Access to Counsel Program Expands

When a family faces eviction, virtually everything is at stake: their physical and mental safety, health, education, family arrangements, and jobs. They are expected to navigate the situation on their own while dealing with a complex court process; one that often proceeds from beginning to end in as little as a month. A massive imbalance of power between landlords and tenants (83% of landlords have legal counsel, while only 4% of tenants are able to secure representation) has transformed evictions into a pro forma procedure devoid of due process.

The Access to Counsel program is designed to combat high eviction rates in Dayton, Ohio, by offering free legal counsel and social services to families facing eviction, with a focus on families of school-aged students. From November 2024 to July 2025, the program was successfully piloted in Northwest Dayton, serving 53 households, demonstrating its effectiveness in a variety of ways: preventing eviction filings, negotiating favorable outcomes, and connecting clients to vital resources like rental assistance and utility support. Based on our initial evaluation, in 77% of cases, attorneys found potential affirmative defenses. This demonstrates many tenants have legitimate legal grounds to challenge their evictions (e.g., poor conditions, improper late fees) but lack the resources to do so.

The program is expanding its scope to serve any resident of the City of Dayton with a school-aged child facing eviction. In collaboration with the Dayton Municipal Court, we are working to develop a new student eviction prevention database to proactively identify and offer services to at-risk families. The pilot will continue until a total of 125 households are served, which will provide the data necessary for a comprehensive Return on Investment (ROI) report. This report will quantify the long-term cost savings of eviction prevention, empowering partners to scale the program as a sustainable, system-level solution.

The cross-sector team working to bring Access to Counsel to the community includes Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE), CityWide, Dayton Clerk of Courts, Omega CDC, and Stout. Support for the program has been provided by Blue Meridian Partners, the Dayton Legal Heritage Foundation of The Dayton Foundation, AES Ohio Foundation, and the Wright-Patt Credit Union Sunshine Community Fund.