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- Title
Getting to "There": Inter/Intra City Solidarity and Lawyering for Right to Counsel Movements.
- Authors
Hassel, Jocelyn
- Abstract
The need for a "civil Gideon" has been reiterated and revisited throughout the ongoing urgency of the affordable housing crisis in the United States. As frivolous eviction proceedings are brought against tenants by landlords seeking to "flip" units and capitalize on ongoing waves of gentrification across major urban epicenters, unrepresented tenants suffer due to the disproportionate bargaining power of landlords. Right to Counsel is but one tool to tackle the affordable housing crisis. By allowing tenants falling under certain criteria to have guaranteed legal representation, tenants are able to fight back against the consequences of the eviction process while also biding time for a collective movement. This larger movement is focused on the eventual outcome of housing as a human right. The Right to Counsel movement is well underway in major cities across the United States. New York was able to successfully enable Right to Counsel through the direct efforts of tenants organizing. The nuance of a tenant-led movement allowed for legislation and the Right to Counsel rollout to directly abide by the conditions called for by tenants, for tenants. The remarkable difference of a tenant-led movement is a key feature of evaluating how a successful nationwide Right to Counsel movement could sustain itself. The successes of the Right to Counsel movement in New York can become a framework for larger commentaries on the role of certain players in the movement and how these players were able to fundamentally transform the nature of housing court. In the midst of these players, the role of the lawyer is a hotly contested question. The role of the lawyer must be tool-based and should be structured so that the movement remains tenant-led. This assertion highlights that movement lawyering should not co-opt a tenant-led struggle while still performing essential functions through direct representation, advocacy, and litigation.
- Subjects
NEW York (N.Y.); RIGHT to counsel; HOUSING; GENTRIFICATION; TENANTS
- Publication
Harvard Law & Policy Review, 2021, Vol 15, Issue 2, p625
- ISSN
1935-2077
- Publication type
Article