Illegal Eviction’s Role in Housing Instability
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Carl Rauscher
Director of Communications and Media Relations
rauscherc@lsc.gov
202-295-1615
WASHINGTON– Legal experts discuss the issue of illegal eviction and its role in housing instability on the latest episode of LSC's “Talk Justice” podcast, released today. LSC President Ron Flagg hosts the conversation with guests Raphael Ramos, director of Legal Action of Wisconsin’s Eviction Defense Project, and Laura Tuggle, executive director of Southeast Louisiana Legal Services.
Civil legal aid providers noted an increase in illegal evictions during the height of the pandemic, as some landlords pursued avenues outside the court system for forcing tenants out. LSC’s Housing Task Force recently released an issue brief on illegal eviction, detailing how and why illegal evictions take place, as well as showcasing legal aid interventions, public policies and other protections that can help tenants stay housed.
Ramos and Tuggle agree that lockouts and utility shutoffs—especially cutting off heat and air conditioning during severe temperatures—are some of the most common methods of illegal eviction they see in their communities. Tuggle says that in Louisiana, disasters like hurricanes also cause spikes in both legal and illegal evictions, and disasters that have happened since the pandemic began, like Hurricane Ida in 2021, have been doubly severe for tenants.
“If you thought it was going to be difficult to try to work something out with your landlord just because you were behind on your rent from COVID, it was a much worse situation on the heels of a disaster,” Tuggle says.
Ramos explains that illegal evictions are one of the most frustrating issues his organization deals with for a few main reasons. First, many of the people who are illegally evicted will never make it to legal aid for help and their illegal eviction will go completely undocumented, so it is impossible to know the real scope of the problem. Second, those who do seek legal services have incredibly limited options for legal recourse, which are often inaccessible to them.
“Evictions in Milwaukee are all handled through our small claims court, and that's been specifically empowered to deal with eviction filings,” says Ramos. “But these illegal evictions require an injunctive order to let the tenant back into a unit and in our small claims court, many of the judges have repeatedly said, ‘that's not within the scope of my authority.’”
“So, their only recourse is in large claims court, which is a far more complicated process…it’s expensive, it’s not an option for people who are going through trauma,” Ramos continues.
Tuggle says that housing insecurity has received increased attention since the pandemic began, with many more people thinking about which individuals and families are most vulnerable to losing their homes, and how that experience severely destabilizes their lives.
“I think more than at any other time in my career, certainly more than after Hurricane Katrina, so many people from all walks of life, all professions, government, banks, private landlords, doctors—just generally people in the community and business leaders—were very, very worried about what happens when there are evictions,” says Tuggle. “And it took a mass crisis to really raise the profile, at least around here, about housing instability and how it undermines communities.”
Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple and other popular podcast apps. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.
The next episode of the podcast will feature a discussion on the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System’s (IAALS) recent report, “The Landscape of Allied Legal Professional Programs in the United States,” with IAALS Board Member, Jim Sandman, and IAALS Director of Special Projects, Michael Houlberg.