After the onset of COVID-19, a variety of pandemic-era eviction moratoria helped keep millions of tenants housed. These moratoria have since expired, and eviction filings have reached or exceeded prepandemic levels in most cities across the United States. For the vast majority of tenants, the eviction process is disruptive, confusing, traumatic, and solitary. Nationally, it is estimated that approximately 4 percent of tenants have legal representation in eviction cases, compared to 83 percent of landlords. Without legal representation, tenants face very steep odds, often finding themselves on a fast track to eviction.

To address this power imbalance, a growing number of cities and states, beginning with New York City in 2017, have passed tenant “right to counsel” legislation. As recently released data on San Francisco’s Tenant Right to Counsel (TRC) shows, these programs can be enormously effective. San Francisco’s TRC, which guarantees tenants access to city-funded legal representation within thirty days of receiving an eviction notice, has helped more than 5,400 tenants — a staggering 92 percent of tenants who have used the program — avoid homelessness since it took effect in July 2019. While the program offers universal coverage, 83 percent of users in the fiscal year 2022–2023 qualified as extremely low-income, and an additional 12 percent were low-income.

Prior to the passage of TRC, San Francisco’s legal representation rate in eviction proceedings resembled national figures. Ora Prochovnick, director of litigation and policy at the Eviction Defense Collaborative, the lead service provider for TRC, explained to Jacobin: