This spring, New York State enacted the strongest tenant protections in a quarter-century. Already, they have made a difference in the lives of thousands of New York City residents.

Since the law took effect in June, landlords have tried to evict at least 35,000 fewer tenants for nonpayment of rent than in the same period last year, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

What is it like to lose your home?

Several years ago, the owners of the largely rent-stabilized Manhattan apartment building where I lived decided to force out my neighbors and me to bring in higher-paying tenants. When falsely accusing us of not paying rent didn’t work, they tried construction harassment. Dust, laden with lead from the century-old building, filled the air. We lived without heat or hot water for weeks at a time, in the middle of the New York winter. Vermin, disturbed by the construction, were everywhere. One day, I came home to find that the staircase leading to my apartment was gone.

I had fallen in love in that apartment, and nursed a broken heart. I had toiled away in its dining room on sticky summer nights as a young freelancer. I had danced on its tar roof with my friends, and cooked with my roommates, and watched the Freedom Tower finally join the city skyline, looking on from my living room as it rose slowly into view.