Six Los Angeles city councilmembers put forward a new proposal on Tuesday to provide free attorneys to many tenants facing eviction.
Housing activists in L.A. have pushed the idea of a renter’s “right to counsel” for many years, but efforts have so far been limited to small pilot programs.
At a press conference outside city hall with dozens of cheering renters and tenant activists, Councilmember Nithya Raman said new voter-approved homelessness funding through Measure ULA will allow the city to begin exploring a broader right-to-counsel program.
“That’s why we’re able to get this kind of support behind it,” Raman said, “because people now know where the funding is going to be coming from.”
Housing advocates say guaranteeing a lawyer to vulnerable tenants would be a game-changer for the city.
“It would completely change the landscape of the eviction world,” said Silvana Naguib, directing attorney of homelessness prevention at the pro bono law firm Public Counsel.
“Without a lawyer, tenants pretty much always have bad outcomes,” she said. “Landlords are winning in court because they have better representation, and not because the law is actually on their side.”
Most renters don’t have lawyers. Most landlords do.
Unlike in criminal court, renters taken to eviction court have no guaranteed right to free legal representation. Currently, very few tenants are able to hire a lawyer. A 2019 report commissioned by the L.A. Right To Counsel Coalition found that 97% of L.A. renters lacked an attorney in eviction proceedings, but landlords had legal representation in 88% of cases.
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