Chief Administrative Judge Joseph A. Zayas announced the appointment of two new judges to the Manhattan Housing Court as part of a citywide initiative to improve court operations in busy courts.

Judges Yekaterina Blinova and Adam R. Meyers, who will preside in Manhattan, were among seven attorneys selected to serve on housing courts in four New York boroughs. They both bring extensive resumes in tenancy law and training in housing court litigation.

Five of those positions were newly created to support operations and handle the increased caseload. The judges will take office at a critical time for housing courts across the city, as they grapple with case backlogs and the implementation of the state’s new good cause termination law, which judges will have a hand in shaping.

Zayas thanked the governor and the state legislature for funding these new judge positions, which the judiciary requested in its budget to help reduce the backlog in housing courts.

“New York City’s Housing Court is one of the busiest courts in the country, hearing cases that directly impact the everyday living conditions and livelihoods of New Yorkers,” said Chief Administrative Judge Zayas. “The creation of these new judge positions is part of our broader strategy to improve case management and access to justice in Housing Court, which includes hiring new trial attorneys and administrative staff to support this busy court.”

Blinova first worked as a trial attorney in housing court in the Bronx and most recently served as an assistant trial attorney in the Kings County Superior Court Legal Department after joining the Unified Court System in 2017. Prior to that, she worked as a staff attorney in the Tenant Rights Division of New York Legal Assistance Group, representing low-income New Yorkers in housing court. She began working on housing-related legal issues as an assistant district coordinator at Housing Court Answers, where she provided information and assistance to unrepresented litigants. She earned her law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

Meyers co-founded Brooklyn’s Communities Resist, a community-based legal services and advocacy organization, where he most recently served as Director of Litigation, leading a team advocating for housing-related legal services. While there, he managed his own caseload. Prior to founding the organization in 2019, he served as an associate director at Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, a housing and economic development program, where he represented clients in housing matters. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a member of the Housing Court Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

Meyer’s appointment will take effect on September 9, while Blinova and several others have been in office for several weeks. The judges’ term of office is five years and they preside over housing-related cases in the Civil Court.

Meyers and Blinova are not the only new additions to Manhattan’s Housing Court. Judges Alberto M. Gonzalez and Joan B. Rubel were appointed to the district’s Housing Court last September.

Gonzalez practiced law with Mobilization for Justice, Inc., representing tenants in all phases of litigation. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law and a member of the New York City Bar Association, the Dominican Bar Association, the Puerto Rican Bar Association, and the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County.

Rubel previously worked for nearly five years as a trial attorney in Kings County (Brooklyn) Housing Court. Before that, she was a senior attorney at a Long Island tenancy law firm, representing both landlords and tenants in rent control cases. While serving as an attorney in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, she also represented the City of New York in its capacity as a private and commercial landlord. She earned her law degree from Brooklyn Law School.