Program Offers Free Legal Counsel for Eligible Tenants Facing Eviction

February 16, 2022

Connecticut has launched a tenants' Right to Counsel (RTC) program that will make attorneys available at no cost to eligible tenants at risk of eviction.

The Connecticut Bar association is operating the program and working with the state's legal services to provide attorneys to those in need. Right to Counsel will begin working in fourteen neighborhoods across eight municipalities.

These locations were selected first because they are eviction hot spots in Connecticut, with about 25% of eviction filings statewide brought against tenants in those neighborhoods.
Right to Counsel service will also be immediately available to individuals who served in the armed forces regardless of location. The program will expand to other areas across the state over the next two years.

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Housing Subsidy

Housing Subsidy

Why It Matters:

  • Four Connecticut cities -- Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, and Waterbury – are on the Princeton University Eviction Lab’s list of the 100 large cities with the highest evictions rates across the country.
  • Due to discriminatory housing laws and practices, and income and wealth disparities, communities of color and low-income women are at disproportionate risk of eviction.
  • Evictions cause large and persistent increases in the risk of homelessness, elevate long-term residential instability, negatively impact mental and physical health and increase the use of emergency services including emergency room use.
  • The short and longer-term impacts on children of housing instability can be even greater.

Where will RTC services be provided in the First Phase?

Attorneys at Connecticut Legal Services, Greater Hartford Legal Aid, and New Haven Legal Assistance Association will provide direct legal representation for tenants in the following zip codes. Historically, 25% of eviction filings statewide are brought against tenants living in these zip codes:

Bridgeport: 06610
Danielson: 06239
Hartford: 06105 / 06106 / 06112 / 06114 / 06120
New Haven: 06511 / 06513 / 06519
Putnam: 06260
Waterbury: 06710
West Haven: 06516
Willimantic: 06226

Who is Income Eligible?

  • Tenants with a household income at or below 80% of the state median income (or $79,900 for a family of four) will be eligible for representation by Right to Counsel attorneys.

How do tenants get notice of the program?

  • The law requires landlords, housing subsidy providers and the courts to provide notice of the program to tenants at risk of eviction or loss of a housing subsidy.

To find out if free legal representation is available where you live and if you qualify, call 1-800-559-1565 or visit https://www.evictionhelpct.org/.