Eviction The Hidden Child Welfare Problem
america has an eviction crisis
and richmond virginia is ground zero our
rich
eviction rate here in richmond is 11.44
the second highest in the u.s amongst
its large cities
imagine a single mother she works every
day she has a full-time job
it’s not a lot but it’s enough to take
care of the rent
the bills one morning when she goes to
work she is told that her hours will be
reduced
and without any other source of income
she will not be able to pay her rent her
landlord files an eviction lawsuit
against her
and she is ultimately put out of her
home
she is forced to stay with family
members and friends because she doesn’t
have anywhere to go
this has an impact on her child’s
attendance at school
the school staff begin to notice the
chronic absenteeism
and tardiness and despite interventions
to
help this mother she is unable to
correct the situation this mother who is
doing the best she can
ends up in court with a failure to send
petition filed against her because she
is unable to get her child to school
she faces a fine money she does not have
all because she was evicted now
the scenario that i just described to
you is something that i know
a lot about for 10 years i was a
prosecutor in the city of richmond
and i’ve seen these types of cases over
and over again
and i may not remember the names of the
individuals i may not remember the faces
but the hardship that they endured still
lingers with me to this day
and what it makes clear is that our
children are not protected
an eviction is a social child welfare
problem that’s been hiding in plain
sight
now in virginia the eviction process
goes like this
on the first month your rent is
typically due
um maybe the fifth if there is a grace
period
if you are unable to pay the if you do
not pay the landlord can file
um give notice to you a five-day payer
quit
and in that time period you have to
either pay or leave
if you do neither your landlord can file
a an eviction lawsuit this process
can take from less than a month to a car
in less than a month you can be facing
the threat of homelessness
and in richmond approximately eighteen
thousand
eviction lawsuits are filed annually
to put that into perspective that’s
about
forty thousand individuals forty
thousand individuals
in the city of richmond every year who
face the threat
of homelessness and of those eighteen
thousand
lawsuits that are filed eleven thousand
of those results in a favorable
outcome for the landlord meaning a
monetary judgment
or the right to put the tenants out
whatever way you boil it down at the end
of the day what that means is that
you have every day you have children
you have families that are
evicted or facing the threat of eviction
in the city of richmond
and how this all happened is that
when you’re you’re looking at evictions
in the city of richmond
and even when you’re looking at race in
this country
we have to go back to through history
for the last 400 years
in this country race has played
an integral part in determining how
one can enjoy their inalienable rights
their rights to life
liberty and pursuit of happiness this is
a concept that was
included in the declaration of
independence
by thomas jefferson however that concept
was derived from john locke
interestingly
john locke actually substituted out
pursuit of happiness for property or
should i say
thomas jefferson substitute suited out
pursuit of happiness for property
but whatever way you look at it whatever
p you adopt property pursuit of
happiness
it’s been clear throughout the course of
america’s history
that it was not to be meant to be
enjoyed equally by all members of
of this country and in fact
it’s racist determining factor and race
is determining
and who has been able to enjoy those
rights
now race has also been
a significant factor in determining
where one can live
and one can raise their family
in the 1930s the
homeowners loan corporation a new deal
agency
surveyed the communities
and neighborhoods of some of the largest
u.s cities
and they surveyed them based on
loan desirability and riskiness
they generated a map or should i say
generated
maps which were color coded and
categorized
um to determine whether that that
community or that neighborhood
was one that was appropriate
to lend their lending desirability black
neighborhoods and neighborhoods of
color were consistently categorized to
be
high risk therefore those people in
those communities
were fenced out of um are not permitted
to obtain mortgages and other types of
housing loans
this practice commonly known as
redlining
actually was outlawed over some 50
years ago but its effects
can still be felt to this day research
has shown
that race and
redlining is a significant factor
in the disparity of wealth that we have
to this day between
um black people and the white people
in this country but richmond virginia
also
bears the scars and is tarnished by the
practice of
redlining research conducted by the rva
eviction lab shows that race
is a significant or one of the most
prominent
determining factors when analyzing
which neighborhoods are most at risk
of having high eviction rates and that’s
after controlling for other values such
as
property value as well as poverty
what’s even more alarming is that
when you look at the neighborhoods in
richmond that
have the highest eviction rates it
shares the same geographic
markers as those neighborhoods who
who were redlined in those realigning
maps from the 1930s
but it’s not just evident in those
particular factors
it’s not just evident the the race
and how this plays a factor in who can
live it’s not just evident in
the what we can we typically consider to
be
impoverished communities by the
sprawling
housing developments or dilapidated
