When tenants are trying to avoid eviction, their success can depend mostly on one thing — whether they have a lawyer.
It’s a narrative that plays out for many across the state and the country: Nationwide, fewer than 5% of tenants in eviction cases are represented by an attorney, compared to more than 80% of landlords.
Felicia Mello of CalMatters’ California Divide team explores that reality through the stories of Corey Lafayette and Nancy Wiles — and the very different situations facing tenants in two Bay Area counties.
In San Francisco’s Japantown, Lafayette had lived in his studio apartment for three years after previously living on the streets. Unemployed and relying on disability checks, he had fallen behind on rent during the pandemic, and was one day served an eviction notice. Fortunately for Lafayette, San Francisco is the only city in California that guarantees tenants access to an attorney in eviction proceedings. The city’s taxpayer-supported legal assistance program for tenants matched him with an attorney who stood by his side as they and a social worker sought to find a settlement that would let Lafayette stay in his apartment.
Wiles, on the other hand, was not as fortunate during the initial proceedings of her eviction from an Oakley apartment in Contra Costa County. She had lived in her unit since 2014, but started missing rent payments due to less work during the pandemic. The apartment itself was also rife with repair issues, and as she was packing to move to a new apartment in September, she was served with eviction papers. But because she was moving out anyway, Wiles did not respond to the notice within the legally required five-day timeframe — it was a move that would cost her later.
Without an attorney, Wiles struggled to navigate the complex eviction process outright. And studies show that legal representation not only increases favorable outcomes for tenants, it also increases the likelihood that an eviction case will be dismissed. Since the end of local and statewide eviction moratoriums, eviction rates in California have soared — with some locales reaching above pre-pandemic levels.
And while many evictions are due to unpaid rent, that’s not always the case. Some “no fault” evictions occur because landlords want to move into their tenants’ units, such as the case of one family who was forced out of their East Los Angeles home and into a smaller, more expensive apartment.
Some California jurisdictions are looking into launching their own right-to-counsel programs, including Los Angeles city and county, which took the first steps last year toward establishing such programs. But not all are successful. Community groups in Fresno and Bakersfield, for example, have attempted to establish a right to counsel, but have failed. These campaigns are sometimes opposed by landlord groups, including the California Apartment Association, whose executive vice president argues that funds “would be better used to provide rental assistance to prevent the eviction process from ever starting.”
To find out how Lafayette and Wiles’ eviction cases were ultimately resolved, read Felicia’s story.
