For nearly 18 months, DC renters did not have to worry about being evicted. The District’s local moratorium prevented all evictions and nearly all new eviction cases thanks in large part to the advocacy of Legal Aid and other organizations. It was a more powerful set of protections than in most other jurisdictions across the country. However, when the District’s Public Health Emergency (PHE) ended in July, so did the moratorium on evictions. Legal Aid and other legal services providers had to act quickly to extend protections for renters as well as ensure assistance programs were in place to avoid an eviction crisis.
Overnight, tenants in nearly 500 eviction cases filed before the pandemic were at risk of having their locks changed, and another roughly 1,000 tenants also faced eviction if their pre-pandemic cases went to judgment.
In the face of this crisis and shifting laws, Legal Aid organized and formed critical new partnerships with tenant organizers, one of DC’s rental assistance providers, and District agencies to ensure that we could reach as many members of our client community as possible.
The first evictions since the start of the pandemic began on September 13, but Legal Aid and our partners have successfully stopped 279 evictions as a result of our joint outreach efforts.
Kofi Ross Minor
At the same time that we were doing this emergency work to stop evictions, Legal Aid continued representing tenants who had pending eviction cases before the pandemic. Kofi Ross Minor first sought assistance from Legal Aid in 2018 when her landlord filed a case against her alleging that she was behind on her rent, and that she had violated the obligations of her tenancy by consistently paying her rent late.
With the assistance of Legal Aid attorney Matt Boucher, Ms. Ross Minor filed an answer and jury demand asserting several defenses including significant housing code violations in her unit. After several court appearances, Matt filed a motion for summary judgment on her behalf. The judge granted it and dismissed the landlord’s claims. However, because of the way the judge dismissed the claims, the landlord was permitted to re-file the nonpayment of rent case.
“But at the end of the day [Matt was] always honoring what my choice was and always making sure that I was clear and that I understood what I was getting into. The way that he helped me, I couldn’t even quantify how helpful he was, how patient, how he made sure to explain everything, so that everything was super transparent. Yeah, it’s been a great experience.”
KOFI ROSS MINOR
The landlord did just that a few months later, and Matt agreed to represent Ms. Ross Minor again. The case ultimately went on for almost two years, and Ms. Ross Minor’s rental balance grew significantly during that time. The landlord filed numerous motions to try to get the upper hand, and even asked the Court to take away Ms. Ross Minor’s right to a jury trial. After many contested court hearings, the Court denied all of the landlord’s various motions.
“I just remember my son and daughter jokingly talking about him like he was a member of the family. They’d be like ‘oh Mr. Boucher is on the phone’ and that was a call you’d always take.”
Kofi Ross Minor (with her Legal Aid attorney Matt Boucher)
As Ms. Ross Minor’s case got closer to trial, she and Matt worked hard to prepare and file necessary motions. Then, her trial date was delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the delay, Ms. Ross Minor’s landlord received a significant Housing Stabilization Grant from the government that eliminated a lot of her rental balance. Ultimately, Matt helped Ms. Ross Minor negotiate an agreement with the landlord that allows her and her children to keep their home, and even to receive a refund of some of the money she paid into the court registry due to the housing conditions she had to endure.
PREVENTING AN EVICTION CRisis
Once we knew that Mayor Bowser’s Administration planned to end the Public Health Emergency at the end of July, Legal Aid and community partners worked quickly to advocate for a slow phase-out of the eviction filing moratorium, which otherwise would have abruptly ended leaving thousands of tenants facing an eviction crisis.
If landlords were immediately able to file new eviction cases, there might have been a deluge of tenants facing eviction. This was in part because when the District first rolled out STAY DC, the District’s federal rental assistance program, in April 2021, it was plagued with problems. The online portal was cumbersome, hard to navigate, required tenants to upload many unnecessary documents, and was not easily accessible in languages other than English. Additionally, it was taking processors months and months to review applications, leaving tenants who were able to apply wondering what their status was.
Following our advocacy efforts, the Council passed legislation requiring landlords to serve 60-day notices for past due rent and to apply for rental assistance before suing any tenant for nonpayment. This meant that the first new eviction cases for nonpayment could not be filed until October 12. According to census data, nearly 19,000 households report being behind on rent as of the end of September 2021.
Given the financial hardships of so many DC residents, Legal Aid is still bracing for what is sure to be a surge in eviction case filings and tenants who will need representation in the coming year. Our attorneys are prepared to help individual clients and continue these critical systemic advocacy efforts to keep DC families in their homes.