All about tenant RTC efforts in Richmond VA

UPDATE Sept 2024: City declares evictions without representation to be a crisis

A resolution enacted by the Richmond City Council declares that “evictions without legal representation is a public crisis and supports right-to-counsel programs and programs increasing access to counsel for residents of the city of Richmond facing eviction as a critical necessity.”  The resolution accompanies a recent budget allocation of $500,000 to support a pilot representation project in the City.  As reported by 12 On Your Side, the pilot is expected to serve 450 tenants.  Release of the resolution was also covered by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and VPM News.

Background in Richmond

A 2021 report from the RVA Eviction Lab found that 40% of eviction hearings in Richmond last for less than 60 seconds, that 90% of tenants are still without counsel notwithstanding efforts to ramp up representation, and that tenant representation reduced landlord judgments by 30%.

Additionally, a 2022 report on the Housing Justice Project operated in Richmond in conjunction with Equal Justice Works found that for the cases receiving full scope representation, “Seven in ten (71%) of the 402 closed cases were won and another 10% had a mixed result outcome. Only 3% of the cases were noted as lost. Cases are considered by the Legal Fellows as being won if the outcome of the case was what could be reasonably expected given the circumstances of the case.”  Equal Justice Works put out its own summary report as well.