Council member drafts measure to codify tenants' rights in city code

Queen City renters may soon have the right to legal counsel enshrined in city code, which would make Springfield the third city in Missouri to codify this right. 

At tonight’s meeting of Springfield City Council, Councilmember Brandon Jenson intends to refer a tenants’ right to counsel program ordinance to the body’s Community Involvement Committee.  

Assigning legislation to a council committee is an early step taken by council members proposing new legislation before it is formally introduced to the body for a public hearing and a vote. 

The measure would add language to the nuisance and housing code portion of Springfield city code to establish the program, which the draft ordinance says would “provide high-quality legal representation” in proceedings that could result in forced eviction of tenants from their rental properties. 

The measure also proposes to establish the position of a tenant legal services coordinator at the city of Springfield to oversee the program and to contract and coordinate with legal and community service providers for the program.  

Jenson said the position would be one full-time equivalency, and city staff are currently determining the appropriate classification, which will determine compensation. This will be worked on by the committee, he said. 

The cost of the program would be based in part on the negotiated cost of services, to be determined through a competitive procurement process. 

He added that the services to be provided are typically offered at no cost to the tenant, but the structure of the program, including the potential for a sliding scale of service costs, are still to be determined in a committee review.The draft explains that the program will cover tenants immediately after a property owner files suit, and legal coverage will last until final judgment or dismissal. 

The ordinance also proposes to ensure availability of a legal representative at the Greene County Courthouse to inform tenants of their rights and provide assistance during litigation. Jenson told Springfield Business Journal via email that while this is a best practice, it is likely feasible only if the 31st Judicial Circuit is willing to establish an eviction court program where eviction cases are heard only on specific days of the week, similar to other programs within the circuit. 

The ordinance also would require property owners to notify all tenants of the existence of the program, and it would prohibit retaliation against tenants served by the new program. Instances of retaliation would result in a $1,000 per day fine per covered individual. 

The ordinance also would establish a seven-member Tenants’ Right to Counsel Advisory Committee to ensure that the program’s intentions are fulfilled and to provide recommendations to the coordinator, with additional non-voting membership from council, the court and community organizations that serve tenants’ interests. 

Jenson’s measure offers 17 separate “Whereas” paragraphs, most with statistics to justify the measure. They include the following: 

• The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University reported in 2022 that 60% of all residents of the Springfield metropolitan statistical area are renters, and 48% of these are considered cost burdened, meaning they spend 30%-50% of their income on housing, and 22% are severely cost burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing.
• The 2023 City of Springfield Housing Study identified a deficit of 8,960 affordable and available rental units for households making 30% or less of area median income.
• 2018 data from Eviction Lab at Princeton University showed 2,400 evictions filed in Springfield each year, resulting in 1.8 families being evicted each day.
• The 31st Judicial Circuit’s 2024 data shows 70% of property owners had legal representation in eviction cases, compared with only 10% of tenants.
• Data in a study by Stout Risius Ross LLC shows that for every dollar invested in tenant legal representation, jurisdictions save $3 in downstream interventions, like homeless shelters, public school interventions and law enforcement responses.

On Saturday, housing rights advocacy organization Springfield Tenants Unite, hosted a town hall meeting on tenants’ right to counsel and included a panel discussion to explain the issues related to eviction in the community. 

Jenson spoke to SBJ at the conclusion of the event and acknowledged he has a passion for people impacted by the housing crisis. 

“They are people who don’t have much of a voice and who are really the underdogs,” he said. “If I don’t serve them, I’m worried that nobody will, and they need it.” 

He added that his approach is always to listen to both sides and then develop the best policy to address the issue. 

“We’re sort of having a renaissance in the discussion about housing in our community. I know there have been efforts in the past, and it’s sort of been fits and stops, but this has really been a sustained conversation for over a year now on council,” he said. “I think we’re seeing some of the most acute symptoms being elevated, and so it really is the time to tackle these issues when it’s being put before us.” 

Jenson said council is also working on a rental inspection program to improve the quality of existing housing stock. 

“We’re tackling the quality of housing; we’re hopefully going to be tackling the accessibility of housing. The next step is tackling availability of housing,” he said. 

Jenson said the issue is largely a supply-and-demand question. 

“When supply is restricted, demand is higher. That creates a market imbalance, and we’re seeing the effects of that now,” he said. 

He acknowledged that there might be some concern by the business community about the measure. 

“This will not impact landlords who are already doing the right thing,” he said. “It provides for a more efficient and effective legal process whenever it’s a lawyer working with another lawyer. That’s going to be a more effective judicial process.” 

He said the proposed measure would not impact most landlords, because most are already doing the right thing. 

“For those that don’t, this is a warning shot,” he said.