All about Chicago’s tenant representation success

In 2019, the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing (Chicago) released a data portal and report on evictions.  The report’s key finding outlined how tenant representation improved outcomes for tenants:

79% of landlords had attorneys, while only 11% of tenants did.  Without an attorney, the likelihood that an eviction order will be entered against a tenant is about 62%; with an attorney, it’s about 45%. In other words, by having an attorney, tenants decreased their odds of getting an eviction order by about 25%.  The benefits of having an attorney are even greater when the tenant is represented by a civil legal aid provider, a non-profit organization that offers free legal help with non-criminal legal issues. 50% of cases where tenants were represented by private attorneys resulted in eviction orders. Legal aid representation resulted in eviction orders only 22% of the time, less than half the rate of their private attorney counterparts.

The release of this information was covered by the Chicago Tribune.

Then, in 2024, a study from Stout examined Chicago’s “ERP + RTC” pilot, which integrates a brief assistance program (ERP) with an extensive representation program (called “RTC”, although it is not an actual right to counsel).  93% of tenants served by the pilot received only ERP services, and 71% of those tenants believed they would be able to achieve their goal after receiving the ERP services, while 96% of ERP tenants stated satisfaction with those services.  However, in terms of examining whether tenants actually achieved their goals, such analysis was limited to the RTC tenants.  For the RTC tenants:

• 92% of private market RTC tenants and 95% of subsidized RTC tenants who sought to avoid a formal eviction achieved that goal;

• More than half who sought to remain in their units were able to do so;

• 43% of RTC tenants reported defective conditions in their units, which may have played a role in RTC’s success in avoiding eviction judgments and displacements;.

• 45% of private housing RTC tenants and 74% of subsidized housing RTC tenants who sought to move out received at least 30 days to do so;

• “For every $1 spent on RTC, Chicago likely realized between at least $2.75 and $3.35 in fiscal benefits.”

The Chicago Bar Foundation issued a press release about the report.