Congress funds free lawyers for evicted tenants—landlords brace for longer fights
H.R. 4761 — Eviction Right to Counsel Act of 2025 · Filed by Summer Lee (D-PA) · 11 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 25, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill creates a $100 million annual federal fund (2026–2030) to help states, cities, and tribal governments pay for free legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction or loss of housing subsidies. To qualify, a jurisdiction must pass a law guaranteeing free legal counsel to tenants earning up to 200% of the federal poverty line, and the bill prioritizes funding for places that also limit eviction causes, require 30-day notice, or offer rental assistance.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to establish and fund a federal grant program for state/local right-to-counsel laws in eviction proceedings. It is a public-interest legal-aid measure, not a regulatory carve-out or corporate benefit.
What the text implies
- Jurisdictions without existing right-to-counsel laws must enact new legislation to access funds, creating a de facto federal mandate for state legislative action (though not an unfunded mandate, since federal dollars follow).
- The bill incentivizes broader tenant protections (notice periods, eviction diversion, rental assistance) by prioritizing funding for jurisdictions that adopt them, potentially shifting state/local housing policy toward tenant-friendly regimes.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
Legal aid organizations and law firms (contract attorneys); State and local bar associations (training/recruitment programs)