City could save $45M with tenant legal help

On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Bar Association released the year-long study, “Economic Return on Investment for Providing Counsel in Philadelphia Eviction Cases for Low-Income Tenants,” which was completed by Chicago-based Stout Risius Ross LLC.

News Story (Pennsylvania)

Michael D’Onofrio
Philadelphia Tribune
November 13, 2018
READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Tags: Funding: State & Local, Housing: Eviction

Organizations mentioned/involved: Philadelphia Bar Association, Community Legal Services (CLS) of Philadelphia


DETAILS

The study analyzed more than 101,000 cases from Philadelphia Municipal Court between 2007 and 2016 to determine how many tenants were forcibly displaced or whether their lives were disrupted by an eviction when they were represented by legal counsel compared to when they were not represented.

The study found that tenants with legal counsel fared far better than those without and there were significant representation disparities between landlords and tenants.