Advocates urge High Point council to support right‑to‑counsel and rental assistance to prevent evictions

Representatives from the American Friends Service Committee asked the High Point City Council to endorse a countywide right‑to‑counsel resolution and to support a rental assistance fund to prevent evictions.

Cece (Cecily) Crawford, program director for the American Friends Service Committee of North Carolina, described a recent court case of an elderly renter who faced eviction after paying a utility bill needed for an oxygen tank. Crawford said more than 16,000 families in Guilford County are summoned to eviction court each year and most tenants lack legal representation while 90% of landlords are represented; she urged councilors to back a countywide right‑to‑counsel and to create a rental assistance fund similar to Greensboro’s $1,470,000 local fund.

Terrell Dungey of the same organization told the council that the TEAM Project pilot — operated with UNCG and Legal Aid and funded partly by COVID relief — has offered eviction prevention services during the pandemic and that local COVID funding is winding down. He said jurisdictions with right‑to‑counsel programs, including Cleveland and New York, have seen eviction filings fall by more than 30% and that the majority of represented tenants are able to remain housed. Dungey asked the council to pass a resolution urging the county to adopt a permanent right‑to‑counsel program paired with rental assistance, mediation and tenant education.

Speakers framed the request as both a human‑service and a cost‑saving measure; Crawford cited studies showing that every dollar invested in right‑to‑counsel can save government $3–$6 by avoiding shelter costs and other public expenditures. Council members did not take action on the requests during the meeting; speakers asked the council to pass a resolution supporting countywide action.