{"id":1974,"date":"2020-01-06T11:11:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T16:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/lppp\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2020-01-09T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T15:49:49","slug":"tenants-right-to-counsel-has-transformative-potential-and-is-worth-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/lppp\/tenants-right-to-counsel-has-transformative-potential-and-is-worth-the-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenant Right to Counsel Has Transformative Potential\u2014and Is Worth the Price"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Connor, Law & Policy Scholar, JD Anticipated May 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

On November 14th, Philadelphia became the fifth city in the nation<\/span><\/a> to establish a right to counsel for low-income tenants in eviction court. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Barrett Marshall, Director of the Philadelphia Eviction Prevention Project and attorney at Community Legal Services, testified<\/span><\/a> in favor of the legislation, “The eviction crisis is. . .tearing apart long-standing communities. [ . . .] We know that legal representation has the power to change this. The power to create access, to generate equity, to save lives.” Indeed, New York City, the first city in the nation to pass right-to-counsel (RTC) legislation for tenants, is <\/span>a testament to the major positive impacts<\/span><\/a> that such programs can have. Academic predictions that the simple reality of tenants\u2019 access to counsel would decrease evictions have proven true, with RTC zip codes in NYC seeing a significant drop in eviction filings in the first years of the program. The number of completed evictions in covered zip codes also declined by 11%, five times greater than the decline in non-covered zip codes. Research based on pilot RTC programs in other cities around the country has found that providing counsel to low-income tenants facing eviction almost <\/span>universally results in fewer eviction actions being filed<\/span><\/a> and in more tenants and families remaining in their homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Philadelphia\u2019s bill, the New York program guarantees a right to counsel to all tenants facing eviction with incomes 200% below of the federal poverty level. Unlike Philadelphia\u2019s, however, the New York program has a pot of money to draw on. New York has a municipal population that is roughly five and half times the size of Philadelphia\u2019s, but an annual city budget<\/span><\/a> that is more than <\/span>eighteen times that of Philly<\/span><\/a>. In the first year of the New York program, the City Council budgeted $15 million for the first phase of rollout, which involved extending the program to 20 of the city\u2019s 200-plus zip codes. Philly is slated to spend a prorated $2.1 million on the program this fiscal year for its initial rollout, with the Philadelphia Bar Association <\/span>estimating an annual price tag of $3.5 to $5 million<\/span><\/a>, although the sponsor of the bill, Councilperson Helen Gym, has acknowledged that <\/span>the true cost will likely be higher<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Essentially, both cities are slated to spend 0.1% or 0.2% of their budgets on their respective RTC programs. However, when the estimated program expenditures are compared based upon the number of eligible beneficiaries each year, Philadelphia\u2019s financial disadvantage becomes clear: New York is spending hundreds of millions on roughly 230,000 eviction actions each year, whereas Philadelphia is spending around $5 million on 20,000. This means that New York is able to spend approximately $870 per eviction action, while Philly is only slated to spend about $175 per eviction action. And because Philadelphia has a higher rate of poverty than New York (24.5%<\/span><\/a> to New York\u2019s <\/span>19%<\/span><\/a>), the disparity is likely to be even greater.<\/span><\/p>\n

A report released by the Philadelphia Bar Association found that an annual investment of $3.5 million in the program would save the City $45.2 million in eviction-related shelter, medical, and social service costs. A $5 million investment would save up to $63 million. In theory, the right to counsel for tenants facing eviction should pay for itself.<\/p>\n

However, before RTC can be implemented to its full potential and effectiveness, the City will need to be prepared to make investments not only in employing a sufficient staff of capable and dedicated attorneys, but in adapting the infrastructure of the City courts\u2019 to accommodate the change. An influx of tenants equipped with full legal representation\u2014tenants, that is, who will be less vulnerable to default judgments against them or unfavorable settlement terms\u2014will represent a major additional burden on the already-strained Philadelphia court system. Whereas in recent years the Court of Common Pleas has been getting through landlord-tenant cases faster than such cases were being filed<\/span><\/a>, the increase in zealously defended eviction cases should slow this pace dramatically.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the logistical challenges, however, this is a good problem. Ultimately, what the people of Philadelphia need and deserve is competent, thorough representation from devoted attorneys, provided to them as a matter of a right meeting a need and not because of financial resources. Undoubtedly, this bill will be a challenge to implement, but preventing evictions keeps families together, promotes financial stability, and helps communities to flourish. Even a substantial start-up cost is well worth it.<\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

*Note that these figures refer to total eviction actions filed in each city per year, not merely those that are eligible for representation under RTC legislation. Exact figures and percentages of how many actual eviction actions are filed against tenants and families that would be eligible for representation are not available, although it is important to note that impoverished families are disproportionately affected by eviction and would make up a larger percentage of eviction action recipients than their percentage of the general population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Connor, Law & Policy Scholar, JD Anticipated May 2021 On November 14th, Philadelphia became the fifth city in the nation to establish a right to counsel for low-income tenants in eviction court. As Barrett Marshall, Director of the Philadelphia Eviction Prevention Project and attorney at Community Legal Services, testified in favor of the legislation, “The eviction crisis is. . .tearing apart long-standing communities. [ . . .] We know that legal representation has the power to change this. The … <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[67],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"\r\nTenant Right to Counsel Has Transformative Potential\u2014and Is Worth the Price - Law & Public Policy Program<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/lppp\/tenants-right-to-counsel-has-transformative-potential-and-is-worth-the-price\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tenant Right to Counsel Has Transformative Potential\u2014and Is Worth the Price - Law & Public Policy Program\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sarah Connor, Law & Policy Scholar, JD Anticipated May 2021 On November 14th, Philadelphia became the fifth city in the nation to establish a right to counsel for low-income tenants in eviction court. 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