Housing advocates present tenant right to counsel ordinance to Douglas County Commission, push for approval

People with housing advocacy organizations urged the Douglas County Commission to schedule a vote and adopt tenant right to counsel (TRTC) at the Oct. 1 business meeting. 

Representatives from Lawrence Tenants, Kansas Holistic Defenders and the National Coalition for the Civic Right to Counsel presented extensive data in favor of TRTC to commissioners during a work session on Wednesday. 

TRTC guarantees tenants legal representation in eviction cases.

An ordinance proposed by Lawrence Tenants, developed in collaboration with multiple local experts and lawyers, would cover every tenant regardless of their income; cover any legal proceeding where a tenant could lose their housing or housing subsidy; provide legal representation; and require that the county contract with nonprofit legal providers for the service. 

Similar policies have been adopted in several major cities, including Kansas City, Missouri.

An external review in KCMO found that one year after implementing TRTC, “86% of represented tenants stayed housed and had no eviction record.” A decade’s worth of data from the National Coalition for Civil Right to Counsel demonstrates TRTC’s success in other cities.

Conversations about TRTC in the county have been ongoing for years. In January 2024, the county and City of Lawrence officially stated a commitment to implementing TRTC in a report and strategic plan on addressing homelessness in the area.

Lawrence Tenants suggested that county administration could hire a coordinator by December, following a successful Oct. 1 vote. Then, designated legal providers could hire and provide representation by the end of 2026. 

Commissioners do not take direct action during their work sessions, which are primarily for information purposes. However, tenants faced some pushback from commissioners about the feasibility of voting on TRTC in October and directly implementing the ordinance, as the 2026 budget was set last week.

Commissioners suggested they would have the county’s attorney review a copy of the proposed ordinance for further discussion on Oct. 1, while delaying a vote.

This hesitance was met with concern by many speakers during public comment in the meeting. 

“Commissioners Willey, Kelly and Reid voted to include right to counsel in the housing and homelessness plan back on May 8, 2024,” Micah Cox said. “That was 483 days ago. The data is here, the solution is here, the urgency is here, the only thing that’s missing is your willingness to act.” 

Cassandra Barrett, of Lawrence Tenants, expressed frustration over the commission’s delays and requests for data that have already been made publicly available.

“Tenants are actively being evicted while we wait on this,” Barrett said. “… You decide through these delays that it’s OK for people to become homeless, to lose their jobs, to lose their kids to foster care, while they wait for you to take action on something that you have already committed to.”

Barrett was not the only speaker to point out that the commission has used money from general funds outside of the budget cycle to support programs in the past. A few commenters asked commissioners to back TRTC from the general fund for one year before integrating it into the regular budget cycle starting in 2027.

More than two dozen people spoke during public comment. One person was a private sector landlord. The rest of the commenters — including a former Bert Nash case manager, a member of the city’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board, a Ballard Center employee and former state Rep. Christina Haswood — spoke in favor of TRTC.

Data on housing, equity and TRTC

“Some folks are mischaracterizing tenant right to counsel as a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card,” Hazlett Henderson said during public comment. “But tenant right to counsel is not a free pass to avoid paying rent. It’s just a way to ensure more equal footing between people faced with the loss of their home and people who are profiting from that housing.”

In a letter to the Times, Vince Munoz, of Lawrence Tenants, wrote that 4% of tenants have legal representation in eviction cases nationwide compared to 83% of landlords. 

Under TRTC, lawyers can help tenants file counterclaims when facing eviction. For example, landlords may illegally defer maintenance or not adhere to the Kansas Residential Landlord Tenant Act.

“If the landlord is found liable (in a counterclaim), that means they may have to pay damages to the tenant, and that sort of creates a financial incentive for landlords to comply with existing law and be good fiduciaries of that relationship,” Munoz said on Wednesday.

At a baseline, the presented data showed that TRTC ordinances prevent evictions and keep people in their homes. This can have a measurable impact on public health outcomes, as well as city and county expenditures on services for people who are unhoused.

Of 1,051 respondents to a Douglas County tenant experiences survey, 86 people received eviction notices while renting in the county. Around 23% of this group, or 20 people, were evicted and experienced homelessness as a result. Only 6% of the 86 had legal representation for their eviction.

The county spent between $5.1 million and $5.9 million on emergency response services for unhoused people in 2023. Presenters demonstrated that by implementing TRTC and reducing eviction rates, the county stands to save money due to decreased need for these services. A representative from the Lawrence Community Shelter workers’ union said during public comment that union members voted unanimously to support TRTC. 

Speakers also discussed data showing that TRTC ordinances can protect vulnerable and marginalized members of the community, including people of color, queer people and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. For example, NCCRC’s presentation demonstrated that evictions affect Black women at disproportionate rates.

“There is also evidence that evictions and poor environmental conditions, such as lead paint, poor air quality, and asbestos, impact Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people at higher rates,” a health impact assessment issued by Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health stated. “Systemic racism plays a role in these inequalities, and tenant right to counsel policies support addressing these historic barriers to improve housing quality.”

During a county work session on Aug. 20, commissioners asked about the viability of a stronger mediation program throughout the eviction process. Members of Lawrence Tenants advocated for TRTC as a priority over mediation during both work sessions.

The group met with mediators in Johnson County and discovered that they lack legal training and do not intervene if a landlord admits to breaking the law. It is also unclear how mediation handles conflicts of interest. In one instance, a mediator in Johnson County is a landlord in Douglas County.

“More than 90% of landlords refuse to mediate,” Gabi Sprague, of Lawrence Tenants, said during public comment. Sprague had administered a pilot mediation program for the county. “I believe that mediation has a place in the eviction prevention landscape, but that it’s prior to the eviction filing. Tenant right to counsel would encourage landlords to mediate.”

The Oct. 1 agenda

Commissioners do not typically respond to public comment on the spot, so they did not indicate any plans to put TRTC on the Oct. 1 agenda for a vote. 

All data and arguments presented during the work session and public comment can be viewed on the commission’s YouTube page. 

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

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