Thomas Breen photo
Phyllis Johnson plugs bill at presser.
Phyllis Johnson ended up homeless after she represented herself in an eviction case in housing court.
With the help of legal aid on a second case, she was able to stay in her home — and is now speaking out in favor of a bill in Congress that would enable more low-income tenants to get the help she received.
Johnson told that story of her experiences facing down eviction lawsuits with and without a lawyer during a Thursday morning press conference on the second floor of City Hall.
The Ella T. Grasso Boulevard tenant and grandmother joined Mayor Justin Elicker, New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) Attorney Yonaton Zamir, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro to promote the latter’s re-introduction of the Eviction Prevention Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.
If passed by Congress, the bill would allow the U.S. Attorney General to authorize $125 million in grants to states, counties, and cities to provide for legal representation in eviction cases for people who make 125 percent or less of the federal poverty level.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and legal aid attorney Yonatan Zamir.
Around the country, DeLauro said, nine out of 10 landlords on average go into an eviction proceeding with a lawyer at their side. The exact opposite is true for tenants facing evictions, she said, where the numbers are closer to nine out 10 representing themselves.
According to Princeton’s Eviction Lab, New Haven ranks 69 out of the country’s top 100 cities with the highest eviction rates. There were 1,481 evictions in New Haven in 2016, according to the database. That’s 4.06 households evicted in the city every day.
“Landlords will always have the upper hand in that situation, even when you are dealing with a wrongful or disputed eviction,” said the long-time U.S. Congresswoman.
“It shouldn’t be only those at the top of the scale who have that type of legal representation.”
Attendees at Thursday morning’s presser.
Johnson said that she has been on the cusp of eviction three times.
The first time, she said, her then-landlord accused her of falling behind on rent. Johnson said she provided in court proof of her rent payments, but that she and her grandchildren nevertheless had to move out of their apartment.
The second time, she said, was when her then-landlord moved to evict her and her family after they decided not to renew their lease. Johnson said she was up to date with her rent payments, but the landlord wanted to get her out of the house early knowing that her family had not signed a new lease.
Johnson again represented herself in court in that 2016 eviction proceeding, she said, which ended in a stipulation between landlord and tenant.
“The judge gave me a little bit of time to find a place,” she recalled. “I couldn’t find a place in that time, but I still had to leave. So that put me out on the streets, moving round and round.” She said that she and her family were homeless for around a month.
This third and latest eviction case stemmed from a dispute between her family, her current landlord, and the Housing Authority of New Haven, she said. Johnson said she received a Section 8 housing subsidy for her three-bedroom house. She said the housing authority had reduced her subsidy over a misunderstanding around which grandchildren were living with her and around their mental health needs.
So Johnson reached out to DeLauro’s office for help. The congresswoman directed her family to legal aid.
“When I walked in the doors of legal aid crying for help,” Johnson said, “these people immediately started helping me and immediately started getting results.”
Legal aid attorney Amy Eppler-Epstein: Legal representation for tenants helps landlords too.
Johnson and her attorney Amy Eppler-Epstein said that they were able to resolve the case with Johnson’s landlord and the housing authority even before the potential eviction case went to court. Johnson and her family are still in their home on the Boulevard.
“Many time people think legal aid is only helping the tenant resolve a problem,” Eppler-Epstein said. But in this case, the landlord benefited too, as the landlord received the full Section 8 subsidy payment to cover the rent.
Zamir: People need our help.
“If you walk over to housing court today, you’ll see that there’s a room full of people that want assistance, that want help,” said Zamir.
Those tenants are almost all women of color, he said, many of whom are from Dixwell, Newhallville, West River, and the Hill.
“These are the people who need this help,” he said, “and we’re ready to help them. But we’re constrained by resources.”
New Haven legal aid has 40 staffers, he said, including 23 attorneys.
“Fighting an eviction without a lawyer is a rigged game,” DeLauro said. Providing more money for legal representation for the tenants most in need just might help level the playing field.
She said the bill has only nine co-sponsors so far.
Elicker: Don’t “sit idly by while bad-apple landlords are taking advantage of families.”
“There’s no excuse why we as a country should sit idly by while bad-apple landlords are taking advantage of families that are struggling to get by,” Elicker said. “And goodness knows in New Haven we have a lot of experience with that.”
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full press conference.