S.F.'s right-to-counsel measure helps tenants stay housed but is short on attorneys

Voters approved a measure in 2018 that guaranteed legal counsel to every tenant facing eviction in San Francisco. But six months after Proposition F was supposed to have been fully implemented, a third of tenants facing eviction have had access to only partial representation. In a hearing before the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee, legal aid attorneys, tenant advocates and city staff testified that tenant right to counsel is an effective protection from eviction but needs more funding, and more attorneys, to cover everyone.