Anyone know of free housing legal advice?

There is a place called South Brooklyn Legal Services (sbls.org) who helps most lower income people for free. Their website has links to self-help pages and also pages that let you know your rights.

There is also the Brooklyn Bar Association and the City of New York Bar Association

One little bit of advice - if you are withholding rent right now for whatever reason - do not hold it in your personal account - go to a local bank and ask to open up a special account - usually called an escrow account - and keep placing your rent there on the day you would usually have to give it to the landlord until you either have your dispute resolved or appear before a Housing Court judge. Good luck

tenant.net is another good resource. but sadly, with law school loans what they are these days, few attorneys can afford to work for free. I think the south brooklyn legal services is a good idea to try as well. back in my law firm days, the large firm i worked for would take on some of these housing cases pro-bono. but it seemed they really only took on the most depserate and needy cases.