Lawyers for people facing eviction saved Metro $4M last year: report

If you’re facing eviction, getting a lawyer can be difficult. They’re often expensive, and, unlike in criminal cases, there’s no such thing as court-appointed attorneys.

That’s why the “Eviction Right to Counsel” program is looking to fill that gap by connecting people with free legal representation or assistance.

The pilot program launched in 2022, originally financed by the American Rescue Plan Act. Representation is provided by the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, the state’s largest nonprofit law firm, and the Nashville Hispanic Bar Association.

Now, a report by advisory firm Stout shows that, in 2025, the program assisted 1,069 households, and 93% of those clients avoided “disruptive displacement.” The efforts cost the Legal Aid Society and Hispanic Bar roughly $1.8 million — while benefiting tenants and saving millions of local government dollars.

That’s because when people are evicted, they often have to tap into social safety-net programs, like emergency shelters or unemployment benefits. There’s also evidence that people experiencing homelessness are more likely to face criminalization and hospitalization — driving up incarceration and Medicaid expenditures. Children who experience housing instability, too, have been shown to face lower graduation rates, adding expenses for the school district.

Overall, the report’s calculations show that protecting the 1,069 households from eviction likely saved the city $4.3 million:

• $3.2 million in housing social safety net responses;
• $310,000 in retained economic value by minimizing out-migration;
• $210,000 responding to forcible entry and vehicle theft crimes;
• $140,000 in additional Medicaid spending on health care;
• $130,000 related to increased educational attainment;
• $100,000 related to employment stability;
• $70,000 in federal and state funding retained for MNPS; and
• $60,000 related to criminalizing people experiencing homelessness.

Those savings are despite pandemic-era assistance drying up.

The Eviction Right to Counsel program has not yet been fully implemented, as it lacks complete funding. The report estimates that would cost $9.3 annually, an amount that could drive a similar return on investment ($2.32 in fiscal benefits for every $1 spent) to what the program saw this year.

Since the program’s launch, representatives from Legal Aid and Hispanic Bar repeatedly appealed to Nashville’s Metro Council at the annual budget public hearing to request full funding.

“We know that one of the best ways to promote affordable housing is to keep people in the homes that they already have,” DarKenya Waller, the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee, said at the hearing last June. “Many people walk away from their homes because they don’t know they have the right to fight for what is theirs … the Eviction Right to Counsel program fights for those neighbors.”