Harris County is experiencing an eviction crisis. The near nationwide-high number of case filings is driven by a multitude of factors, but the basic problem is a simple one: far too many renters are unable to afford their rent. In their 2023 Area Survey, Kinder Institute found that 51% of renting households in Harris County households are housing cost burdened as defined by the US. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing expenses. Hundreds of thousands of families in our communities are one life event – one missed paycheck, medical emergency, flat tire – away from their belongings being thrown onto the street by a constable and no longer having a roof over their head.
Evictions traumatize children, impoverish families, and diminish their ability to gain secure, stable housing in the future – and they happen disproportionately to Black, Latinx, and immigrant communities. Increasing rates of renters in the county endured financial instability due to job loss and COVID-19 expenses, and while federal and state protections were able to temporarily halt the rising tide of evictions in 2020 and 2021, rising rents during the pandemic and waning of temporary tenant protections led to a rise in eviction rates in 2022 and 2023 that continues to peak higher than before the pandemic.
Government officials, community based organizations, and housing advocates must collectively take action to keep tenants from experiencing the harms that come from a preventable eviction.Government at all levels significantly expanded tenant protections in an unprecedented manner during the pandemic to respond to the intertwined public health crisis presented by the pandemic and evictions. There is a current opportunity to continue to protect tenants by not returning to the policies of the past that created the housing crisis
This is why Keep Harris Housed Coalition members Texas Housers, Prevention Institute, Center for Civic and Public Policy Improvement and Gulf Coast AFL-CIO endeavored to publish a report on the need for additional, permanent, eviction diversion interventions, particularly an eviction right to counsel. ‘Keeping Harris County Housed: An Overview of the Eviction Crisis in Harris County’ outlines the exact case of what Right To Counsel can and should do for tenants in Texas. Right to counsel is a critical resource that is proven to stabilize households, increase fairness for tenants in an eviction hearing, and enable tenants to reach more favorable outcomes in their eviction hearing.
Establishing a robust Right to Counsel program in Harris County eviction courts is a cost-effective policy intervention proven to address the displacement crisis and keep working families in their homes. Harris County will join in a national movement to make eviction courts a fairer place. We must also expand eviction diversion programs, improve the functions of our Justice of the Peace courts, and address root causes of housing instability such as the lack of affordable units for renters.
Legal representation for tenants facing eviction empowers tenants to exercise their legal rights and reclaim their power in the landlord-tenant relationship where the Texas state law typically renders them powerless. Right to counsel can go far in mitigating the myriad of negative impacts of evictions. In order to address the eviction crisis in Harris County, we must increase funding for legal aid organizations so that a Right to Counsel in our eviction courts.
Read ‘Keeping Harris County Housed: An Overview of the Eviction Crisis in Harris County’ below:
