Works-in-Progress Group 6: Housing and the Courts

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Group 6: Housing and the Courts 

Evicting Evictions 

Aissatou Barry, Brooklyn  

Housing courts need a renovation. Referred to more commonly as “eviction courts,” they have gone from a forum where tenants and landlords resolve lease and habitability disputes to a graveyard for housing security. In non-payment proceedings, during which landlords seek to recover unpaid rent, the lack of remedies available to low-income tenants makes evictions a certainty. When an eviction happens because of a non-payment proceeding, both the landlord and tenant lose. The landlord loses litigation cost and any ability to recuperate the rent owed, but the tenant loses more—the  stability and security that a home provides. Evictions also put a strain on the resources local governments use to support low-income households. Evictions should be removed as a possible result for non-payment of rent. Repudiating evictions as a resolution for these proceedings would allow for equitable solutions for all parties to materialize.  

This Article narrows in on the inequity of non-payment proceedings by focusing on the displacement of low-income households. It analyzes the intended role of evictions through the progression of housing courts into eviction courts. It then examines the harm evictions pose for all litigants and their community. It subsequently explores the scholarly interest in housing court reform, most of which suggests innovative methods to reduce evictions. This Article contends that even with these innovations, evictions have an unfair impact on poor tenants of color. It concludes that the most straightforward way to reduce evictions is to remove them as a possible result of non-payment proceedings in housing court.  

The Fix Is In: Rental Voucher Holders Confront Digital Barriers To Housing Choice  

James Matthews, Suffolk 

Tenant-based rental voucher programs like the federal Housing Choice Voucher program (HCV) are intended to provide low-income families, people with disabilities, and historically marginalized groups access to safe and affordable housing in the private market. The HCV program also has the potential to promote economic mobility and combat residential racial segregation by providing households with greater housing choice. However, due to discriminatory landlords, soaring rent prices, and other impediments, HCV families face significant barriers actually using their vouchers in the homes and communities where they want to live. Housing providers now increasingly rely on software applications powered by complex algorithms that make automated decisions at every stage of the rental process. Recent lawsuits and empirical studies demonstrate that many of these automated decision-making tools unfairly discriminate against voucher holders because they are based on inadequate data or otherwise incompatible with the voucher program’s administrative requirements. This article builds on scholarly work that has explored the issue of algorithmic discrimination in housing decisions, to address the rise of automated rent-pricing as an emerging additional digital barrier to housing access for voucher holders. As policymakers explore opportunities to improve the country’s largest federal rental assistance program, it is essential that they consider how rapidly evolving technology, such as rent-pricing software, influence access to rental housing opportunities