Why is effective outreach critical?
Eviction RTC can only work if tenants know it exists, know that it actually works, and trust the providers. Thoughtful, strategic, and effective outreach is critical to combat the high default rates described in Section 1.4. Also, effective outreach will connect tenants with attorneys sooner in the process, giving attorneys much more time to effectively represent the tenant.
Some of the outreach requirements will be baked into the eviction RTC law as described in Section 3.5, but the law will generally only have the bare bones for outreach: much more needs to be fleshed out during implementation.
What does effective outreach generally involve?
Effective outreach can involve collaborating with local tenant organizations who can help spread awareness about the policy, and has funding. After NY enacted eviction RTC, it later passed a law requiring the City to work with community organizations. Toledo’s eviction RTC law requires legal aid providers to “work with other organizations or associations, including Designated Community Groups, to advertise in the media and hire (a) community engagement specialist(s), and to engage and educate tenants of their rights and available resources.” It’s important to build in funding for community groups to do this work; they should not be expected to do it for free.
In addition, effective outreach campaigns are ones where data is collected from tenants as to how they found out about the program, which will reveal which outreach techniques are working and which are not. If a particular set of strategies didn’t result in many responses, providers should be curious about why and aim to change what’s not working. Finally, outreach strategies must be tailored to be inclusive so that they will reach community members who have disabilities, members who do not speak English, etc.
Finally, effective outreach may require the outreach to come from people that tenants trust. In some places that might not be legal services, but rather only tenants and tenant organizers. For instance, in one jurisdiction, an organizer commented that “some of the questions (like about immigration or disability status) made tenants not trust the lawyer and make them wonder if they were really lawyers”.
REFLECTION ACTIVITY
What are some of the important considerations you need to take into account when it comes to your local outreach efforts? What has worked for your legal services programs in the past? What practices need to change to be more effective in terms of reaching tenants? Are tenants who have experienced eviction or have been represented by the local legal services providers part of the team designing your outreach strategy?
Types of outreach
Targeted outreach to tenants who have pending evictions
One powerful outreach technique is to reach out directly to tenants who are on that day or week’s eviction docket. Advocates in several jurisdictions have managed to get this docket information:
In Louisville, legal services has an MOU with the court administrative office to download a docket for each week in order to see who is facing eviction (who is there for nonpayments, lease violations, or non-renewals).
In New Orleans, one of the community groups works with the court and clerk's office to get filings.
In Milwaukee County, the circuit court created an automated system that gave legal aid governmental status and cut the rate in half to access the data on who is facing an eviction filing each day. Legal aid gets the list, and (under a short-term pilot funded by the Rocket Foundation) community organizers connect with people on the list.
A few ways this outreach could occur include:
If you’re able to obtain the phone numbers of tenants facing eviction, you could try text / phone banking. Depending on the size of the area you are trying to cover, texting or phoning tenants to let them know about eviction RTC might be an option. If you do connect with tenants, it’s good to text the tenant 24 hours and 48 hours before their hearing date to remind them about the time/date and importance of showing up.
If you get the names early enough, send outreach letters.
Generalized outreach techniques
There are a lot of ways to try to reach tenants, and it’s important to experiment with different ways and then track which ways are working.
Create flyers, FAQs, and other materials that can be distributed through your other outreach efforts. Example: RTCNYC’s FAQ.
Conduct focus groups with tenants who have experienced eviction about effective outreach strategies and messaging, as they can offer important perspectives, feedback, and criticisms of proposed plans including about how the right to counsel will be advertised to the public.
Canvas specific neighborhoods. Because canvassing can be very resource intensive, consider partnering with an organization that is already working with tenants and has experience with outreach (tenant organizing group, DSA, Black Lives Matter, etc). Some canvassing ideas:
Consider adding a screening tool like the one used in Cleveland. This asks tenants questions like where they will go if evicted and what repair issues they’re experiencing in their homes.
When you don’t receive an answer at the door, leave behind door knockers (flyers attached to the door) with room to add a personalized message from the canvasser.
In Cleveland, those engaged in door knocking were trained in homeless outreach services. They worked with the local group Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless on this and with Stout (Cleveland RTC’s evaluator) to help develop the materials.
In Minneapolis, there was funding provided from the Family Housing Fund for outreach. They knocked on 60-90 doors per month, and estimate they may be reaching 10-15% of people who were served with eviction papers.
In Louisville, the eviction RTC program paid $90k for outreach staff. They hired three half-time outreach workers to drive around the community and used mapping software to determine the most logical and efficient routes. They also hired an Americorps*VISTA worker to recruit volunteer door knockers.
Do tabling at community events like fairs, town halls, community gatherings, etc.
Work with local businesses or other visited neighborhood spaces (ex: libraries, parks, community centers, social safety net offices, etc.) to help spread the word. You might consider tabling at businesses, leaving materials behind, or asking employees to speak with their customers. This was part of Cleveland’s hyper-local outreach plan.
Make materials and staff available in court, and explore the possibility of court announcements. With the cooperation of court staff, there may be opportunities to add information to the court website, leave eviction RTC materials in the courtroom, and/or designate space for legal services staff to be on site to provide information about eviction RTC. If your legal services program is on site, you can see if your judges are willing to announce the availability of eviction RTC to tenants appearing before them for a hearing.
Set up tenant hotlines where tenants are directed to a centralized intake, a specific provider, or more information about eviction RTC.
Send a direct mailing to all residents in a particular area informing them of eviction RTC.
Advertise the eviction RTC on social media. Develop content that refers tenants directly to providers or to websites/centralized intake lines to learn more.
Create a website about eviction RTC or about tenant rights/assistance more generally, with links to any online centralized intake. Example: check out Eviction Free NYC, which helps tenants determine if they’re eligible and then directs them to the right legal aid program.
Conduct a directed traditional media campaign via TV/radio/newspaper/bus ads about eviction RTC. New York City created a series of print ads about changes to the landlord tenant law, including eviction RTC, while advocates in NYC, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Maryland created a commercial about eviction RTC.
Creating an outreach infrastructure
Build a tenant advisory committee to help craft outreach strategies and use RTC as a movement-building tool. Such a committee can be written into the RTC law itself, as described in Section 3.5.
Hire a primary outreach strategist (organization or individual) to help coordinate outreach efforts, with an emphasis on working with trusted community organizations that are already supporting tenants.