Reading PA tenant rep program winds down despite major success
In 2020, the City of Reading PA launched a day-of-court tenant representation program as a collaboration between volunteer lawyers, the city’s Human Relations Commission, and Magisterial District Judge Tonya Butler. A report on the program found that using roughly $482k in grant funding from the United Way, the program:
- Increased the tenants’ success rate in court from 10% to 31%;
- Increased the percentage of cases withdrawn by the landlord from 7% to 30% (note that some of these withdrawals were likely due to increased pandemic rental assistance available at the time);
- Reduced the number of cases ending in a judgment of possession from 43% to 17%.
However, as WFMZ reports, after another $150k was received from the Wyomissing Foundation in mid-2023, funding for the program waned after 2023 and the tenant success rate dropped down to 19%. While Berks County (where Reading is located) has received funding for eviction prevention, none of it was targeted for legal representation. Human Relations Commission Executive Director Kimberly Talbot goes to court to serve as a case manager, but she notes that “There is a limit to the advice she can provide because she is not a lawyer.”
The experience in Reading demonstrates the importance of enshrining successful programs into law as a right: to date none of the 27 jurisdictions that have enacted a tenant right to counsel have seen their funding eliminated.
