KMOV4:City of St. Louis launches right to counsel program for renters facing eviction

David Amelotti, KMOV4

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - Advocates celebrate after City of St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones signed Board Bill 59 into law Monday. The new law enables access to legal representation for tenants facing eviction. The bill creates a Right to Counsel program.

“I was born and raised here,” City tenant Keith Reece shared. “This is my home.”

Reece, a St. Louis native and said he goes to school and works full-time. He spoke candidly inside the mayor’s office about his experience with some landlords neglecting their renters. He described living in slums, with mold in the walls and under the carpet, ultimately destroying his belongings.

“Despite all of that, I had no legal recourse. No way I could afford a lawyer to fight what had happened to me,” Reece explained. “If I stopped paying rent until my landlord fixed the problem, he would have taken me to court and evicted me.”

Board Bill 59, now signed into law, is funded by $685,000 of ARPA dollars. The city administration calls this St. Louis’ first step to better combat bad landlords.

The City reports 60% of its population rent.

Fatima Karmara works with Action St. Louis and supports the local “We the Tenants” effort to get this legislation passed. She said people opposing these resources need to understand renters are not lazy people.

“We know people that people can work 40, 50, 60 hours a week and not afford rent, their car bill. You can work extremely hard and still have a landlord who can kick you out because they have someone else you can charge more. They will kick you out because you are making noise about mold and bed bugs.”

Mayor Tishaura Jones said signing the bill into law directly cuts down housing instability driving area crime.

“When we protect tenants, we ensure families have a safe place to stay,” Mayor Jones explained. “We are addressing a major root cause of crime in our neighborhoods and across the city.”

For those problem landlords, the City wants to require a local contact for all properties. Board of Aldermen President Megan Green said this would develop later this fall.

Most recently, a lot of City real estate has been purchased by out-of-town buyers and investors.

Green said focusing on a few areas of the City at first keeps others from abusing the program’s resources.

“We are trying to target it towards need so we can better understand the greater capacity that’s needed for the future,” Green said.

The zip codes currently with the highest rates of eviction are 63103, 63101, 63111, 63118, 63112, and the City will reassess when the program starts for the most up-to-date data. These five include parts of the Downtown core, Midtown, Tower Grove South, Dutchtown, Soulard and Carondelet.

“Today, St. Louis becomes the 22nd jurisdiction in the country to put a right to counsel for eviction cases in place, and it could not come at a more opportune time,” said President Megan Green. “Between the ongoing affordable housing crisis and the end of covid-era moratoria, tenants are in a precarious position. Balancing the relationship between landlords and tenants is key to addressing housing insecurity in our city. And I’m grateful to renters, advocates, Mayor Jones’s administration, and my colleagues at the board for working together to make this possible.”

“This [new law] proves its a renter-friendly city,” Reece said.

Some people might ask renters, like Keith, if the conditions are so bad, why stay? His reply: potential.

“To unlock that potential, we need people and if we want people, we have to make this a friendlier place to live for the people who do the hard work renters typically do,” Reece said.

To enroll in this counsel, residents will go through legal service providers who receive funding. The City will be able to help direct residents to outside organizations through the RTC Coordinator position.

According to President Green’s office, the City’s administrative role—aside from funding the program—is to vet and approve those legal service providers. The City will hire a DHS Coordinator to negotiate and execute agreements with designated organizations. The coordinator is also responsible for connecting tenants with designated organizations.

As noted in law, “Per the bill, a designated organization means one (1) or more organizations, associations or persons that have been selected, pursuant to required contracting procedures, by the City of St. Louis to provide legal representation to covered individuals in covered proceedings.”

The bill also stipulates that no later than one-hundred and twenty (120) days after hiring the Coordinator, the Coordinator shall develop and publish to the Director of DHS an administrative plan to implement the program.

Alderman Rasheen Aldridge confirmed there is money in the budget for education and outreach, as well as a requirement that landlords provide tenants with information about the program when they distribute an eviction filing.

Mayor Jones says the program officially launches July 1, 2024.

According to Mayor Jones’ staff:

“Board Bill 59 is the latest initiative to help make sure St. Louis families have a roof over their heads with safe and stable housing. The City is working to provide the resources to help families stay housed, expand our pool of affordable housing, and promote homeownership. Through rental assistance, St. Louis helped nearly 5,000 families make rent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In partnership with the RETAF coalition, the City has saved dozens of homes from foreclosure and tax sale. The St. Louis Development Corporation, Community Development Administration, and the Affordable Housing Commission are making unprecedented investments into affordable housing with more than 200 single family homes in the production pipeline, and thirteen Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects representing more than 1,000 affordable units awarded in the 2021 and 2022 rounds alone.

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