N.O. City Council establishes right to counsel ordinance for residents facing eviction
16th May 2022 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Supporters of fairness and justice in housing in New Orleans lauded the City Council’s May 5 adoption of an ordinance that people facing eviction from their homes have a right to an attorney in eviction court.
In passing the measure, the City Council put in place an administrative framework that makes permanent the City’s commitment to ensure that residents being evicted from their homes are adequately and fairly represented by legal counsel when their case is taken up in Orleans Parish eviction court.
“Navigating the legal system with a lawyer is difficult,” said District A City Councilman Joseph I. Giarrusso III. “Navigating the legal system without any representation is nearly impossible. This Council unanimously expanded this program after the initial success from last year, and I’m proud to have supported both the original legislation and this expansion. Legal representation is important when such an important right as housing is at stake.”
The new ordinance establishes in permanence the City’s efforts toward institution right to counsel in eviction court that began last year when the Council appropriated $2 million to strengthen the city’s eviction defense work.
The City Council’s unanimous passage of the right to counsel ordinance comes at a time when the number of evictions being undertaken in New Orleans continues to rise. Maxwell Ciardullo, director of policy and communications for the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, said the new measure ensures that residents who had benefited from the $2 million appropriation in 2021 don’t suddenly have that support ripped away.
“It lets families know that the city won’t pull the rug out from under them after only one year,” he said.
Ciardullo said that while evictions became a crisis after the onset of the economic recession triggered in 2020 by the COVID pandemic, evictions have now become so prevalent that the number of evictions currently exceeds the pre-pandemic amount.
“We believe everyone deserves the right to an attorney when facing eviction, and we’re proud to see the city do the right thing,” he said.
Ciardullo added that the eviction crisis is especially acute for people of color in New Orleans, who have traditionally been victims of redlining and other racially exclusionary practices designed to confine people of color to poorer, more troubled neighborhoods. He noted that such practices continue to be revealed by statistical analysis, both locally and nationally, of such factors as racial makeup and socioeconomic levels of neighborhoods.
According to a recent study of data from local eviction by the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative, prior to the establishment of a right counsel, only six percent of New Orleans households facing eviction were able to find an attorney to support them in court. On top of that, the amount of households in such a precarious position was disproportionately headed by Black women. However, those who have managed to secure legal counsel in eviction court were roughly four and a half times more likely to avoid eviction. The Jane Place study also stressed that neighborhoods of color also have higher rates of COVID infection and mortality in Orleans Parish, a fact that provides a bleak outlook for people of color, especially Black women.
“Court monitoring reveals who is most at risk of court-ordered eviction before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic – households headed by Black women,” states the report. “While the economic crisis certainly means that renters who were previously not at risk of eviction are now struggling to pay rent, the underlying systemic inequalities in New Orleans ensures that a disproportionate number of Black households will face eviction …. This is especially troubling considering the high rates of COVID-19 infection and mortality amongst Black residents in Orleans Parish.”
In terms of specifics, the new city right to counsel ordinance sets the basic rules and eligibility requirements for the program, as well as establishes reporting requirements to track the effectiveness of the program and installs the program in perpetuity, which should aid in the hiring of staff attorneys.
In addition to the LFHAC, other local housing advocacy leaders praised the City Council’s passing to the new ordinance.
“The current state of housing for renters in New Orleans is grim,” said Andreanecia Morris, president and chairwoman of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance. “As rents skyrocket, we need to create a system that guarantees housing for all.
“While we have to address costs to landlords like insurance and help renters secure living wages, we also have to ensure fair and equitable treatment inside the eviction courts. This funding is the first step to creating a system that helps support the people of New Orleans.”
This article originally published in the May 16, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