buildings
but it’s also something that is seen
in the disparities that our children
face when it comes to the
to um to the education and their ability
to thrive
research shows that families with
children get
evicted at a higher rate
and that’s for many factors but what is
to talk about today
is because of the
affordability as well as
housing affordability as well as
discriminatory practices that may be in
place
let’s face it children are expensive
after paying for rent utilities
other household necessities there’s just
not a lot not a left left over
at the end of the month if an emergency
arises
so a family who has an unexpected
medical expense
one unexpected major car repair
can find themselves being one month away
from facing
home distance and this idea of race and
eviction
is also evident and
our children’s education or ability to
learn
imagine being a child who’s facing um
eviction or has in fact been evicted and
instead of focusing
on you know reading writing and
arithmetic
they’re focused on shelter clothing and
food
now it has to be hard to try to focus
when you’re in survival mode
and even and also the research shows
that there’s a correlation
between absenteeism
chronic tardiness and evictions
also in richmond 10 of the 18
elementary schools that are in areas
or communities where the eviction rate
is higher than the city’s average
are not accredited so why is that the
case
well these communities are already over
taxed
and under resourced and then
to add to that you have children
who may be moving from place to place
when it comes with that
the instability the the teachers
already being pulled into other
directions but now having to take in new
students
who may need to have some type of
remediation
and at the end of the day what it shows
is just that
it’s already taxing an over-tax system
and the resources are just that there
to embrace these children the way they
need to be embraced
to get them through this struggle it is
common for children who
are caught in this eviction process
or should i say trauma of the eviction
process
they may commonly act out there is a
correlation between delinquency
and the eviction now for an adult going
through this trauma of an eviction
having to found housing
trying to figure out where you would
stay from day to day is
is is something that’s hard can be
difficult
emotionally and mentally to process now
as a child who doesn’t have the
emotional maturity
to actually process those to process
those feelings
and process what it all means they may
not know what’s going
on but they know it doesn’t feel good
and in a school setting
or even in a community unable to process
those feelings that child
may act out and it’s particularly in
school if they’re acting out that may
bring that negative attention
where they may get put out of school or
they may drop
out of school which leads to
they’re having a impact on the rest of
their lives the inability to secure
stable jobs and it goes back to
housing without a stable job you’re
unable to
you know buy that home or get a home in
in a decent area
and so that cycle repeats that
generational wealth that was taken away
or that was
something that that was taken away is no
longer
in their grasp because of the behavioral
issue that resulted
from that eviction now how do we fix
this situation
one-time rent relief programs that
assist
and help with the imminent crisis
they’re good
they’re gap fillers you can say they’re
band-aids but there’s not a long-term
solution
there needs to be some systematic
changes to
address this issue one being
allowing for unlawful detainers which is
the name for an eviction lawsuit
to be dismissed
i’m sorry expunged from her attendance
record
currently there is no system in place so
even if
if a tenant is able to successfully
challenge a
an eviction case and dismiss it still
remains on their record
and that leads me to the second point
currently an unlawful detainer or an
eviction stays
on a tenant’s record for um on a court
system for 10 years
that’s a long time and things can
drastically
change in 10 years but yet that’s a
stain on that person on that tenant’s
record that they would have to explain
to a potential landlord therefore
limiting their ability to
get decent get obtain decent housing
all because of something that may have
occurred when they were in that rut
in that bad month in that bad time
period in their life
and another suggestion is that having
local school systems
partner up with legal aid organizations
and
other resources in the community
teachers
and school social workers are on the
front lines of this they are the first
to notice when a child may
be impacted their education may be
impacted
or see their absence here at the
absenteeism rate increasing
allowing those families to have those
resources at their disposal may just be
what they need to redirect them
and get them on a path before things get
worse
now i remember vividly as a child
um gathering around the tv with my mom
during the holiday time actually um we
were watching
wizard of oz because it would come on
around thanksgiving time every year
and i remember mimicking dorothy as she
clicked her shoes together and would say
there’s no place like home and now that
i’m adult
those words can’t be any more truer
because
your home is not just the structure
the roof that you live in
it’s a place where memories are created
it’s a place where
celebrations occur but for a lot of kids
in richmond virginia and of course
throughout this nation
they’ve been stripped of their
opportunity to have a place to call home
and to have a place to to have those
good
fond memories it doesn’t have to be that
way
and now is the time to make those
systematic changes
so that every children can enjoy
a place to call home