I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3580 
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 
MAY 28, 2021 
Ms. DELAURO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on the 
Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Eviction Prevention 
Act of 2021’’. 
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SEC. 2. GRANTS FOR STATES AND UNITS OF GENERAL 
LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE ACCESS 
TO COUNSEL IN CIVIL ACTIONS RELATED TO 
EVICTION. 
(a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Attorney General is au-
thorized to make grants to States and units of general 
local government to provide eligible individuals access to 
counsel in civil actions related to eviction. 
(b) USE OF FUNDS.—A State or unit of general local 
government that receives a grant under this section shall 
use such funds to hire attorneys in positions that are dedi-
cated solely to providing counsel described in subsection 
(a). 
(c) APPLICATION.—A State or unit of general local 
government seeking an application under this section shall 
submit an application to the Attorney General at such 
time, in such manner, and containing such information as 
the Attorney General may reasonably require, including— 
(1) the rate of eviction for that State or unit 
of general local government; 
(2) during the previous year, the number of in-
dividuals subject to eviction in that State or unit of 
general local government who were not represented 
by an attorney in eviction proceedings; 
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(3) a plan for how the State or unit of general 
local government will use amounts from a grant 
under this section to increase access to counsel; and 
(4) the status with respect of the right to coun-
sel in civil actions related to eviction in the State or 
unit of general local government and, if the State or 
unit of general local government does not have in ef-
fect laws providing a right to counsel, such evidence 
as the Attorney General may require that is suffi-
cient to demonstrate that substantial progress has 
been made to enact laws providing such a right. 
(d) AMOUNT OF GRANT.—Subject to the availability 
of appropriations, a grant under this section shall be in 
an amount that is not less than $1,000,000, and which 
amount is determined based on— 
(1) the rate of eviction in the applicant State 
or unit of general local government, compared to the 
national average rate of eviction, as determined by 
the rates of eviction included with each application 
under subsection (c); 
(2) the plan submitted by the applicant State or 
unit of general local government in accordance with 
subsection (c)(3); 
(3) the status of right to counsel in applicant 
State or unit of general local government; and 
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(4) during the previous year, the number of in-
dividuals subject to eviction in the applicant State or 
unit of general local government who were not rep-
resented by an attorney in eviction proceedings. 
(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$125,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026. 
SEC. 3. NATIONAL DATABASE OF EVICTIONS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF DATABASE.—Not later than 
1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary shall establish and maintain a database that— 
(1) is accessible to the Office of Policy Develop-
ment and Research and the Office of Fair Housing 
and Equal Opportunity of the Department and other 
employees of the Department as determined nec-
essary by the Secretary; 
(2) includes the data described in subsection (b) 
with respect to court-ordered evictions, administra-
tive evictions, and illegal evictions in the United 
States; and 
(3) ensures appropriate security to prevent im-
proper disclosure of that data. 
(b) CONTENTS.—The database established under 
subsection (a) shall contain the following data: 
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(1) DATA ON EACH COURT-ORDERED OR AD-
MINISTRATIVE
EVICTION.—With respect to each 
court-ordered or administrative eviction case filed on 
or after the date on which the database is estab-
lished: 
(A) Information on the tenant who is the 
defendant, including— 
(i) the name of the tenant; 
(ii) the address of the residential 
property and the type of housing; 
(iii) the number of household mem-
bers residing in the property, including the 
number of children; and 
(iv) whether the tenant is a recipient 
of tenant-based or project-based assistance 
under section 8 of the United States Hous-
ing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f). 
(B) Information on the landlord who filed 
the court-ordered or administrative eviction 
case, including— 
(i) the name of the landlord; 
(ii) the name of the attorney or legally 
permitted representative of the landlord, or 
an indication that the landlord was self- 
represented; 
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(iii) any amount that the landlord al-
leges that the tenant owes, including any 
penalties and attorney’s fees; and 
(iv) any costs incurred by the landlord 
for engaging in the eviction process, in-
cluding— 
(I) court costs, such as filing 
fees; 
(II) the cost of legal representa-
tion; and 
(III) the cost to set out a tenant. 
(C) Procedural data on the court-ordered 
or administrative eviction case, including— 
(i) the date, if applicable, on which 
the tenant was served with a notice to quit; 
(ii) the date of the initial court filing 
by the landlord; 
(iii) the reason why the landlord filed 
for eviction, such as nonpayment or breach 
of lease; 
(iv) whether the eviction was as a re-
sult of the enforcement of a local ordinance 
impacting eviction; 
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(v) the final outcome of the court-or-
dered or administrative eviction case, in-
cluding— 
(I) the disposition of the case, in-
cluding whether the initial hearing re-
sulted in a default judgment, dis-
missal, consent agreement, settlement, 
or trial; 
(II) the date of final disposition; 
(III) any amount owed to the 
landlord or tenant, if any, and over 
what time period; 
(IV) whether a judgment was 
made in favor of the tenant for code 
violations or warranty of habitability 
claims; 
(V) the overall outcome of the 
case, including whether the tenant 
paid any amounts to the landlord and 
whether the tenant stayed in the 
housing or was evicted from the hous-
ing; and 
(VI) whether the tenant had legal 
representation and the nature of that 
representation, including a lawyer, a 
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(L) the number of court-ordered or admin-
istrative eviction or cases where late fees were 
collected from tenants by landlords, and the av-
erage amount of late fees in those cases. 
