Legal Aid and our housing services partners have worked together over the past two years to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on District residents. Last year at the start of the pandemic, Legal Aid and our partners came together to form one central intake line — the Landlord and Tenant Legal Assistance Network (LTLAN) — for District tenants looking for legal advice and representation. We have continued this coordinated intake effort with our partners this past year.
This year, once the eviction moratorium was lifted, we worked with our legal services partners to begin new collaborations with tenant organizers. Legal Aid’s team worked on compiling lists of tenants across the District scheduled for evictions, and then we worked with our legal services partners to coordinate with tenant organizers, who knocked on the doors of those tenants facing eviction to refer them directly to our shared intake line. In turn, we connected those tenants to rental assistance and represented them in filing Applications to Stay Writs, asking the Court to halt their evictions while waiting for relief money to come through.
In collaboration with our other legal services partners, we were able to reach out to more than 700 tenants to inform them about their rights and about rental assistance programs such as STAY DC, and to connect them with lawyers so we could prevent as many of these evictions as possible.
ADVOCATING FOR RENTAL ASSISTANCE
At the same time the community was advocating for a slow phase-out of the eviction moratorium, Legal Aid, our coalition partners, and DC residents, pushed the Mayor to fix the most egregious problems with the STAY DC application process. Though still imperfect, the District made common forms easier to use, made the application more accessible in other languages, and began processing applications at a more reasonable pace.
However, STAY DC was still not making payments fast enough to help people with live writs avoid eviction. While legal services providers were able to help tenants who reached us file motions with the court to delay any scheduled evictions while they waited on rental assistance, we were concerned about all the tenants we never connected with. So, Legal Aid and our partners made another push to protect District renters, resulting in the DC Council passing a law that requires landlords to affirmatively check whether a tenant has a pending rental assistance application and, if so, cancel any scheduled eviction for a minimum of three weeks.
Maria Johnson
Maria Johnson* connected with Legal Aid attorney Rais Akbar through LTLAN. Ms. Johnson is a mother raising three children, ranging in age from three to six. Just before the pandemic, in March 2020, her landlord sued her for eviction alleging nonpayment of rent. Like so many of our clients, Ms. Johnson was living with uninhabitable housing conditions that her landlord would not repair, including a rodent and roach infestation.
“He fought for the best outcome for me and actually got the situation sealed within the courthouse so I’m able to go apply for other apartments and houses now without that judgment held against me.”
MARIA JOHNSON
After many pandemic-related delays, Ms. Johnson’s case began to move forward. Rais immediately filed a Motion to Dismiss the case, arguing that Ms. Johnson was not properly served. He also advised her to apply for STAY DC, the District’s new rental assistance program funded by federal COVID relief money. Before the Motion to Dismiss could be decided, Ms. Johnson was awarded nearly $20,000 in rental assistance. The landlord’s attorney agreed that STAY DC covered Ms. Johnson’s balance and dismissed the case. Because the case was dismissed, it was subsequently sealed, which will aid Ms. Johnson in her goal to ultimately move – a process that is often made harder when a tenant has a publicly-available eviction case record.
*Name changed
“I like the fact that [Rais] actually took the time to actually show that he cared about working with me on my case and when he was working with me, I was his only priority.”
MARIA JOHNSON