Assessing the Right to Counsel: Eviction Prevention and Broader Impacts

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Every year, 3.6 million eviction cases are filed in civil courts across the United States. These cases disproportionately affect women, families with children, and Black renters, and have been linked to a wide array of negative consequences for renters’ physical and mental health, economic prospects, and long-term housing stability. Yet tenants facing the prospect of eviction rarely receive legal assistance. While landlords typically retain lawyers, the vast majority of tenants moving through eviction court do so without legal representation. This puts tenants at a severe disadvantage because they are usually ill-equipped to navigate complex housing laws and an expedited summary judgment proceeding that is designed to favor landlords’ interests. 

To correct this power imbalance, a growing number of cities and states have launched “right to counsel” (RTC) programs, guaranteeing lawyers to low-income tenants facing eviction. The first RTC program was established in New York City in 2017. Early evaluations of the program suggest that it has been highly effective in improving tenant representation rates and decreasing risk of eviction judgements. Since then, RTC has grown into a national movement, with many jurisdictions using pandemic housing assistance funds to launch programs aimed at mitigating housing insecurity after the end of eviction moratoria. Such programs are now in operation in five states, 19 cities, and two counties nationwide and are under consideration or in a pilot stage in dozens more jurisdictions. 

This panel explores the impacts of RTC on housing outcomes and variation in these impacts across places, using multiple methods and disciplinary frameworks. Despite the proliferation of RTC programs, research demonstrating the impact of these policies remains limited, and has largely focused on analyses of court statistics in New York City. In this panel, we aim to expand the scope of investigation, asking a broader set of questions about the intended and unintended consequences of RTC. In so doing, we highlight the perspective of researchers conducting quantitative analyses of administrative data as well as those using qualitative methods to better understand the effects of these programs on court operations and their  potential to support tenant organizing and power-building.

Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Chair

• Raheem Chaudhry, University of Washington

Discussants

• Juliet-Nil Uraz, London School of Economics and Political Science

• Elizabeth Lochhead, New York University

Organizer

• Peter Hepburn, Rutgers University - Newark

Individual Presentations

• Effects of Tenant Right to Counsel on Eviction Filings across Multiple Jurisdictions - Presenting Author: Kathryn M Leifheit, University of California - Los Angeles

• How Right to Counsel and the Presence of Tenant Lawyers Shapes Eviction Courts - Presenting Author: Danya E Keene, Yale University

• Right to Counsel in NYC: Understanding the Program’s Clients, Service Models, and Housing Court Outcomes - Presenting Author: Kinsey Dinan, NYC Department of Social Services

• Empowerment without Power? The Possibilities and Limits of Right to Counsel - Presenting Author: Jamila D Michener, Cornell University