S.F. legal aid with evictions ordinance advancing
Five years ago, San Francisco lawmakers promised to guarantee that anyone who needed an attorney to help with an eviction could get one, free of charge. San Francisco was the first city in the nation to declare that the right to an attorney extends to civil cases, not just criminal ones.
On Tuesday, an ordinance by Supervisor Jeff Sheehy that would codify San Francisco’s status as a so-called right-to-civil-counsel city for eviction cases will be introduced. Board President London Breed is co-sponsor.
Federal law guarantees that anyone charged with a criminal offense can get a courtappointed lawyer if they can’t afford one. But that right isn’t normally extended to civil cases, like evictions or child custody disputes, which can carry major, life-changing consequences for the people involved.
“This makes sure that no one facing eviction faces it alone,” Sheehy said.
The ordinance builds upon a measure spearheaded by now-Assemblyman David Chiu while he served as president of the city’s Board of Supervisors in 2012. Chiu introduced and passed legislation that declared San Francisco a right-to-civilcounsel city and set aside $100,000 to fund a pilot program in which nonprofit organizations helped coordinate legal services for people facing eviction.
“So many tenants and defendants are often not aware of what their rights are, and they don’t think they can afford an attorney, and things go awry,” Chiu said.
San Francisco’s scarcity of affordable housing raises the stakes for anyone looking at the prospect of losing their home, especially without a lawyer to help navigate the process.
“I think during the worst housing crisis in our city and state’s history, we have to make sure that tenants facing eviction have adequate representation,” Chiu said. “The crisis hasn’t abated and the need is tremendous.”
Since the initial pilot program, the city has continued to fund a patchwork of nonprofit organizations that help tenants connect with qualified attorneys, most of whom perform the work at no cost. The program grew to include guaranteed legal representation for immigrants facing deportation in 2014.
Though the details about how the city will go about ensuring access to legal representation during eviction proceedings will be determined during the legislative process, Breed said the city’s approach to doing so thus far has been successful.
“The process is already happening. With this legislation, we’re just making sure that, regardless of the change in the political climate or the change in the financial situation of the city, that this is something that’s non-negotiable,” Breed said. “When you’re talking about someone’s home, you’re talking about someone’s life and livelihood.”
Sheehy said that the rough cost estimates to fund the program stood at about $3.5 million annually. But, he said, a 2014 review of the city’s pilot program found that San Francisco could save up to $1.1 million each year in homeless services by helping to keep people housed.
“It’s a bargain compared to the costs we’ll incur if these people become homeless,” he said. “We can pay now or we can pay later.”
The proposed ordinance has strikingly similar goals to a ballot initiative introduced Nov. 1 by the San Francisco Right to Counsel Committee, a citizen advocacy organization. The group is collecting signatures ahead of the Feb. 5, 2018, deadline to appear on the June ballot, but Sheehy and Breed’s ordinance likely would be passed before then.
“We need to see the details to know if this is real, or simply more promises without actual follow-through,” said Jon Golinger, the group’s campaign manager. He said the group would review the language of the ordinance before making a decision about how to proceed.
“Thousands of people have been evicted over the last five years because the board failed to follow through on their promises,” Golinger said. “But if they take an identical action, that’s a winwin,” he said.
“The (housing) crisis hasn’t abated and the need is tremendous.” Assemblyman David Chiu