Viewpoint: Preventing eviction makes sense for Missoula’s pocketbook

Kyle Strid

In Missoula’s 2023 eviction cases, 90% of landlords had legal representation, while only 5% of tenants did. This imbalance is devastating, as the most common age group facing eviction is 0-19, and the average person evicted is a single mother.

Eviction is not just a housing issue; it's an economic one. When tenants lack representation, they cannot effectively raise defenses against uninhabitable conditions or illegal rent hikes. This leads to displacement, which has steep public costs.

The annual community cost of homelessness per evicted family is roughly $20,000. A Tenant’s Right to Counsel (RTC) program is a proven, preventative solution. For every dollar invested in such programs, jurisdictions see a nearly 300% return. This is because the cost of preventing an eviction with legal aid is roughly one-tenth the cost of managing the resulting homelessness.

Represented tenants are four times less likely to use homeless shelters. Funding RTC reduces municipal expenditures on social services, emergency healthcare, and overburdened courts.

Ignoring this problem costs Missoula millions more in the long run. Until more affordable housing is available, implementing a city-wide Tenant’s Right to Counsel is the most practical, humane, and fiscally responsible step. It switches the current win-lose scenario between landlords and tenants to a win-win, saving taxpayer money while keeping Montana families in their homes.

Let’s be humane and save some money while funding Missoula’s Tenant’s Right to Counsel.

Kyle Strid is a MontPIRG Volunteer & Political Science Major at University of Montana