Cincinnati ordinance expands tenant representation

UPDATE Oct 2024: City releases preliminary data on tenant rep program

The City released some early data on the “Access to Counsel” program, finding that of the 23 eviction cases litigated to final outcome, 19 were dismissed, with 16 being via a negotiated dismissal and 3 being a judgment for the tenant.  No data has been released yet on the impact of the brief assistance services, and it is not clear as to how much funding the program still has.

UPDATE Dec 2023: Cincinnati expands tenant representation via ordinance

On December 6, 2023, the Cincinnati City Council voted to enact an ordinance that created an Access to Counsel Pilot Program.  The program specifies that tenants at 60% or below of AMI who have not received rental assistance in the past year and who are at imminent threat of eviction (meaning they have received a notice to quit, an eviction filing, or a notice to terminate a housing subsidy) are entitled to receive “legal services”, which can be either brief assistance or full representation.  At the same time, the City expanded rental assistance available to tenants.

Enactment of the ordinance was covered by WVXU, which noted that the City provided $1 million in funding and the United Way contributed another $250,000.  This funding was to cover both rental assistance and legal representation, but it was not specified the amounts to go to each.

Background

An 2018 eviction study commissioned by Housing Opportunities Made Equal Cincinanati and the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio notes that fewer than 3 percent of tenants have counsel, and that tenants lose their cases 99 percent of the time.  It also determined that race is a stronger predictor of eviction rates than poverty.  Towards the end, it includes a right to counsel as one of its proposed recommendations.

Additionally, a 2023 study looked at evictions in Hamilton County and found that:

• Only 7% of tenants had representation, compared to 93% of landlords;
• Representation dropped the issuances of eviction writs from 49.6% to 8.02%.
• “Tenants with legal representation were less likely to experience physical eviction as well. During the period of the study 2,403 physical evictions were executed, 98.5% of which happened to tenants without lawyers.”