Study examines tenant RTC implementation challenges and systemic impacts

A new study in Housing Court Debate, A Descriptive Analysis of Tenant Right to Counsel Law and Praxis 2017–2024, interviewed advocates and systems players in 24 tenant RTC jurisdictions to determine “where real-world implementation both meets and diverges from legislative requirements and identif[y] barriers that prevent full implementation of the right to counsel, as well as its systemic benefits.” Common obstacles included insufficient funding, difficulties hiring sufficient numbers of attorneys, outreach challenges, and backlash from landlords.  However, major systemic benefits were identified, such as:

• Local actors in nine of the jurisdictions where RTC was implemented … shared how programs increased coordination among service providers and resulted in the creation of a central intake (online, by telephone, or both) that replaced the tenant’s “nightmare treasure hunt for legal representation” with streamlined RTC administration and messaging. With the adoption of central intake, legal providers could quickly determine a tenant’s eligibility, inform the court, and provide counsel to the tenant. … Coordination among service providers also helped prevent confusion and duplication of efforts, and reduced stress among tenants.

• Local actors described how outreach and education efforts … took multiple forms, including pamphlets, flyers, mailers, posters, lawn signs, and swag; TikTok videos, radio advertisements, or text messages; and door knocking, among other methods. In addition, advocates frequently staffed tables at community events, festivals, libraries, and back-to-school events; hosted “know your rights” events; or made announcements in the courthouse.

• Opportunities for developments in the culture of the court emerged when the court was required by the RTC law to appoint counsel or administer some aspect of the program, or where the court voluntarily embraced or interpreted the law as a mandatory right. In these jurisdictions, local actors described RTC as “a total game changer” that resulted in “a complete shift in the landscape.”  … Across these jurisdictions, local actors described a major shift in the courtroom and the eviction system as a whole: instead of the pre-RTC status quo wherein judges rapidly processed cases and ordered default evictions when tenants did not appear, they now regularly informed tenants of the RTC and postponed hearings to allow time to obtain a lawyer. In these “culture shift” jurisdictions, the judge would consistently make an announcement that free lawyers are available and give the tenant time to connect with a lawyer … In jurisdictions where judges voluntarily facilitated RTC, prior to its adoption, if a tenant failed to appear, courts almost always ordered a default judgment of eviction. With the adoption of RTC, local actors described attorneys obtaining continuances regularly, especially when advocates conducted outreach to the court. 

• RTC reduced bias against tenants that they described as rampant in most jurisdictions.

• RTC also increased the courts’ awareness of the need to enforce tenants’ rights under local and state law. According to a local actor, it was eye-opening for courts to witness how many evictions, which would ordinarily result in a “rubber stamp,” were contested once RTC was adopted … According to a local actor, tenant attorneys identified and raised habitability issues in almost all eviction cases, which had been “completely ignored” before RTC.

• The advent of RTC also prompted courts to settle ambiguous areas of the law and develop landlord-tenant case law, typically in the tenants’ favor. According to a local actor, there was almost no appellate law in the area of eviction, but since the adoption of RTC, there were new decisions as frequently as every few weeks.

• RTC programs put tenants in a position to advocate and seek further systemic changes.  As a local actor explained, when a person internalizes that they have “right” to something, it “has some meaning in how they conduct their lives” and creates accountability to tenants.

• This effect of having a “right” can be seen in local pushes for greater legislative action, such as “just cause” laws and increased affordable housing, especially among organizers who were concerned prior to the adoption of RTC that tenants engaged in any reform movement would not have legal support.

The study’s release was covered by Law360.