All about New Orleans’ Tenant Right to Counsel

UPDATE Dec 2023: 1st year report shows success of program

Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative’s 2023 RTC report found that for the 6,322 cases observed:

• Tenant representation rates rose from 6% pre-RTC to 39%.
• The average number of represented cases with “positive outcomes” was 53.9%.  A positive outcome was defined as a) dismissal; or b) a consent judgment that results in no eviction record and may result in the tenant remaining in the unit.  If cases that were continued (22% of all cases) are removed from the case totals, the rate of positive outcomes rises to 69%.  With respect to consent judgments, court monitor data indicated that roughly 30% of the consent judgments involved a tenant remaining in the unit.
• Roughly 30% of those who had to move had at least 2 weeks to do so.  And only 1.66% of represented tenants faced a “rule absolute eviction”, i.e. a 24-hour vacate deadline.

Background

In May 2022, the New Orleans City Council unanimously approved an ordinance (which was slightly amended) that provides counsel as a matter of right to all tenants (regardless of income) facing eviction or termination of a housing subsidy, as well as for any proceedings seeking injunctive relief related to an illegal eviction and some appeals.  The Council had previously allocated $2 million in initial funding.  According to a 2022 press release from the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, New Orleans at the time was already seeing a rate of evictions that exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

NOLA dot com covered the passage.  Also, check out a CityHealth video about the impact of NOLA’s RTC program.