What a “right to counsel” is or should be, has not always been the same to advocates in different places. There are points of consensus, such as the focus on full representation and the avoidance of any merits testing, but also points of contention, such as whether a law is indeed a right to counsel if it lacks enforceability.
In this session, we will put forward what a tenant right to counsel is and work with our audience to explore the baseline of what must be in place for a law to be a right to counsel. We’ll examine what a tenant right to counsel “North Star” might look like and looks like and discuss strategies around:
- Enforceability (such as grading jurisdictions on their implementation);
- Building strong and sustainable tenant RTC laws using the NCCRC's model ordinance;
- Pushing tenant RTC laws to be expansive and transformative;
- Advancing tenant RTC despite perceived or anticipated challenges like a lack of government or policymaker support, lack of funding, building up capacity, etc.
