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HousingHuman capitalPositive

Right to Counsel — NYC Eviction Court Legal Representation

NYC Office of Civil Justice / Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy · New York City, USA · 2017

Summary

The NYC right to counsel experiment revealed something that should not have been surprising: when 98% of landlords have attorneys and fewer than 1% of tenants do, the asymmetry determines outcomes far more than the merits of the case. When that asymmetry was corrected — by providing every qualifying tenant with a free lawyer — 84% of represented tenants avoided eviction, compared to roughly 50% in the unrepresented era. The program did not create rights that didn't exist; tenants already had legal defenses available to them. It simply provided the professional knowledge required to exercise those rights. The cost-benefit evidence made the program politically viable: preventing eviction is dramatically cheaper than sheltering the homeless people those evictions produce. The NYC experiment thus illustrates both a rights argument (access to courts is hollow without access to legal counsel) and a fiscal argument (prevention is cheaper than remediation) — a combination that explains its rapid spread.

Research question

"Does providing free legal representation to tenants facing eviction — in a court system where 98% of landlords have attorneys and fewer than 1% of tenants do — dramatically reduce eviction rates and housing instability?"

Methodology

Intervention

New York City enacted Local Law 136 in 2017, creating a right to free legal counsel for tenants facing eviction in Housing Court, phased in by zip code. Tenants in covered zip codes became entitled to full representation by a legal aid attorney. The phase-in by zip code creates a natural experiment: zip codes receiving the program at different times can be compared during the rollout period.

Assignment

Quasi-experimental with zip-code-level rollout design; Furman Center evaluations compare eviction outcomes in newly covered zip codes vs. not-yet-covered zip codes in the same time period; NYC Office of Civil Justice annual reports track program outcomes

Sample size

~50,000 tenant cases annually in NYC Housing Court; approximately 27,000 tenants represented in first year of full program operation

Primary outcome

Eviction rates (cases ending in eviction warrants); tenant representation rates; cases resolved without eviction (through negotiated agreements, case dismissal); housing stability

Effect estimate

Eviction warrants: fell 40% citywide from 2017 to 2019 as program expanded. Represented tenant outcomes: 84% of represented tenants avoided eviction (compared to historical ~50% eviction rate for unrepresented tenants). Representation rates: rose from under 1% to 38% of tenants citywide by 2019. Cost-benefit: city estimated savings of $320M in shelter costs vs. program cost of $166M, a ratio of nearly 2:1.

Decision

NYC's right-to-counsel law became a model for national legislation; as of 2024, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington have enacted statewide right-to-counsel for eviction; 20+ cities and counties have adopted local versions; bipartisan support based on cost-effectiveness evidence (avoiding homelessness is cheaper than sheltering people who become homeless); National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel tracks legislation; COVID-era eviction moratoriums raised the salience of the underlying access-to-justice problem

Result

Positive

Eviction warrants: fell 40% citywide from 2017 to 2019 as program expanded. Represented tenant outcomes: 84% of represented tenants avoided eviction (compared to historical ~50% eviction rate for unrepresented tenants). Representation rates: rose from under 1% to 38% of tenants citywide by 2019. Cost-benefit: city estimated savings of $320M in shelter costs vs. program cost of $166M, a ratio of nearly 2:1.

Evidence strength

Moderate

Quasi-experimental design; causal interpretation requires care.

Replication status

Partially replicated

Institution

NYC Office of Civil Justice / Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

Location

New York City, USA

Year

2017

Policy area

Housing

Mechanism

Human capital

Featured in evidence syntheses

Other trials of this mechanism

Cite this entry

NYC Office of Civil Justice / Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. (2017). Right to Counsel — NYC Eviction Court Legal Representation. The Experiment Society Registry. Retrieved from https://www.experimentsociety.org/registry/right-to-counsel-nyc-housing-court (primary report: https://furmancenter.org/research/publication/new-yorks-right-to-counsel-in-eviction-proceedings-an-assessment-of-local-l)

Citation network

Cited by 4 other entries in the registry

Cross-references

Adjacent experiments — same domain, parallel pilots, or alternative mechanisms.

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