Freshly elected City Councilor Benjamin Weber has stepped up to bat, swinging a proposal to provide guaranteed legal representation for tenants facing eviction. In his maiden voyage at the council’s podium, Weber made the case that evictions are a battleground where the scales are unbalanced — and legal representation could be the great equalizer.
According to NBC10 Boston, councilor Weber emphasized that facing eviction was akin to entering a confusing labyrinth of housing laws, a daunting challenge, especially for those not fluent in the language of the land. "You are in a very confusing situation, you may not even be fluent in English, and there is somebody on the other side who knows how the process works, has been doing this for years," Weber told NBC10 Boston. His initiative pledges to level a playing field where the odds are stark: 90.5% of landlords with legal counsel on their side, while only 3.1% of tenants can claim the same backup in non-payment cases, as Weber pointed out.
Doug Quattrochi, executive director of MassLandlords Inc., argued that throwing money at lawyers won’t make rent more affordable. "The number of cases that an attorney can actually make a difference, where an attorney is a make-or-break difference for a renter, is very few compared to the huge non-payment issue we have," he stated in an interview obtained by NBC10 Boston.
Meanwhile, Weber has also drawn attention to the dire straits wherein tenants plunged into the eviction process can find themselves. Without legal representation, nearly a quarter lose by default, failing to show up in court or to file crucial court documents timely. He argued that when provided with an attorney, this number drops drastically to 5%, as reported by The Boston Herald. The data referenced by Weber comes from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, showing a significant hike in eviction filings, pinning down the numbers at an alarming 73.8% increase on average per week between 2022 and 2023.
Boston's City Council pushed forward Weber's proposal to the hearing stage. Councilor Weber, alongside co-sponsors Councilor Liz Breadon and Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, is pursuing to reimagine the vehicle entirely — aiming to secure for tenants something resembling the protections known in criminal court. As eviction filings in Boston have risen by 40% over the past year, the proposal, if put into action, could mean a fundamental shift in how the city handles one of its most pressing crises.
