Tenant RTC campaign continues in Phoenix

In Maricopa County, where KJZZ reports that fewer than 1% of tenants have access to counsel as contrasted with 94% of landlords, organizers and advocates are in a campaign to enact a tenant right to counsel in Phoenix.  City Councilmember Kesha Hodge Washington observed that as tenants have a right to counsel, eviction rates decrease and communities are more stable.  She urged the City to take action on RTC: “It is time to make RTC permanent in Phoenix. “We have it on a temporary basis through the use of ARPA funds. But imagine a Phoenix where families feel secure in their home knowing they have a fighting chance if faced with evictions. We can see a significant reduction in homelessness, a continued reduction in homelessness as we address one of the root causes. Tenants can assert their rights without fear,”

The Arizona Republic highlighted that the current Tenant Eviction Assistance Project (TEAP), was created during the pandemic and funded with federal funding, but that funding will expire in December 2025.  While the city applied to HUD’s Eviction Protection Grant Program to provide additional funding for the program, it did not receive one of those grants.  The program is vitally needed: according to Scott Davis, the Maricopa County Justice Courts spokesperson, “Landlords filed petitions for more than 83,000 evictions in Maricopa County in 2023. Last month’s filings were the second highest monthly level in history. The filing are more than 20% higher overall than what we saw in the year before the pandemic.”

In May 2025, Stout released a report that found for every $1 spent on tenant RTC, the City of Phoenix could expect to realize $2.58 in savings due to avoided costs related to:

• Housing social safety net program;
• Medicaid-funded health care
• Increased employment stability
• Increased educational attainment for children
• Retained federal and state funding for City of Phoenix School Districts
• Retained economic value through decreased out-migration
• Decreased frequency of criminalizing people experiencing homelessness
• Decrease in crimes associated with housing instability
• Decrease in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness who are hospitalized for heat exposure.

The report’s release was covered by the Arizona Republic.  Despite the dramatic numbers, the City declined to appropriate funds to replace the federal dollars scheduled to run out in June 26, saying the report needs more time to be studied.