Latricia Jones faced being evicted from her subsidized apartment where she lived for more than a decade despite having paid her rent. Instead of accepting her fate, she decided to fight.
Jones sought legal assistance and managed to stay in the apartment. It was revealed that the landlord had made a mistake through the discovery process and agreed to dismiss the case, forgive past debt and make much needed repairs in her home. She complimented the attorneys who worked pro bono on her case and are employed by the Steptoe law firm.
“That case was my first time in landlord-tenant court,” she said in a statement. “Without them, I would not have known what legal steps to take by myself. It wasn’t just me who would have been harmed if things didn’t go well in that case. I have a family. My lawyers fought for me every step of the way. I had some great attorneys on my side.”
Jones was a client of the Housing Right to Counsel Project, an effort on behalf of lawyers and other professionals in organizations to cut down on the District’s eviction rate. The program was recently re-launched by Legal Aid DC with a coalition of legal service providers and law firms to provide free legal services for low-income residents with housing subsidies facing eviction in the District.
The Eviction Problem in D.C.
Scheduled evictions in the District increased 250% between January 2022 and January 2023, according to data from the U.S. Marshals Service. Further, D.C. government statistics show that the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city is up, according to the point-in-time count, which found a 12% increase from the previous year.
In a study released on August 2, 2021, the Brookings Institute, located in Northwest, D.C., reported that between 2012-2016, about 78% of evictions occurred in Black-majority neighborhoods. Plus, data collected by the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, revealed landlords show up to eviction proceedings with a lawyer 80% of the time, while tenants enter court legally represented only 4%.
Vikram Swaruup serves as the executive director of Legal Aid DC. He said evictions are on the rise and stressed the importance of legal representation.
“Compared to a year ago, Legal Aid has seen a 50% increase in calls for eviction cases, with low-income Black and Brown residents bearing the brunt of the District’s affordability crisis,” Swaruup, 35, said. “Legal service providers across the District have drastically increased our efforts to help low-income residents, but we know that there is a large unmet need.”
Swaruup said there was a need for tenant legal assistance before the pandemic and it is now more pronounced due to the lapse of rental moratoriums. He noted that many people assumed that nonpayment of rent meant that back rent would not be due, and clarified that was not the case in most situations.
The Legal Aid DC executive director said his organization, and their partners, will work with clients when they seek legal assistance. If the case is accepted, essentially, they will work pro bono to resolve the tenant’s issues.
Nancy Drane, executive director of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission, supports Legal Aid’s effort to help those in the eviction process.
“The harmful ripple effects of eviction are devastating and can cascade into other challenges, causing residents to lose their possessions, their jobs, access to their children’s schools, and their community and support networks in their neighborhoods,” Drane said. “The impacts are particularly severe for residents who receive housing subsidies—one of the few tools in place to help address the affordability crisis. If residents using subsidies are evicted, it becomes functionally impossible for them to access a subsidy again, forcing them into homelessness. But this project will work to change that trajectory for many residents by providing free attorneys who can help tenants assert their rights and access tools to stay in their homes.”
Salim Adofo, the chairman of the 8C advisory neighborhood commission who works for an advocacy organization, said he deals with tenants’ problems with landlords “a lot.”
“Things have not really gotten better since the coronavirus public health emergency ended,” Adofo, 45, said. “Families were at the margins due to the high cost of living in the city and people were living paycheck to paycheck even before the pandemic came. COVID turned everything upside down. People lose jobs and are not able to pay their rent. Now, with the emergency rental assistance program being overloaded, more people are facing eviction.”
Adofo said if people are facing eviction, seek legal representation.
“In court, many tenants don’t show up,” he said. “If you don’t show up, the judge will rule in favor of the other party.”
He also emphasized that tenants should work to pay their rent on time if possible.
“You don’t want nonpayment on your credit report,” he said.