(3) DATA
ON
EXECUTED
EVICTIONS.—Local 
law enforcement or any other official who executes 
an eviction shall report to the adjudicating court or 
administrative forum sufficient data on each exe-
cuted eviction, such that the court may determine 
which court-ordered or administrative evictions re-
sulted in a law enforcement officer or other local of-
ficial removing the tenant. 
(4) DATA ON TENANT STATUS FOLLOWING A 
COURT-ORDERED OR ADMINISTRATIVE EVICTION.— 
Each court or administrative forum responsible for 
adjudicating evictions should contact landlords to de-
termine whether tenants who were the subject of a 
court-ordered or administrative eviction were re-
moved or remained in the property 90 days after the 
court-ordered or administrative eviction. 
(5) DATA ON EACH ILLEGAL EVICTION.—With 
respect to each illegal eviction occurring on or after 
the date on which the database is established, as re-
ported by local governments and nonprofit organiza-
tions receiving grants under section 6: 
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(A) The data described in paragraph 
(1)(A). 
(B) Information on the landlord, includ-
ing— 
(i) the name of the landlord; and 
(ii) any amount that the landlord al-
leges that the tenant owes, including any 
penalties. 
(C) The reason the tenant was evicted. 
(D) If the tenant was evicted for non-
payment, the amount owed. 
(E) If the tenant was evicted for non-
payment, the total number of months owed. 
(F) Whether the tenant was evicted be-
cause of the enforcement of a local ordinance 
impacting eviction. 
(6) AGGREGATE
DATA
ON
ILLEGAL
EVIC-
TIONS.—Aggregate data on illegal eviction cases oc-
curring on or after the date on which the database 
is established, as reported by local governments and 
nonprofit organizations receiving grants under sec-
tion 6, including— 
(A) the average amount owed by a tenant, 
per landlord; 
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(B) the average months of rent owed by a 
tenant; 
(C) the number and percentage of illegal 
eviction cases broken down by age bracket; 
(D) the number and percentage of illegal 
eviction cases with a tenant or household with 
children; 
(E) the number and percentage of illegal 
eviction cases broken down by race and eth-
nicity; 
(F) the number and percentage of illegal 
eviction cases broken down by gender; 
(G) the number and percentage of illegal 
eviction cases broken down by disability status; 
and 
(H) the number and percentage of illegal 
eviction cases based on the enforcement of a 
local ordinance impacting eviction. 
(c) SUBMISSION OF DATA.— 
(1) SUBMISSION BY COURTS.—Not later than 
March 1 of each year, the Attorney General of each 
State shall submit to the Secretary data on court- 
ordered eviction cases that occurred in that State 
during the preceding calendar year for inclusion in 
the database established under this section. 
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(2) SUBMISSION TO SECRETARY.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General 
of the State shall— 
(i) ensure the accuracy and consist-
ency of the data submitted under para-
graph (1); and 
(ii) upon receipt of the data, aggre-
gate the data and report the individual and 
aggregate data to the Secretary in a timely 
manner. 
(B) SUBMISSION BY COURTS.—If the At-
torney general of the State fails to submit the 
data described in paragraph (1) to the Sec-
retary in a timely manner under subparagraph 
(A), the clerk of each State or local court that 
handles landlord-tenant cases may submit the 
data directly to the Secretary. 
(d) GUIDELINES.—The Secretary shall promulgate 
rules and establish guidelines for the submission of data 
under subsection (c) and publication of data in the data-
base established under this section, which shall include— 
(1) a technological solution that provides a sin-
gle point of entry for data submissions to reduce the 
burden on clerks of the courts; 
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(2) in consultation with local governments and 
judges, appropriate safeguards for protecting the 
privacy of personally identifiable information of vul-
nerable populations, which shall incorporate con-
fidentiality measures to ensure that any personally 
identifiable information regarding a tenant who is a 
victim of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual 
assault, or stalking is not disclosed during the proc-
ess of data submission and publication; 
(3) standards for— 
(A) external researchers to be granted per-
mission to access data in the database, includ-
ing both aggregate data and, if necessary for 
the conduct of their research, personally identi-
fiable information, with appropriate safeguards 
to ensure identities are protected in any pub-
licly released analysis; 
(B) the establishment of a research data 
center to support analysis of that data; and 
(C) using generally accepted statistical 
principles to validate the data, in consultation 
with outside participants; 
(4) methods for collecting data required under 
subsection (b) that are not currently collected; 
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(5) establishing definitions for terms related to 
the eviction process based on how they are legally 
defined by courts of jurisdiction handling eviction 
cases; and 
(6) standards for local officials to identify and 
designate social services agencies that may access 
the database to provide targeted social services to 
those tenants. 
