Several Los Angeles city councilmembers are calling for a tenants’ Right to Counsel program to provide free legal representation to lower-income Angelenos facing evictions who can’t afford an attorney.
A motion introduced by Councilmember Nithya Raman on Tuesday, Feb. 14, directs the city’s housing department to report back to the council within 60 days with recommendations to create a program for tenants earning 80% or less than the area’s median income. The report is expected to include estimates for staffing needs and costs.
“We are trying to build a city where, if you end up in a situation where you lose your housing or you’re in danger of losing your housing, that someone will be there to support you,” Raman said at a press conference ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting.
“We want to show people through this effort that you are not alone. This city loves you, and it wants you to stay here.” Raman chairs the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee,
Five councilmembers – Bob Blumenfield, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Heather Hutt, Eunisses Hernandez and Katy Yaroslavsky – signed on as co-presenters of the motion.
Hutt said that as a single mother raising three sons, she needs “all the help I can get.”
“People need to know that government is going to protect them,” she said.
Approximately 30,000 eviction notices are filed each year in L.A., but when tenants can’t afford an attorney, the eviction notices often go uncontested even if they’re illegal, tenant rights advocates say.
The purpose of a Right to Counsel program would be to promote housing stability and keep Angelenos from falling into homelessness in a city where a staggering number of people living on the streets has become a local emergency.
Advocates point to other large cities that have Right to Counsel programs and say that’s one reason L.A. should too.
in New York City, 74% of tenants facing evictions have legal representation, and 84% of those who are…
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