One Year Of Right To Counsel In Cleveland Gives Low Income Tenants Facing Eviction A Lifeline

By Rachel Rood

Published July 1, 2021 at 2:14 PM EDT

On The Sound of Ideas, we'll look back at the first year that Right to Counsel has been in place in Cleveland for low income tenants. [Tap10/shutterstock]

The eviction tsunami that so many housing advocates are concerned about, due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic, has been delayed one more month.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control extended its federal moratorium, began by Congress at the start of the pandemic, but which lapsed in July. The CDC took up the mantle of extending it for months at a time, and it was set to end yesterday, but has been extended until the end of this month. But Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said this is intended to be the final extension.

After a lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week 5-4 to keep the moratorium in place, even though, as Justice Brett Kavanaugh put it, the CDC exceeded its authority to issue a nationwide eviction moratorium. He said that because the moritorium will end in a few weeks, and those weeks will be needed to distribute additional rental assistance funds, he voted to keep it in place, against the challenge by landlords, real estate companies and trade associations.

At the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, and at risk for eviction. When that eviction tsunami eventually rolls in, impacting potentially millions of families who struggled with rent payments during the pandemic, one resource low income Clevelanders will have at their disposal is the Right to Counsel program, which began one year ago on July 1. That's free legal representation for qualifying families who are facing evictions.

We're going to start this hour by talking about how the program has worked over the last year.

Later this hour, we'll dig into a new report that sheds light on the 32 percent of youth in Cuyahoga County's foster care system that identify as LGBTQ, and the disparities they often face in their treatment.

Get Involved In Cuyahoga County's Foster Care System

https://hhs.cuyahogacounty.us/topics/detail/foster-care-and-adoption

-Lauren Hamilton, Attorney, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

-Conor Morris, Report for America Corps Member, Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative

-Karen Polk, Landlord

-Ken Schneck, Editor, Buckeye Flame & Professor of Education, Baldwin Wallace

-Karen Anderson, Special Projects Coordinator, Cuyahoga County Center for Children and Family Services

-Marlene Matarese, Deputy Director, Institute For Innovation and Implementation at University of Maryland, and Principal Investigator