This month, the tenant Right to Counsel in eviction court program, which offers all New Orleans renters facing eviction access to free legal representation regardless of their income or citizenship status, turns three. In April of 2022, the program saw its launch in City eviction court. This month, we’re honoring three years of Right to Counsel, or RTC, by sharing more about the program.
RTC Program History and Background
From late 2019 through early 2020, when courts closed due to COVID-19 and a nationwide eviction moratorium was issued, Jane Place staff and volunteers monitored just under 700 eviction court hearings. We primarily observed things like apparent races and genders of tenants and landlords, eviction hearing outcomes, and whether tenants facing eviction and/or the landlords filing evictions against them had access to legal representation.
What we found, documented in a report we released in June 2020 called “Unequal Burden, Unequal Risk: Households Headed by Black Women Experience Highest Rates of Eviction,” was that eviction was overwhelmingly a race and gender-based issue affecting individuals who didn’t owe significant amounts:
- 82.2% of tenants facing eviction were Black.
- 56.8% of tenants facing eviction were Black women.
- 81.3% of evictions filed were for one month’s rent.
What we also found was that fewer than 1 in 16 tenants facing eviction had access to legal representation, and those who did faced much better outcomes. Notably, 62.3% of all observed cases ended in an eviction ruling, but among tenants with legal representation, only 14.6% of cases ended in an eviction ruling.
Accordingly, our main recommendation from this report, other than the time-sensitive recommendation that the then-present eviction moratorium be extended (and that rental and mortgage payments correspondingly be paused throughout the pandemic), was that New Orleans enact the Right to Counsel for tenants facing eviction. We believed that equitable, easy, and free access to legal representation for tenants could greatly improve eviction court outcomes, thereby protecting renters from displacement.
Armed with data and accompanied by many supporters and collaborators, we participated in a coalition of organizations who successfully fought for RTC and then saw it implemented three years ago this month.
How RTC Works
It’s hard to dive into how RTC works without also diving into how eviction court works, and eviction court is certainly a chaotic, living organism that cannot easily be described or predicted. However, the basics are below.
In eviction court, which occurs in First City and Second City Courts—at both sites of the Orleans Parish Civil District Court, on the East and West banks, respectively—eviction hearings occur in batched dockets at 10 and 11 a.m. most days of the week. In these hearings, a judge will listen to both a tenant and a landlord regarding the landlord’s suit against their tenant. Upon filing said suits, usually two to three weeks prior to appearing in court, landlords pick one or more of three common reasons for wanting tenants removed from the property: unpaid rent, lease violation(s), and/or lease expiry.
After listening to the parties present (tenant, landlord, property managers, any attorneys for either side, witnesses, and/or other representatives of either party) the judge will issue a ruling on that case. Those rulings include:
- A “rule absolute,” or formal eviction judgment that remains on the tenant’s rental and credit history and requires them to leave the property.
- A consent judgment in which the tenant and landlord come to an agreement about moving forward, which can involve the tenant moving out by a specified date or the tenant or landlord agreeing to some stipulations under which the tenant can stay in their housing (usually via a payment plan, but also at times via things like removing unauthorized occupants or pets). If the terms of a consent judgment are met, the tenant’s rental and credit history will be unaffected, even if they agreed to vacate the property.
- A continuance, in which the hearing is postponed to a later date so that more information can be gathered and/or administrative procedures, like providing a court translator, can happen.
- A dismissal, in which the suit of eviction against the tenant is dropped, either because the landlord has decided to end it (usually because tenants have paid up on their past-due rent) or because the judge or a tenant attorney has raised issue with the legality of the landlord’s suit against the tenant, either on procedural or legal grounds. In dismissals, neither the tenant’s records nor residency are affected.
RTC offers tenants facing eviction free attorney representation, available in court on a same-day basis. While tenants can call Southeast Louisiana Legal Services’ (SLLS, the main legal aid provider in eviction court and the region) housing intake line in an advance of an eviction hearing, tenants can also simply show up to their eviction hearings, stop by a physical help desk that will greet them on their way into court, and sign up for representation even moments before their case is called. Tenants are additionally served by attorneys at the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center.
The representation offered via Right To Counsel has vastly improved eviction court outcomes for tenants. While fewer than 1 in 16 tenants facing eviction previously had attorneys, now every 1 in 2.5 tenants facing eviction has an attorney. Eviction rates have more than halved from 62.3% prior to RTC to less than 30%, and almost all of these eviction rulings occur when tenants themselves do not show up to court and thus no one can speak to their side of the case. Almost zero tenants who show up to court these days receive a formal eviction decision that goes on their record, largely because of RTC.
The Road Ahead
Significant battles remain. In July 2024, an emergency rental assistance program that had been keeping tenants housed since the COVID-19 pandemic ended abruptly. Evictions still happen inequitably along lines of race and gender, and eviction hearings for tenants who do not show up to court are usually decided in fewer than five seconds in the landlord’s favor. Our neighbors who do and don’t show up to court are still being displaced, even if they’re agreeing to move out to avoid having a formal eviction ruling on their record. We know the solution is more deeply and permanently affordable housing such that the eviction crisis itself can be stopped and fewer evictions are filed in the first place.
But this month, we celebrate how far we’ve come in battling evictions once they’ve been filed through the RTC program, knowing that our wins in RTC pave the way for bigger and better wins down the line. Happy Third Birthday to Right to Counsel!
This space is provided to Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative as a community service and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or editorial policies of ANTIGRAVITY.
