Webinar series featured organizing around eviction right to counsel

Webinar series ~ February 9 – April 6, 2021

Over the last four years, seven cities (large and small) have enacted a right to counsel for tenants facing eviction as a tool to fight mass eviction and displacement while building tenant power.  These victories have inspired an ever-growing number of cities and states to pursue right to counsel in their own backyards. Already in 2021, five states have introduced right to counsel legislation, and more state and city legislation is expected soon.

The National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (NCCRC) and Right to Counsel NYC Coalition (RTCNYC) have provided and continue to provide support to these campaigns.  In doing this work, we’ve come to recognize that many people have the same questions about building local buy-in, organizing, bill language, scope of the right, cost/benefit analyses, data gathering, key stakeholders, and so on.

To help answer these questions, the NCCRC and RTCNYC partnered on a webinar series from February to March 2021 that spotlighted jurisdictions that have enacted the right to counsel. Each session featured speakers (organizers and lawyers) from a particular jurisdiction that has achieved a right to counsel, highlighting how they made it happen and teasing out which tools, tactics, and methods they found effective.

SCHEDULE

Session 1: An Introduction to the Tenant RTC Movement
FEB 9 | 3 pm ET

Check out the recording and the slide deck.

The initial session was an overview of the eviction right to counsel movement from an organizing and lawyering perspective and what the movement looks like today. Later sessions spotlighted four cities that have enacted the right to counsel to look closely at their campaigns, identify their successes and struggles, and highlight the tools, strategies, and tactics they used to pass the right to counsel in their jurisdiction. We strongly encourage those interested in the series to watch the overview, as it covered some material that the later sessions did not.

Session 2: Baltimore
FEB 16 | 3 pm ET
Contact the NCCRC for details

Session 3: San Francisco
MARCH 2 | 3 pm ET
Contact the NCCRC for details

Session 4: New York City
MARCH 16 | 3 pm ET
Contact the NCCRC for details

Session 5: Cleveland
APRIL 6 | 3 pm ET
Contact the NCCRC for details