need representation but do not live in a county listed above, we unfortunately cannot assist you. Please contact your local legal aid provider.

Eligibility Requirements

There is no income, citizenship, or Cornell affiliation requirement to apply for and receive free legal assistance from our Program. Most of our clients are low-income. We can help tenants regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Moreover, our services are not restricted to tenants affiliated with Cornell University. Although our Program is based in Ithaca, and many clients study or work at Cornell, we assist tenants statewide regardless of their connection to Cornell.

Request Legal Advice Here or Call Us at 607-301-1560

How We Work

Tenants with housing-related concerns may request free legal assistance by completing our online intake form here. We will keep confidential any personal information that you give to us. We will not share your information with other people or agencies without your permission.

For assistance in completing the intake form or for more information on other available resources, call our hotline at (607) 301-1560 or email TenantsLegalHotline@gmail.com. By phone or email, volunteers can inform you about your rights under the Tenants’ Rights Guide, direct you to the appropriate legal and non-legal resources, and help submit your application to request free legal assistance from our team of lawyers and supervised law students. Please note that hotline volunteers are NOT lawyers and cannot give legal advice.

If your application is accepted upon review by our legal team, the student/attorney assigned to your case will reach out to you by phone and email. Levels of assistance vary on a case-by-case basis ranging from brief advice to full representation in court.

Our office is located inside Cornell Law School at 128 Hughes Hall, Ithaca, NY 14850. We are NOT accepting walk-ins at this time. Office visits are by appointment only. Please email tenantsadvocacy@cornell.edu or your assigned student/attorney to schedule an in-person visit. If you would like to mail us documents related to your case, please send it to “Cornell Law School Tenants Advocacy Program” at the address above.

Hotline

Our hotline number is (607) 301-1560. The hotline accepts voicemails 24/7. Volunteers answer and return calls at the following times:

Mondays: 8pm-9pm

Tuesdays: 7pm-8pm

Wednesdays: 4pm-5pm

Thursdays: 1:30-2:30pm, 8-9pm

Fridays: 2pm-3pm

Saturdays: 12pm-1pm

Sundays: 11am-12pm, 5—6pm

If you called our hotline and nobody answered, please email TenantsLegalHotline@gmail.com or leave a voice message with your name, phone number, best times to reach you, and whether your issue is urgent or not. We will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can.

Please keep in mind that undergraduate volunteers run our hotline, so their hotline hours will change every semester based on class schedules.