Should Local Tenants Get The Right To Free Legal Help To Fight Evictions?

JERSEY CITY, NJ — Just because laws exist to protect tenants from unfair evictions, doesn't mean tenants can easily fight a landlord who breaks the law.

And it's awfully hard to function if you know the home where you work and live could be taken away.

In Jersey City, one group wants to give tenants an attorney to fight evictions, so the deck isn't stacked in favor of landowners.

Tenants and organizers plan to gather Thursday in Jersey City for a "Tenants' Town Hall" at Jersey City Theater Center.

New York adopted a "Right to Counsel" law in 2017, providing tenants who are under 200 percent of the poverty line with representation in court.

In July, Hudson County tenants began organizing for a right-to-counsel ordinance in Jersey City, where rents are among the highest in the nation, and where landlords don't always follow rent control laws.

A representative for the Jersey City group said this week, "Right now, if a tenant in Jersey City is being evicted, they are not automatically entitled the right to representation in court. This leaves everyday working people vulnerable to losing their homes because they are unable to challenge their landlords’ decisions."

There are non-profit groups like the Waterfront Project and housing advocacy groups like Morris Canal Community Development Corporation to help tenants with housing issues, but they can't help everyone, the group says.

"They face issues that are endemic to many non-profits and similar organizations: lack of funding, understaffing, and not enough support from the city," an organizer said. "Our proposed ordinance includes the city establishing an Office of Right to Counsel to ensure that there is institutional and financial support for this policy and its enforcement."

The town hall on Thursday will include speakers on housing justice topics, feedback from the audience, and a presentation on the Right to Counsel campaign.

Nearby towns face similar issues, organizers said.

"Hoboken and other cities that have seen rapid growth are seeing similar problems with overdevelopment, increased rents, and evictions," said an organizer. "Hoboken does not have a full scale Right to Counsel program, but rather a single tenant advocate."

Recent Events

Recent events have showed that tenants in Hudson County towns have had to fight sudden rent spikes in court over months and years.

Tenants in one rent controlled building on the Jersey City waterfront said they faced rent increases of more than 30 percent this year.

In Hoboken, a longtime tenant has been fighting an increase of more than $2,000 per month, according to his attorneys. A pro bono attorney has been helping him, but not everyone can find a lawyer willing to go to court for free.

The Jersey City group said this week, "Before New York City implemented their own Right-to-Counsel policy, 95 percent of landlords had representation during these cases when less than 1 percent of tenants did. Similarly, legal providers in Jersey City report that the vast majority of tenants are not represented in eviction proceedings."

The group noted that it's also hard for tenants to get help quickly when landlords commit safety violations, or when they harass tenants.

"Gentrification and displacement by large real estate developers, subsidized by our city, are hiking up rents, breaking up our neighborhoods, and displacing long-term residents," the group said.

They noted that people do have the right to an attorney to defend themselves in criminal proceedings, so why not in cases where they could lose their home?

In New Jersey, landlords can only evict tenants for specific reasons.

The town hall will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday at 165 Newark Ave. Find out more at RighttocounselJC.