Emily had been living in her home for nearly seven years when she lost her waitressing job and fell behind on rent. Having experienced homelessness before, Emily was determined to stay in her unit, and negotiated a payment plan with her landlord, promising to pay her rent for the next 12 months.
Despite her efforts and advocacy, Emily’s landlord continued threatening to evict her and raise her rent randomly. Then, nine months into Emily’s payment plan, her rent was returned to her account, and her landlord filed a five-day eviction notice, claiming she never paid any rent.
“At that point, I really didn’t know what to do or what she wanted from me. I was both paying my rent and willing to leave, which I put in writing. To make matters worse, after I moved out and started applying for new apartments, no one would write me back. I looked it up and I saw she filed the eviction even though I did everything she asked, and I didn’t find out for months,” Emily said.
Determined to stabilize her housing, Emily connected with LCBH through the Early Resolution Program, and her attorney took her case on for extended representation through Right to Counsel.
“When I first spoke with my attorney, I just started to cry because for the first time since this started, it felt like I was met with compassion and intentionality. My attorney had the willingness to hear me out and answer all my questions, which made the experience so much more bearable,” Emily said.
Emily’s attorney combined the ample receipts from her rent payments and screenshots of conversations with her landlord, which proved she had not only paid all her rent on time, but that her landlord had lied when she filed the eviction, with her knowledge of renters’ rights to successfully get Emily’s eviction dismissed and sealed.
“Eviction court is a very dehumanizing experience. There are people who are very transactional and just do the work that is required, and then there’s folks like the attorneys at LCBH who go above and beyond. My attorney humanized my experience, which was not a requirement of the work, but made a huge difference at a time that I did not have a lot going for me,” Emily said.