Texas COVID-related renter protections extended through end of year as new court order issued

Hours before pandemic-era eviction protections were set to expire, the Texas Supreme Court issued an emergency order extending renter resources through the end of the year. Previously, protections put in place by the state Supreme Court had been set to expire Nov. 1, the same date that Houston-Harris County Emergency Rental Assistance Program is indefinitely suspending acceptance of new applications for rent relief. Neither protection functioned perfectly, but tenant attorneys say they both have had a huge impact.

The state supreme court has temporarily made resources more readily available in eviction courts by requiring judges to allow free legal services access to their courts. Unlike in criminal courts, in which defendants have the right to an attorney, the landlord is the only party that routinely has legal representation in the vast majority of eviction proceedings. The emergency order allowed a local group called the Eviction Defense Coalition — a group of lawyers from Lone Star Legal Aid, Houston Volunteer Lawyers, the University of Houston Law Center, the Earl Carl Institute at Texas Southern University and South Texas College of Law Houston — to send attorneys to eviction courts to provide assistance to qualifying tenants. One coalition attorney, Dana Karni of Lone Star Legal Aid, called the ability to offer legal assistance to tenants "a game changer" that helped level the playing field for renters in eviction proceedings brought by their landlords. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind — and experience has shown — that tenants who show up to court represented by counsel have a greater rate of success," she said.