An eviction crisis looms in Fresno. Right-to-counsel laws give renters a better chance

The timeless trope of the Miranda warning is familiar to most anyone who’s watched a post-Perry Mason police questioning: The Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to an attorney — including court-appointed advocates for those who can’t afford a lawyer.

Far fewer are aware that such broad federal protections don’t extend to civil cases, including for tenants facing eviction. Research shows that while 90% of property owners typically have the resources to hire their own lawyer, the vast majority of tenants in these cases don’t have a legal advocate by their side. In Fresno, 73% of landlords have lawyers vs. 1% of tenants.

With tens of millions of renters at risk of homelessness, the federal Centers for Disease Control recently extended its eviction moratorium, recognizing the public health risks of turning people out of their homes during a global pandemic.

Despite its stated goal, the moratorium hasn’t stopped evictions; its many exemptions and loopholes — including no requirement that landlords actually inform tenants about the emergency rule — tilt in favor of property owners.

Outside of Washington, D.C., a growing number of cities and states — including Fresno — are turning to a more systematic approach to the nationwide eviction crisis: right-to-counsel laws in landlord-tenant disputes, recognizing a fair process requires lawyers for both sides.

Locally, as city officials consider both a right to counsel program offered by the Fresno Right to Counsel Coalition and a narrower rental mediation program proposed by Council President Luis Chavez, it’s instructive to note that right to counsel programs elsewhere have proven to increase legal representation, reduce evictions and homelessness, and ultimately save the city money.

In 2017, New York City enacted the nation’s first right-to-counsel law for those facing eviction in court. As a result, not only do many more defendants have lawyers, but landlords are filing fewer evictions. As for outcomes? Almost 90 percent of households with lawyers have been able to stay in their homes.

In San Francisco, where voters approved a 2018 ballot measure ensuring right to counsel for those facing eviction, such filings are also down. And in Cleveland, which adopted its program in 2020, data for its first six months shows that 93 percent of tenants with counsel were able to avoid eviction.

Those cities are joined by Baltimore, Boulder, Newark, Philadelphia and Seattle, where elected leaders have approved yet another right-to-counsel ordinance. Similar ordinances are being debated in Tulsa, while in Denver, organizers and city leaders alike are pushing to bring voters a right-to-counsel ballot measure in the fall. Pilot projects are in place in Houston and under consideration in Milwaukee.

At the state level, tenant right-to-counsel bills have been filed in eight states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Carolina , Washington and New York, where it would cover those ages 62 and over.

Public support for such legal protection is high. A February survey of likely voters nationwide found that across party lines, more than two-thirds support a right to counsel in eviction proceedings “similar to the right that exists for criminal cases.” Similarly high margins of support were expressed for increased funding of legal services by Congress to prevent evictions.

The country’s eviction crisis ravaged low-income and marginalized communities long before COVID-19’s arrival. And as the CDC notes, evictions result in increased homelessness and force families to stay in shelters, in cars, or with friends or family as they double up and surf from couch to couch.

It’s against this backdrop that Congress tasked the nonprofit Legal Services Corporation, the nation’s largest funder of civil legal aid, to examine how varying state and local laws affect eviction outcomes.

Once that research is completed later this year, LSC will use it to create data-driven interventions addressing root causes of housing instability in the hardest-hit communities.

But more immediately, the nation must not withhold lifesaving supports, including expanding the civil right to counsel when eviction is at stake.