Jersey City may make developers pay for tenants’ eviction defense

Officials in Jersey City are proposing free legal representation for tenants facing eviction, bankrolled by developers.

The right-counsel-measure would be funded by a fee on market-rate residential development — 1.5 percent of a project’s assessed value.

Commercial developments in New Jersey, by law, already pay a 2.5 percent fee. Some jurisdictions in the state, including nearby Union City and Hoboken, have enacted a residential version.

Eighty percent of the fees would be dedicated to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which can be used for emergency rental assistance, repair programs for landlords and affordable housing construction. The remaining 20 percent would pay for legal representation for tenants who earn up to 80 percent of the area median income.

City officials estimate that the fees could generate $4 million annually for right-to-counsel, which would fund legal representation for 1,500 residents and provide legal consultation for any other residents facing eviction.

Council member James Solomon, a sponsor of the bill, said the fee would not apply to ongoing construction and would be gradually increased from 0.5 percent in July 2023 to 1.5 percent by July 2025.

Solomon said any concerns that the fee would stymy construction are “overblown.” While it is important to keep building housing, he said, the city also needs to do what it can to prevent residents from being displaced.

“Jersey cannot solve the regional housing crisis by itself,” he said. “We have to do what is in our power.”

In the past decade Jersey City has permitted more housing per capita than New York City. Since 1974, New Jersey has had a version of good cause eviction that protects tenants from “unconscionable” rent increases, but does not define the term.

The proposal comes as advocates are pushing for New York to enact a $500 million-a-year, statewide right-to-counsel program.

Studies have shown that tenants who are represented by attorneys in housing court are more likely to avoid eviction. A report by the city found that 74 percent of tenants in housing court in fiscal year 2021 were represented through the right-to-counsel program, and that 84 percent of tenants with representation stayed in their homes. 

But the program, which launched in 2017 by zip code and was extended citywide in 2021, has been plagued by challenges, including an inadequate number of attorneys to take up eviction cases, according to City Limits. This year the City Council extended free legal representation to New Yorkers aged 60 or older, but the mayor’s budget proposal does not include increased funding for right-to-counsel.

The Council has called on the state to provide funding, but is also pushing Mayor Eric Adams to include $195 million from the city’s adjusted revenue projections, while acknowledging that it addresses a “fraction of the need and will not produce increased capacity to take on more housing cases.”

Proponents of the Jersey City proposal are hopeful that the development fee will help the city avoid some of the cost issues seen across the Hudson River. Julia Tache, a representative with a coalition backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which spearheaded the bill, said the group is pushing for universal eviction defense, regardless of tenants’ income.

A first reading of the Jersey City bill is slated for Wednesday.