Right to Counsel Program Provides Resident’s Housing Support and Guidance

Why this investment?

Kingston renters are struggling. The majority of residents are renters and 57 percent are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Rent affordability is also a racial equity issue. since seven in ten of the City’s households of color are renters, compared with half of white households. The influx of downstaters moving to the Hudson Valley during the pandemic compounded the City’s affordable housing shortage. Since the end of the moratorium in January 2022, evictions have returned to pre-pandemic rates of over 300 per year. 

When Bartek Starodaj became the City’s Director of Housing Initiatives in 2022, he quickly realized there was a gap in legal services available for tenants. Hudson Valley Legal Services was overwhelmed with requests, and with the end of the eviction moratorium and Kingston becoming the first upstate city to opt in to New York’s rent stabilization law, tenants' needs for legal assistance were increasing. Housing had also emerged as a top concern in the City’s community needs analysis, community surveys, and public engagement conducted to inform the City’s Economic Recovery Plan for investing its ARPA recovery funds. Starodaj proposed the Right to Counsel program to fill this void, securing support from the Mayor to include it in the City’s ARPA plan.

What is this investment?

Kingston’s Right to Counsel program provides renters facing housing challenges with information, resources, services, advice, and free legal representation to help them exercise their housing rights. The City partnered with Legal Services of Hudson Valley to operate the program, with the goal of preventing evictions and supporting the housing stability of Kingston renters. While many right to counsel programs only focus on eviction, Kingston’s program provides legal assistance with other housing issues such as habitability conditions and landlord intimidation or harassment. Legal services may cover eviction proceedings, habitability claims for repairs, enforcement of the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, and housing discrimination. 

The program is targeted to low to moderate income renters who are disproportionately residents of color. Renters with a household income under 120 percent of Area Median Income—$121,920 for a family of four—are eligible for the program’s services. There is a strong effort to reach the growing Latinx population in Kingston, and the program is available in both English and Spanish.

Currently, the program is in the initial pilot implementation stages. Residents seeking support can call a central intake line, visit Legal Services Offices, or contact the program online. The eventual hope is that the Right to Counsel Program will be able to meet residents directly in housing court and out in the community. The program is tracking case outcomes for all participants, and will leverage this information to understand its impacts.

Centering equity in the program

Starodaj says the program centers equity through its relatively high income eligibility threshold. “We have an income limit but didn’t make it so strict that it would lock out a bigger portion of our population,” Starodaj says. He recalls that some programs have very low income limits which can lock many residents out. “Just because you aren’t extremely low income according to HUD doesn’t mean you can afford legal services per se,” Starodaj says. “Even just trying to find a lawyer is a big barrier to hearing your case.” The program was designed to serve renters with demographics that mirror the City at large and ensure those most vulnerable to eviction, including Spanish-speaking immigrants, can access legal representation. 

A key challenge to equitable implementation relates to community outreach. In the RFP for the program, the Office of Housing Initiatives sought to find a program partner that could  simultaneously provide legal services and conduct public facing community outreach to increase awareness of the program, but no applicants could implement both activities. Starodaj hopes that as Legal Services of the Hudson Valley or another partner builds its local capacity, these key community outreach elements, including meeting residents at housing court, will eventually be core programmatic elements.

Outcomes to date

The Right to Counsel program became effective on November 1, 2023 and at this time, outcome data has not yet been reported. The Office of Housing Initiatives has been tracking participation and will have data to share in January 2024.

Toward transformative change

The Right to Counsel Program is coinciding with other significant housing justice efforts in Kingston. In addition to opting into statewide rent stabilization, ARPA dollars provided the opportunity to pilot new, equity-focused innovative programs that would otherwise be impossible due to shoestring municipal budgets. For example, Kingston launched a successful emergency rental assistance fund with the local United Way chapter and RUPCO, which quickly provided $1,000 grants to households experiencing housing insecurity and displacement. ARPA also enabled the City to hold an architectural design competition for Accessory Dwelling Unit’s (ADU’s) after they were legalized in its new zoning code as a new strategy to increase the supply of affordable homes locally. Beyond ARPA funding, the Office of Housing is committed to funding the Right to Counsel Program through private or public dollars, and hopes that the data it will collect during implementation will demonstrate its value and build the case for continued funding.