Eviction Knocking At The Door? You Deserve A Lawyer, NJ Congress Members Say

NEWARK, NJ — Low-income tenants who face eviction from their home deserve a lawyer – and a proposed federal grant program could help them get one, a pair of Congress members from New Jersey say.

Last week, Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. LaMonica McIver joined with Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania to reintroduce the “Eviction Right to Counsel Act.”

Here’s what the legislation would do if it crosses the finish line, according to its sponsors:

“The Eviction Right to Counsel Act would establish a federal grant program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support state, local and Tribal governments that pass legislation guaranteeing a right to counsel in eviction proceedings. The bill prioritizes funding for jurisdictions that also implement additional tenant protections like just cause eviction laws, longer notice periods, emergency rental assistance and eviction diversion programs.”

Tenants with income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line would be eligible.

Booker, the former mayor of Newark, and McIver, a former city council president, said the bill would help level the playing field between tenants and landlords.

According to Booker, millions of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck while facing rapidly increasing rent prices.

Booker said the proposed grant program comes amid skyrocketing rents and surging eviction filings:

“Nearly half of all renters in America are considered cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Since the pandemic, rents have risen over 12 percent year-over-year, while the protections that temporarily shielded tenants from eviction have largely expired. The imbalance of legal power in eviction proceedings leaves many tenants—particularly Black renters and families with children – vulnerable to homelessness, economic instability and trauma.”

“Renters facing eviction are often left defenseless without an attorney to represent them,” Booker said. “By creating a grant program to support communities that offer a right to counsel for those facing eviction, we will make our housing system more equitable and provide substantial cost savings to both local governments and overburdened housing services across the country.”

“No one should lose their home because they can’t afford to hire a lawyer to take on their case,” McIver agreed.

“The Eviction Right to Counsel Act gives people a fair shot – a chance to fight their cases in court and keep families from falling into the spiral of poverty,” the congresswoman added. “Housing is a human right, and this bill takes a critical step toward making sure that right is a reality that people feel.”

The bill has been endorsed by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, the National Housing Law Project, and the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.

EVICTIONS IN NEW JERSEY

A coalition of housing advocates recently released a report that took a look at evictions in the Garden State.

According to researchers, data suggests that eviction judgments or defaults are entered against as many as 29,000 tenant families each year in cases where the court lacks jurisdiction. Many evictions in New Jersey are being done with “legal deficiencies” that should be red flagged – but very few tenants have a lawyer to sniff them out, the study claimed.

• See Related: Thousands Of NJ Tenants Face ‘Unjustified Evictions’ Every Year, Study Says

Being evicted from a rental home or apartment was among the top reasons cited during an annual homelessness count in New Jersey last year.

• See Related: Homelessness Is On The Rise In New Jersey, Report Says (Here’s Why)

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