Nationwide,

tenants are being evicted, harassed, and slummed out of their homes. Housing is a human right and no one should have to fight for their homes without equal representation. It’s time Jersey City, the now most expensive city for renters in the United States, level the playing field and reign in landlord power. Let’s join 15 cities, 4 states and 1 county and pass right to counsel, a guarantee to legal representation in all cases of evictions, for ALL tenants.

A right to counsel for tenants

While Americans have a right to counsel for criminal proceedings, if you’re losing your home, kids, or healthcare you have no such right. In 2017 before NYC was the first city to pass a right to counsel, on average, 95% of landlords were represented in court while less than 1% of tenants were. When represented, however, tenants overwhelmingly end up staying in their homes, get more time and money to move, and even avoid having an eviction on their record. Now 3 states and 15 cities (NYC, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Cleveland and Newark to name a few) have a right to counsel for evictions. Unlike Newark’s ‘right’ to counsel that only covers single person households making under $27,000, we believe a “right” means no means-testing. No evictions without representation. The right should also be a right to affirm tenants rights like habitability, counterclaims and appeals.

Justice for all

The housing crisis is a racial justice crisis. The neighborhoods targeted by developers see the highest rate of evictions, and to no surprise they are usually Black, Hispanic/Latino, and other non-White working class communities. Evictions and illegal rent increases thrust families into hardship with employment, access to education, loss of benefits, and even securing future housing with an eviction record. In NYC, the baseline shelter application rate of non-evicted households is 3.4%. Before we build more shelter beds we need to keep folks in their homes. In Jersey City, the most expensive city for renters, our Right To Counsel ordinance should be funded by developers. Those responsible for this crisis should be the ones that pay, not taxpayers.

A plan to win

Rather than wait for our leaders to figure it out and risk a watered down program, we crafted policy (soon to release) to drastically shift the power imbalance between landlords and tenants. We’re not asking for a small check to a non-profit legal service provider. We know we need a publicly accountable program in City Hall for this to work. We’re making our politicians choose, either us, or the biggest landlords and developers in the city.

We need a bottom-up, grassroots movement to actually win this. Take action yourself or ask your organization to join the coalition to organize and win. Collect petitions, knock doors, and organize tenants to win this ordinance in the City Council. Let’s fight for the Right to Counsel in Jersey City!

About DSA

The Democratic Socialists of America is a nearly 100,000 member strong organization fighting for a political system and economy which works for all, not the few. We launched this campaign to be led by tenants, activists and organizations to take power back from the landlords, bosses, and politicians. Join us today and let’s fight for a better world!

North New Jersey DSA

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