December 10, 2012
In “Tipping the Scales in Housing Court” (Op-Ed, Nov. 30), Matthew Desmond makes a compelling case for assisting low-income tenants facing eviction by providing them with lawyers. It’s sound social policy and a strong showing of decent morality.
The issue of evictions is embedded within the context of a broader goal: ensuring and increasing housing stability.
Being forced to move is disruptive to personal and family life and causes great turmoil and anger. One illustration of the damage: most of the time children must switch schools, usually mid-school-year; studies show how this negatively affects performance, lessens chances of graduating on time (or at all), and severs relations with peers and teachers.
It is vitally important that we do everything to strengthen housing security rather than forcibly disrupting a household’s important social networks and connections to supportive local institutional and commercial relationships of the kind that all of us benefit from.
Eviction is but one cause of such disruption. Many elements of a progressive housing policy can and should be used toward that end.
CHESTER HARTMAN
Director of Research
Poverty and Race Research Action Council
Washington, Dec. 1, 2012
To the Editor:
Sadly, Matthew Desmond describes the scene in eviction court all too accurately. And although there are agencies, including our own, offering free legal assistance to poor and low-income tenants facing eviction, many people do not know that such help exists, and even if they do, demand far outstrips the services available.
Now we can add to this dismal picture the impact of Hurricane Sandy. In the month since the storm, New York Legal Assistance Group has received thousands of requests for assistance. Landlord-tenant disputes over habitability and repairs are quickly becoming a major issue.
Though many banks and institutions have placed a temporary hold on evictions and foreclosures, these reprieves are set to expire soon and we expect a flood of evictions in the new year.
Tenants who stopped paying rent on uninhabitable space or who cannot afford payments after losing a job in the wake of the storm will need attorneys to protect their rights in these lengthy proceedings.
Now more than ever there are economic, social and moral reasons to give tenants a fighting chance by putting lawyers by their sides in eviction court.
YISROEL SCHULMAN
President
New York Legal Assistance Group
New York, Dec. 3, 2012
Source: The New York Times
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