Stay Housed LA and Right-to-Counsel for Tenants Facing Eviction

Stay Housed LA is the regional umbrella for LA-area tenant defense services, funded by LA City and LA County, delivered through a coalition of legal-aid providers including Bet Tzedek, Public Counsel, Inner City Law Center, Neighborhood Legal Services, and others. The program provides free legal representation to qualifying tenants facing eviction, plus right-to-counsel services for tenants who meet income thresholds in covered jurisdictions. For tenants whose income falls within program eligibility, Stay Housed LA is often the right first call.

The City of Los Angeles right-to-counsel ordinance (passed 2022) provides a phased expansion of legal representation for tenants. Implementation has been gradual due to funding constraints, not every income-eligible tenant gets a lawyer immediately, but the program is active and growing. LA County passed a parallel right-to-counsel ordinance in 2023, codified at LA County Code Chapter 8.65. Stay Housed LA is the coordinated intake mechanism for both.

We are a tenant-only private firm. We work alongside the Stay Housed LA network, referring tenants there when their income qualifies and the case fits, and taking on cases where private representation is the better fit. The two systems are complementary, not competitive.

How Stay Housed LA works

The program operates on a coordinated-intake model. A tenant facing eviction can call the Stay Housed LA hotline or apply online. Intake staff screen for income eligibility, case type, and capacity. If the tenant qualifies and the case fits an available legal-aid provider, the case is referred for representation. If capacity is full or the tenant doesn’t meet income thresholds, alternatives are suggested, pro bono panels, legal-aid clinics, private attorneys (including our firm).

Income eligibility varies by program and location. The LA City right-to-counsel ordinance set thresholds at 80% of Area Median Income for some categories and higher for emergency situations. The LA County program has its own thresholds. Both have prioritized the most vulnerable tenants, those with children, seniors, disabled tenants, and tenants facing immediate sheriff lockouts.

The documented impact of legal representation

The Stay Housed LA program data is striking. Full-scope legal representation through the program has produced positive outcomes in roughly 88% of closed cases, measured by tenants staying in their homes, receiving negotiated time and money to move out, or obtaining waivers of back rent. Aggregate societal benefit estimates run between $4.6 million and $8.1 million per year in measurable economic value. By contrast, LA tenants who go to eviction court without an attorney experience some form of displacement in approximately 99% of cases. Most landlords have attorneys in roughly 95% of LA eviction cases. The representation gap is the single largest determinant of outcome. See our Why Eviction Defense Matters page for the full data.

When to call Stay Housed LA vs. a private firm

Stay Housed LA is the right first call for tenants whose income qualifies, the representation is free and the network has deep eviction-defense expertise. Capacity constraints mean not every tenant who qualifies will get a full-scope lawyer, many receive limited-scope assistance or self-help support rather than full representation. For tenants whose income exceeds the thresholds, or whose case requires faster turnaround than the intake queue allows, or who want the assurance of a private attorney-client relationship with a single firm throughout the case, a private firm is the better fit.

The substantive defenses are the same either way. Defective notice, improper service, habitability, retaliation, LARSO just-cause failures, LARSO registration failures — all of these defenses exist regardless of which lawyer pleads them. What matters is that they get pleaded properly and developed through discovery.

How right-to-counsel changes the landscape

The 2022 LA City and 2023 LA County right-to-counsel ordinances are the most significant tenant-protection development in California in a generation, but their effect is constrained by funding. Implementation rolled out in phases. As funding scales, more tenants will receive full representation. In the interim, the existing legal-aid infrastructure under Stay Housed LA is the principal vehicle. Private firms, including ours, fill gaps for the population that does not qualify, that cannot wait for intake capacity, or that prefers the structure of a private engagement.

What to do right now

• If you have an active UD case and income that may qualify for Stay Housed LA, call their hotline as soon as possible, intake capacity is finite and urgency matters.
• If you don’t qualify, or if your case requires immediate attention, call a private tenant-defense firm.
• Either path, the defenses are the same, what matters is that they get pleaded properly within the deadline.
• The 10-court-day Answer deadline runs whether you have counsel or not, start the intake process the day you are served.

Related pages

• Eviction Defense overview
• Why Eviction Defense Matters, The Numbers
• Just Served Eviction Papers?
• 10-Court-Day Answer Deadline
• Eviction Defense FAQ