L.A. County wants to give evicted tenants free lawyers. Landlords say it won’t help

When attorneys appear in L.A. County courtrooms ready to fight over an eviction proceeding, they typically stand next to the landlord.

That could change if county supervisors approve a “right to counsel” ordinance, which would pair lawyers with struggling renters in unincorporated L.A. County, home to one million residents. On Tuesday, the supervisors voted to advance the plan, which they will need to approve once more before it becomes law.

They praised the plan as a way to shift the power dynamic between landlords well-versed in housing law and tenants who are not.

Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who introduced the proposal last year alongside Supervisor Hilda Solis, said she believes legal aid is out of reach for too many tenants.

A 2019 analysis found that landlords had lawyers in 88% of L.A. County eviction cases, compared with 3% of tenants. The report was prepared by the Los Angeles Right to Counsel Coalition, which advocates for policies similar to the one before the supervisors.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who has criticized recent county policies as overly favorable to renters, called the proposal “balanced.”

Tenant advocates say the status quo gives landlords a far better shot in the courtroom, dooming tenants to losing their homes. More than a dozen jurisdictions, including New York City, San Francisco and Philadelphia, have passed versions of right to counsel laws in recent years.

L.A. County is poised to join them. If the ordinance clears another vote, it will take effect at the start of 2025 and apply to renters earning less than 80% of the area median income. That’s about $110,000 for a family of four.

But landlord groups contend that inevitable evictions will only be delayed, since the vast majority of cases churning through the courthouses do not stem from a landlord misinterpreting the law. Most of the time, the tenant is there because they have fallen far behind on rent.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t do any good,” said Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles. “It just runs up the cost of housing because landlords have to pay for these extended legal proceedings.”

The program would cost about $21 million in its first year, according to a county report. County officials plan to contract with nonprofit legal aid groups to provide the lawyers.

Many of the tenants who advocated for the policy Tuesday told the supervisors that they were at risk of losing their homes because of unpaid rent. One said her rent had just jumped from $800 to $3,000 after the property was purchased by an investor. A South L.A. woman choking back tears said she had been living in her car for 18 months with her family and dog because she had no money. A 51-year-old said she was a month late on rent and couldn’t find steady work to pay it back because she was undocumented.

All three women spoke in Spanish through an interpreter. Studies show that Latino and Black renters in L.A. County are the ones most likely to face eviction.

Some landlord advocacy groups contend that the dollars used to hire lawyers could go further if put toward tenants’ overdue rent.

“Providing a taxpayer-funded attorney to a tenant who did not pay their rent does not stop the eviction,” said Joshua Howard with the California Apartment Assn. “Those funds would be better used to provide rental assistance to prevent the eviction process from ever starting.”

Rafael Carbajal, head of the county Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, told the supervisors that his agency has doled out about $46 million to landlords through its rent relief program.

Even in cases where the tenant is facing eviction because of unpaid rent, supporters of the proposal say a persuasive attorney can negotiate down the amount and help tenants stay in their homes longer. Or, best-case scenario, they can stop the eviction altogether.

“I have seen what happens when a tenant does not understand the eviction process,” said Angela Birdsong, a housing organizer who said she knew a young man who avoided eviction from his Skid Row home after finding a lawyer.

The county currently offers legal services for at-risk tenants through its Stay Housed L.A. program. The ordinance would make these services permanent — as long as there’s funding.

The pot of money that would permanently pay for these services was left an open question at Tuesday’s meeting.

County officials say that for the first year, the program would be funded with federal pandemic-relief dollars. After that, Mitchell said she hoped the money would come from a half-cent homeless sales tax that will be on the November ballot.