(e) ANNUAL REPORTS.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of enactment of this Act, and each year there-
after, the Secretary shall make publicly available a report 
on the contents of the database established under this sec-
tion. 
(f) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 
out this section $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 
through 2026. 
SEC. 4. GAO STUDY. 
Not later than one year after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 
States shall conduct a study and submit a report to Con-
gress on evictions in the United States, including an anal-
ysis of ways in which the legal system fails to provide suf-
ficient protections from eviction for tenants, the rate of 
representation of tenants and landlords, the effect of full 
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representation on default rates, case outcomes, and evic-
tion dockets as compared to cases where the tenant lacks 
representation or has pro se assistance, and the potential 
cost savings from providing representation. 
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) ACCESS TO COUNSEL.—The term ‘‘access to 
counsel’’ means full representation by an attorney. 
(2) ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘eligible 
individual’’ means an individual whose income is less 
than 125 percent of the Federal poverty level. 
(3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the 
States of the United States, the District of Colum-
bia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Com-
monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, 
the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and any other 
territory or possession of the United States. 
(4) UNIT OF GENERAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT.— 
The term ‘‘unit of general local government’’ means 
any city, town, township, county, parish, village, or 
other general purpose political subdivision of a 
State. 
(5) RATE
OF
EVICTION.—The term ‘‘rate of 
eviction’’ means the number of judgments of eviction 
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entered in that jurisdiction per capita during the 
previous fiscal year. 
(6) ADMINISTRATIVE
EVICTION.—The term 
‘‘administrative eviction’’ means a ruling in favor of 
the landlord in an administrative forum within a 
public housing agency, such as grievance procedures, 
to recover possession of residential property from a 
tenant, including a tenant residing in a public hous-
ing dwelling unit or receiving tenant-based assist-
ance or project-based assistance under section 8 of 
the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 
1437f). 
(7) COURT-ORDERED
EVICTION.—The term 
‘‘court-ordered eviction’’ means a court ruling in 
favor of the landlord in a legal action to recover pos-
session of residential property from a tenant, includ-
ing a tenant residing in a public housing dwelling 
unit or receiving tenant-based assistance or project- 
based assistance under section 8 of the United 
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f). 
(8) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 
means the Department of Housing and Urban De-
velopment. 
(9) EXECUTED EVICTION.—The term ‘‘executed 
eviction’’ means a court order carried out by a sher-
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iff’s office or other law enforcement agency that re-
sulted in the landlord recovering possession of resi-
dential property from a tenant, including a tenant 
residing in a public housing dwelling unit or receiv-
ing tenant-based assistance or project-based assist-
ance under section 8 of the United States Housing 
Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f). 
(10) ILLEGAL
EVICTION.—The term ‘‘illegal 
eviction’’ means self-help measures taken outside of 
the legal process for eviction to recover possession of 
residential property from a tenant, including a ten-
ant residing in a public housing dwelling unit or re-
ceiving tenant-based assistance or project-based as-
sistance under section 8 of the United States Hous-
ing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f), such as— 
(A) willfully interrupting or permitting the 
interruption of essential items of services re-
quired by the rental agreement; 
(B) blocking or attempting to block the 
entry of a tenant upon the premises; 
(C) changing the locks or removing the 
front door of the premises; 
(D) removing the belongings of a tenant; 
and 
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(E) any other action defined as a self-help 
eviction under State landlord-tenant law. 
(11) LOCAL
ORDINANCE
IMPACTING
EVIC-
TION.—The term ‘‘local ordinance impacting evic-
tion’’ means a local ordinance that is designed to ad-
dress the number of emergency services calls result-
ing from assault, sexual harassment, stalking, dis-
orderly conduct, or another type of behavior, situa-
tion, or condition that results in the need for emer-
gency services, that results in loss of housing or 
limit the housing opportunities for victims of crime, 
including victims of domestic violence, or individuals 
with disabilities who may require emergency services, 
abnegating local landlord-tenant law by— 
(A) requiring, encouraging, or permitting 
the eviction of a tenant or resident because of 
a certain number of calls for emergency serv-
ices; 
(B) requiring, encouraging, or permitting 
the eviction of a tenant or resident because of 
an arrest even though the arrest has not re-
sulted in the conviction of that tenant or resi-
dent; or 
(C) requiring, encouraging, or permitting 
the eviction of a tenant or resident because of 
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criminal activity occurring at or near the place 
of residence of the tenant or resident for which 
that tenant or resident has not been convicted. 
(12) PUBLIC HOUSING; PUBLIC HOUSING AGEN-
CY.—The terms ‘‘public housing’’ and ‘‘public hous-
ing agency’’ have the meanings given those terms in 
section 3(b) of the United States Housing Act of 
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)). 
(13) 
SECRETARY.—The 
term 
‘‘Secretary’’ 
means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Develop-
ment. 
Æ 
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