Himmelrich, a staff attorney for the the non-profit Western Center on Law & Poverty, noted that a program in New York City that offered legal counsel to threatened tenants avoided 30 percent of evictions.

She said 95 percent of tenants threatened with eviction lose in court if they don’t have a lawyer and noted that the existing “patchwork system” of attorneys that offer free legal representation is fraying.

“People need lawyers, and they aren’t getting them, and they’re having trouble finding them,” Himmelrich said.

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