Fully fund and protect New Orleans’ right to counsel

Safe, healthy and affordable housing is a stabilizing force in any community. When cities invest in housing, they invest in public safety. To continue the progress the City of New Orleans has made in public safety investments, the Big Easy Budget Coalition and New Orleans Right to Counsel Coalition call on the City Council to fully fund the Right to Counsel program at $2.5 million in the 2027 city budget.

The Right to Counsel program, which provides representation for renters in eviction court who cannot afford an attorney, is critical to keep more families, working adults, children and elders from housing instability or even from becoming homeless. And presently, $0 have been allocated to the program by Mayor Helena Moreno’s administration.

The Right to Counsel Program became permanent on May 5^th of 2022 thanks to the leadership of then-City Councilmember Moreno and with unanimous support from the New Orleans City Council. In a budget crisis, the Right to Counsel is a win for everyone. Right to Counsel has a proven track record of effectively and responsibly using city dollars to produce favorable results for tenants and landlords alike in eviction court, and the program saves the city on the costly interventions required when a resident becomes unhoused. 

Prior to Right to Counsel, evictions in New Orleans were double the national average. Only 6% of tenants were represented by lawyers in eviction court. Now, six times as many tenants have representation, the power imbalance in court is corrected, less than 2% of tenants with counsel receive eviction judgements in court, and tenants and landlords walk away with payment plans for past-due rent in 40% of consent agreement cases. 

However, evictions continue to disproportionately affect Black New Orleanians (83%) and Black women in particular (56%), the majority of whom are caregivers. Evictions have major adverse physical and mental health impacts on individuals and families and also lead to job loss, destabilized education for children, and increased incarceration. There is also an annual spike in evictions each summer when the service industry is slow. Each year in the month of August, tenants in the Right to Counsel program have reported that purchasing back-to-school supplies for children meant they were unable to afford their monthly rent. 

Ensuring this critical program continues is an investment in homelessness prevention and the stabilization of families who are feeling the strain of rising rents, groceries, gasoline and other daily essentials without the relief or the promise of a pay raise in sight. Full funding means more tenants have representation. It means more eviction hearings will result in a payment plan between landlord and tenant. It means fewer tenants will face retaliatory evictions for reporting habitability concerns. And full funding means in a budget crisis when the city has to prove proper use of every penny of public dollars, they are making a wise investment in a program that delivers results for the people of New Orleans.

Ameca Reali is the Executive Director at the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center (LAFHAC) and Y. Frank Southall is the Organizing and Community Engagement Manager at the Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (JPNSI). LAFHAC and JPNSI are both member organizations of the Big Easy Budget Coalition.