I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5298 

To authorize the Attorney General to make grants to States and localities 

to provide the right to counsel in civil actions related to eviction, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 4, 2019 

Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. EVANS, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 

PAYNE, Mr. BLUMENAUER, and Ms. JACKSON LEE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To authorize the Attorney General to make grants to States 

and localities to provide the right to counsel in civil 

actions related to eviction, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Eviction Prevention 

5 Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR STATES AND UNITS OF GENERAL 

2 LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE ACCESS 

3 TO COUNSEL IN CIVIL ACTIONS RELATED TO 

4 EVICTION. 

5 (a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Attorney General is au6 thorized to make grants to States and units of general 

7 local government to provide eligible individuals access to 

8 counsel in civil actions related to eviction. 

9 (b) USE OF FUNDS.—A State or unit of general local 

10 government that receives a grant under this section shall 

11 use such funds to hire attorneys in positions that are dedi12 cated solely to providing counsel described in subsection 

13 (a). 

14 (c) APPLICATION.—A State or unit of general local 

15 government seeking an application under this section shall 

16 submit an application to the Attorney General at such 

17 time, in such manner, and containing such information as 

18 the Attorney General may reasonably require, including— 

19 (1) the rate of eviction for that State or unit 

20 of general local government; 

21 (2) during the previous year, the number of in22 dividuals subject to eviction in that State or unit of 

23 general local government who were not represented 

24 by an attorney in eviction proceedings; 


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1 (3) a plan for how the State or unit of general 

2 local government will use amounts from a grant 

3 under this section to increase access to counsel; and 

4 (4) the status with respect of the right to coun5 sel in civil actions related to eviction in the State or 

6 unit of general local government and, if the State or 

7 unit of general local government does not have in ef8 fect laws providing a right to counsel, such evidence 

9 as the Attorney General may require that is suffi10 cient to demonstrate that substantial progress has 

11 been made to enact laws providing such a right. 

12 (d) AMOUNT OF GRANT.—Subject to the availability 

13 of appropriations, a grant under this section shall be in 

14 an amount that is not less than $1,000,000, and which 

15 amount is determined based on— 

16 (1) the rate of eviction in the applicant State 

17 or unit of general local government, compared to the 

18 national average rate of eviction, as determined by 

19 the rates of eviction included with each application 

20 under subsection (c); 

21 (2) the plan submitted by the applicant State or 

22 unit of general local government in accordance with 

23 subsection (c)(3); 

24 (3) the status of right to counsel in applicant 

25 State or unit of general local government; and 


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1 (4) during the previous year, the number of in2 dividuals subject to eviction in the applicant State or 

3 unit of general local government who were not rep4 resented by an attorney in eviction proceedings. 

5 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi6 nitions shall apply: 

7 (1) ACCESS TO COUNSEL.—The term ‘‘access to 

8 counsel’’ means full representation by an attorney. 

9 (2) ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘eligible 

10 individual’’ means an individual whose income is less 

11 than 125 percent of the Federal poverty level. 

12 (3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the 

13 States of the United States, the District of Colum14 bia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Com15 monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, 

16 the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and any other 

17 territory or possession of the United States. 

18 (4) UNIT OF GENERAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT.— 

19 The term ‘‘unit of general local government’’ means 

20 any city, town, township, county, parish, village, or 

21 other general purpose political subdivision of a 

22 State. 

23 (5) RATE OF EVICTION.—The term ‘‘rate of 

24 eviction’’ means the number of judgments of eviction 


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1 entered in that jurisdiction per capita during the 

2 previous fiscal year. 

3 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

4 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

5 $125,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025. 

6 SEC. 3. GRANTS FOR COLLECTION OF EVICTION DATA. 

7 (a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Attorney General is au8 thorized to make grants to States and units of local gov9 ernment to collect and provide to the Attorney General 

10 eviction data described in subsection (b). 

11 (b) EVICTION DATA DESCRIBED.—The eviction data 

12 described in this subsection is the eviction data for the 

13 applicable jurisdiction during the most recent 3 years, 

14 which shall include the 3-year eviction filing rate, number 

15 of eviction filings at a given property, the name of the 

16 current owner, the name of the lead plaintiff, the race of 

17 the lead plaintiff and defendant, the type of property (sin18 gle-family residential, two-family residential, or multi-fam19 ily residential), whether the unit’s rent was assisted or 

20 subsidized, the number of units, the nature of the eviction, 

21 the reason for eviction (including nonpayment of rent and 

22 breach of lease), the number of days the tenant is given 

23 to vacate, the status of representation of the lead plaintiff 

24 and defendant, the outcome of the eviction (including 

25 whether the tenant remains in possession, whether an 


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1 order of eviction is officially placed on the record, whether 

2 the landlord is ordered to make repairs, and whether the 

3 landlord or tenant are ordered to pay any amount of 

4 money to the other), the date of any rescission of such 

5 eviction, and if an eviction was ordered, how many days 

6 from such order until termination of the lease. 

7 (c) PUBLICATION OF DATA.—The Attorney General 

8 shall make the information reported under subsection (a) 

9 publicly available online. 

10 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

11 authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 for each of fis12 cal years 2021 through 2025. 

13 SEC. 4. GAO STUDY. 

14 Not later than one year after the date of the enact15 ment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 

16 States shall conduct a study and submit a report to Con17 gress on evictions in the United States, including an anal18 ysis of ways in which the legal system fails to provide suf19 ficient protections from eviction for tenants, the rate of 

20 representation of tenants and landlords, the effect of full 

21 representation on default rates, case outcomes, and evic22 tion dockets as compared to cases where the tenant lacks 

23 representation or has pro se assistance, and the potential 

24 cost savings from providing representation. 

Æ 


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