By Staff Reporter |
Pima County and the city of Tucson have entered an agreement to use nearly $1 million in federal funds to provide legal services to those facing evictions.
The council approved the initiative as part of the consent agenda during their regular meeting on Wednesday.
Up to 250 households at risk of eviction may receive legal services through Pima County’s Emergency Eviction Legal Services (EELS) as set forth by an intergovernmental agreement with Pima County. The agreement has a retroactive start date of July 1, 2026.
EELS will rely on $976,399 in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Those funds may also cover short-term financial assistance and utility assistance, with the county targeting four neighborhoods with high concentrations of manufactured housing when allocating the funds.
These HUD funds are part of a larger $11.5 million Community Development Block Grant awarded to the city of Tucson through the Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE), a program launched in December 2024 under the Biden-Harris administration.
While HUD primarily marketed the PRICE program as financial assistance for manufactured housing repair and accessibility, the agency also allowed for funds to go to other services like eviction prevention, housing counseling, and planning activities for transitioning to resident-managed communities. HUD awarded a total of $225 million to 17 applicants, including the city of Tucson, in an announcement last April.
EELS began in March 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pima County Board of Supervisors ordered allocation of federal pandemic relief funds to provide free legal services to residents facing eviction.
Per its latest report covering fiscal years 2022-2023, Pima County EELS reported providing services to 6,000 households from 2021 through 2023: 2,048 residents received free legal services and 2,308 rent-assistance payments were made to landlords.
Pima County EELS exhausted its pandemic-relief funds in 2024. With the HUD grant, Pima County has replenished the EELS coffers with more federal funding of a different sort.
According to the intergovernmental agreement establishing the resurrected version of EELS, Pima County will submit a monthly invoice for reimbursement of costs containing a summary report of expenditures by budget line item.
As reported last month, the city of Phoenix is also exploring pathways to continue with their provision of free legal services to residents facing eviction. The city has so far relied on approximately $1.2 million in federal pandemic funds to pilot the Eviction Legal Services program, which is anticipated to continue through June 2027.
The city has also been distributing $3 million in emergency financial assistance since earlier this summer. Certain residents are eligible to receive up to $2,500, which may be spent on a variety of “needs” that city staff loosely define as anything from utilities, rent, and transportation to continuing education or work credentials.
Other counties currently provide similar eviction prevention services rooted in financial aid: Coconino, Gila, and Maricopa counties provide programs to provide funding help for rent and utilities.
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