Tipping the Scales in Housing Court

April 26, 2013

Millions of Americans face eviction every year. But legal aid to the poor, steadily starved since the Reagan years, has been decimated during the recession. The result? In many housing courts around the country, 90 percent of landlords are represented by attorneys and 90 percent of tenants are not. This imbalance of power is as unfair as the solution is clear. See Tipping the Scales in Housing Court by op-ed contributor, Matthew Desmond (New York Times, November 29, 2012).