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Senator Henson says narrowed bill will extend access to counsel to mobile‑home tenants
Summary
Senator Shinnick Henson presented a narrowed version of SB 729 to extend Access to Counsel (ACE) protections to tenants in mobile home parks, restore notice requirements and enable meaningful pre‑trial counsel access; committee confirmed the program remains income‑based.
Senator Shinnick Henson told the committee that the Senate version of SB 729, now titled the Access to Counsel and Evictions Program, was narrowed from a broader mobile‑home‑park rewrite to preserve an immediate, practical remedy: extend the state’s Access to Counsel (ACE) program to tenants in mobile home parks.
Henson said the amended bill restores notice language that was stripped from an earlier version so tenants receive eviction notices that inform them of available counsel, allowing them to meaningfully connect with attorneys before trial and avoid court postponements that can clog dockets. She described access to counsel as the most immediate and impactful change achievable this session and asked the committee to consider the amended measure.
Committee members asked whether eligibility is income‑based (Henson said yes) and whether the shortened bill retains the essence of earlier, more comprehensive proposals; Henson said preserving access to counsel was the priority and that advocates supported keeping the feature. No formal vote occurred during the sponsor presentation.
